Remarks of His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch BARTHOLOMEW at the Concert for Peacemakers

Lincoln Center, Alice Tully Hall
Direct Archdiocesan District
The Bronx, New York

October 30, 2009

* * *

Your Eminence Archbishop Demetrios of America,
Your Eminences and Graces,
Dear Friends Demetrios and Georgia Kaloidis,
Maestro Tiboris,
Beloved Children in the Lord,

We greet you with all love and every paternal blessing in the Lord on this most joyous occasion.  We are honored indeed by this event, this concert in Tribute to Peacemakers, celebrating both our current mission of environmental stewardship, as well as the foregoing decade of peacemaking ministry of our beloved brother Archbishop Demetrios of America. How we have enjoyed this evening! The virtuosity of all the musicians who perform under the direction of Maestro Tiboris, soloists, and the choir of our beloved youth. We pray that God, who gave all of you such tremendous musical skills, will bless you in the offering of these talents throughout all your lives.

There is a poem by the Englishman Joseph Addison that might have been written for this very event.  In his “Song for Saint Cecilia’s Day” the poet calls Music:

  … the greatest good that mortals know,
And all of heaven we have below.
Music can noble hints impart,
Engender fury, kindle love;

With unsuspected eloquence can move,
And manage all the man with secret art.

The power of music to kindle love—have we not all experienced this?  Words have power over the human mind, but Music rules the heart.  Any of us is able to recite the words of his or her national anthem, whether of the United States, or of Canada, or of Greece, or of Turkey, or of some other nation.  But the recitation of the words by themselves has a limited effect.  Put the words to music, though, and whose heart does not swell with love for his native land?  Music kindles afresh the flame of love.

Tonight we heard, among others, works by Verdi and Chopin and Tschaikovsky.  These composers, aside from the excellence of their craft, share another important feature.  They were all great patriots, great lovers of their respective homelands: Italy, Poland, and Russia.  This love forms the very fabric of many of their compositions.  The goal of their music was precisely to kindle love in the hearts of their countrymen.  But for all three, their nationalism was not of the imperialistic or militaristic type, even when their melodies take on a martial character.  Their music is not a call to arms, but a prayer for peace.  How appropriate, then, that these composers should be chosen for this concert in Tribute to Peacemakers.

Beloved musicians, such was the task you took upon yourselves this evening: not simply to play with skill the notes that you find on your score. But through your music to kindle love: within yourselves and within your listeners. Surely this international gathering of musicians, playing this international selection of music, has the power to kindle within every heart a love, not only for our own people, but for all the world and for every member of the human race. 

The flame of brotherly love fires the forge of peace.  Let the song of the children be the anthem of all tonight: “Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me. … With every step I take” … (and with every note you sing and play!) … “let this be my solemn vow.”  No greater Tribute to Peacemakers could you have presented than the offering of your musical hearts, filled with love and peace. 

May this peace begin on earth; let this be the moment now!  The blessing of the Lord be upon you this evening and always, and to the ages of ages. Amen.

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