O Holy Night! The stars are brightly shining,
It is the night of the dear Savior's birth.
Long lay the world in sin and error pining.
Till He appeared and the Soul felt its worth.
A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices,
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.
Fall on your knees! Oh, hear the angel voices!
O night divine, the night when Christ was born;
Truly He taught us to love one another,
His law is love and His gospel is peace.
Chains He shall break, for the slave is our brother.
And in His name all oppression shall cease.
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we,
With all our hearts we praise His holy name.
This version of O Holy Night is based on a carol composed in 1847 by Adolphe Adam. It was itself based on a poem by Placide Cappeau. In the Christmas spirit, Cappeau, a delightful blend of wine merchant and poet, was asked to pen the poem by a parish priest.
In a world charged with the grandeur and goodness of God, the priest appreciated the inspiration which might flow from a man of whom the ancient sage Omar Khayyám would delight: a merchant of wines given to poetic musings.
O Holy Night celebrates the splendor of the Incarnation with a mystical spirit bounding heaven and earth, the human and the divine, the very image of the Incarnation. Amidst stars brightly shining and angels' voices in a world of sin and error pining, the human soul rediscovers and feels its worth, and the weary world rejoices.
The thrill of hope is to be seized by the power of love!
Preserver
Hope is not essentially a last minute virtue, though this often seems the case amidst deadlines and defeat, disaster and dead-ends, disease and death, and despair and depression. Instead, it is a life preserver in the best sense of the term, offering us a vantage point beyond the crises, heartaches and disappointments of life.
In the Christmas story of the divine spark in the human spirit, we glimpse and experience an extraordinary gift which still astounds, and that we are still unpacking. That gift is to discover ever more deeply, and clearly see ourselves and others as the image and likeness of the Creator.
So much that is the love of God in ourselves and in others is refracted or unseen because of the blinders of prejudice and hate, addictions and favorite deadly sins, and the weariness and drudgery that can be daily life and years on end.
So some of us pretend to love but just can't see that Haitian or gay person or poorer individual as an equal, and not a scapegoat for our own demons and failures.
The struggle for equality and justice in the spirit of love is lyricized in the verse: "Truly He taught us to love/His law is love and His gospel is peace/Chains He shall break, for the slave is our brother/And in His name all oppression shall cease."
Moreover, in addition to loving our neighbor more, we have the hard task of truly loving ourselves beyond our feelings of insecurity and inadequacy. One of the greater blinders to love of self is the greatest of the deadly sins - pride.
In Dante's "Purgatorio", there are realms of spiritual growth on Mount Purgatory ascending from the lower levels of Ante-Purgatory to the summit of the Earthly Paradise, allegorically representing the Garden of Eden.
The realm closest to the summit is lust; the realm at the lowest level is pride. There are various reasons for this literary arrangement. Among them, may be that human beings are more aware of their desire for lust than they are of the sin of pride.
We are often blind to our own goodness and power to overcome deadly sins, life patterns and blind spots which prevent us from being open to love beyond our own selfishness, envy and fears.
The thrill of hope reminds us that amidst even the worst circumstances, we have choices. Often, we feel hopeless or afraid because our pride or worries as to how others may see us prevent us from reaching for help from family and friends or professional counselors and pastors.
A gift
Hope is a gift and an attitude. Out of a crisis may come unexpected blessings. Out of a pending death may arise new life. Out of rock bottom may come recovery. Out of years, often decades, of beating up oneself may arise self-forgiveness.
For yonder often breaks a new and glorious morn after many dark nights and dreary days of the human soul. Hope is not for the faint of heart. It is hard work and relies on a spirit of gratitude. O Holy Night invites us to "Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise ..."
What is the Christmas gift some experienced, dying more peacefully on death row stripped of all of their worldly possessions than many, who, surrounded by their material comforts die with little peace?
Genuine hope cannot be hoarded or hid under a bushel. A woman on a breast cancer walk, who felt she might soon die, was asked how she was feeling. "Grateful and filled with hope," she exclaimed. "Because, even though I might die soon, I'm walking today to make sure that my daughter and granddaughter will beat this disease."
The same hope was expressed by an emaciated gay man as he walked the AIDS Quilt early in the disease surveying patches of the quilt, some with names of lost friends. Though close to dying, he left his hospital bed to join others advocating for greater care and treatment for those with HIV/AIDS. He also marched to protest the stigma and discrimination against those living with the disease.
His hope was not in vain as the disease is extraordinarily more treatable and there is less discrimination, though the struggle on both fronts remains. In life and at the end of our days, hope can subdue our wounded egos and pride, give wings to joy, and instill gratitude beyond measure.
If we remember that this is what the Incarnation represents, it may make for a more joyous Christmas and greater hope for the upcoming year.
End note
As an end note, Pastor Lyall Bethel scribbled another apoplectic screed in response to the Front Porch column "Prejudice, Ignorance & Hatred Must Be Challenged". For a sample of the pastor's mindset, readers are highly encouraged to sift through the letter and vitriol which appeared last Monday.
With his customary disingenuous moral and intellectual reasoning, Pastor Bethel proclaimed that this columnist is dedicated to creating a liberal utopia. The reality of the human condition will allow for no utopias, secular or religious.
Still, most people of faith and reason would likely prefer a liberal or conservative utopia over the dystopia that one can imagine emanating from the reactionary fundamentalist fanaticism that is Pastor Bethel's worldview.
In the joy that is Christmas, Front Porch wishes Pastor Bethel a year filled with love and hope, and a blessed Christmas, and the same to readers.
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