John’s Gospel stands near the heart of authentic Christian spirituality. Bach is one of his great exponents. Music itself, after all, is incarnational: a strange glory, enriching the world through human skill. To sing, said Augustine, is to pray twice. To sing the passion – and Bach’s congregation would have joined in the chorales – is to share physically, with mind, body and breath, in the mystery of the word made flesh. Singing the Passion is thus second cousin to the Eucharist itself. Bach brings us into the heart of John’s divine drama, where the incarnate Son, drawing heaven and earth together, wins the victory over the darkness, as the mystery of music – not least this music – points us to the glory of God.
