Two winters ago, my friend’s mother invited me to play my violin at a reading of Handel’s Messiah at the local Congregational Church. At the time, playing in the Messiah held no religious meaning for me. However, I accepted the offer, thinking that it would be a nice way to start off the holiday season.

I had heard the Messiah performed before. Every year around Christmas my family traditionally visited a local church to listen to a performance of Handel’s masterpiece. Over the years I had established a general familiarity with the piece. I could sing the Hallelujah chorus, and hum along in a few other places. I appreciated the Messiah as an exquisite piece of music. However, the spiritual significance of the Messiah passed me by year after year.

The church was beautiful when I arrived on the morning of the concert, adorned with Poinsettias and Christmas lights. I tuned my violin and practiced softly as members of the chorus filtered into the church. The reading was open to anyone, and over two hundred people came to sing. Once everyone had arrived, the conductor took his place at the front of the orchestra and lifted his arms enthusiastically. I set my violin on my shoulder and played.

At first I was concentrating too hard to listen to anyone else. However, as the choir sang their opening notes, I turned my attention away from my music. I listened to the choir as I accompanied them, admiring the power and joy of their song. It was at that moment that I was struck by the spirituality of the Messiah.

The choir sang about the Virgin Mary and the Birth of Christ. They sang about the glory of the Lord. For many people, this is what the Messiah is about. Many people need look no further than the words of the choir to understand this piece of music. For me, it took more. I had to look beyond the choir’s words. I had to feel the love of those words, and the faith that the singers have in Christ. Simply listening to the Messiah from the audience was not enough for me to understand. However, as I accompanied the choir on my violin I felt a connection to the joy that the Messiah gives so many.

For me, the Messiah didn’t have to be about Christ. It didn’t have to do with whether I was Christian or not. It didn’t even have to be about God. For me, the Messiah is about love and joy. It’s about faith. And it doesn’t matter if you are singing glory to God, or glory to the world. It doesn’t matter if you are Christian or Unitarian, Jewish or Buddhist, Muslim or Atheist. What matters is that the most powerful way to show your faith is to come together the way the choir did that afternoon, set aside your differences, and sing.