O Holy Night
o holy night!
the stars are brightly shining
it is the night
of our dear saviour's birthlong lay the world
in sin and error pining
till he appear'd
and the soul felt its worth
a thrill of hope
the weary world rejoices
for yonder breaks
a new and glorious mornfall on your knees!
o, hear the angel voices!
o, night divine
o, night when Christ was borno, night divine
o, night divinetruly he taught us
to love one another
his law is love and his gospel is peace
chains will he brake
for the slave is our brother
and in his name all oppression shall cease
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we
let all within us praise his holy namefall on your knees!
o, hear the angel voices!
o, night divine
o, night when Christ was borno, night divine
o, night divineo, night divine
o, night divine
By Cappeau de Roquemaure, translated from the French by John S. Dwight
December 5, 2003
Night Divine
I'm going to get all the Christmas spirit I can this year. This fragile world needs as much peace and love as it can possibly get.I don't care at all for the commercialization of it, and I'll avoid that as much as I can. And it's not a Christian thing. The Christian church doesn't seem to have much to do with the teachings of Jesus anyway. And the Messiah was not a Christian invention. The Jews believed in a Messiah. Of course Jesus himself was a Jew, said to have come to fulfill the Hebrew prophecies by some. Some believed it, others didn't. The Messiah is an incalculably ancient human archetype. For some, Jesus was the Messiah. But whatever your belief about that, the lyrics of "O Holy Night" must have some meaning.
The lyrics are about the coming of the Prince of Peace. It's a beautiful symbol, and obviously the world is in tragic need of peace now. The song portrays the great rejoicing that one imagines would take place if it were really true, if a prince of peace was born who would bring peace to the world.
The celebrations at the winter solstice were in place long before Jesus came along. Surely the addition of his teachings added a great deal to the winter solstice traditions. When you hear "O Holy Night" you can get a glimpse of how wonderful it would be to wake up one morning to a world where the law was love and the gospel was peace. It's a nice thought anyway.
If bringing peace to the world was proof of Jesus being the Messiah, then the Jews were right, he was not the fulfillment of the Messiah prophecies. But if planting that idea in the hearts of human beings was his role, then it remains an open question.
The lyrics and the melody of "O Holy Night" bring tears to my eyes, and then my mind reaches for some reason to explain why the song would move me so powerfully. Perhaps it is that tragically unfulfilled yearning for peace, perhaps more tragic now than ever because after all of this, we seem not one iota closer to it now than 2000 years ago when Jesus was born. And at a time like this when the world is so ravaged by war and supreme power is in the hands of men who seem to have lost their souls, that longing is more powerful and more poignant than ever. These are matters which rise beyond Christian, Jew, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, etc. This wish for peace and charity is something all the world needs.