“For a dying person, music is like a sister. It is the first sweet sound of the hereafter, and the muse of song is the mystical sister who points to heaven” (St. Bonaventure).
With these words, St. Bonaventure must have been referring, above all, to the sacred music that, especially in times past, resounded in the monasteries. Inspired by the angels, sacred music resounds to the praise of God, thus proclaiming His glory.
If sacred music can transport us to a state that awakens a longing for heaven and makes us feel as if we could “die” because of its beauty, it can probably only be surpassed by the singing of angels in heaven. When St. Francis of Assisi received the grace of hearing heavenly songs, he exclaimed that if he heard just one more note, he would die of love for God. Roy Schoeman, who had the grace to meet the Virgin Mary in a vision, described her voice in these terms: “Her voice was made of that which makes music into music.”
Today’s passage from St. Bonaventure draws a profound connection between heavenly music and a dying person approaching a blissful death. If sacred music once stirred in him a longing for heaven while he was still alive, then it now awaits him at the end of his pilgrimage, as he meets the Heavenly Father in eternity. Sacred music, having embraced his soul, now accompanies it—bearing witness to heaven and pointing toward the place to which he is going.
Sacred music is a special gift of God’s love. St. Hildegard of Bingen described it as the final reminder of the lost Paradise. It comes from heaven, reminds us of heaven, and will accompany us to heaven.