12-19-11<\/p>\n
With no holiday in observance of the holidays, the unrelenting march of secularism and stupidity continues. This week, during which occurred the death of post-modernism\u2019s most prominent skeptic of Christianity, Christopher Hitchens, uncountable observers pronounced that at last he shall know whether God is not good (to cite the title of his recent best-seller) or in fact is<\/em>. Ironically, it is the Advent season \u2013 that part of the Church calendar that prepares the Coming of the Lord.<\/p>\n Jesus came for the lost and for sinners. Those secure in their faith, putatively, are less in need of a Savior. That is, Jesus came for all mankind, but no less, we need to remember, for such as Hitchens.<\/p>\n Or for anti-Christian bigots in the government bureaucracy. Also this week was the official prohibition (later rescinded) over members of the United States Congress from writing the phrase \u201cMerry Christmas\u201d in their official, \u201cfranked,\u201d mail.<\/p>\n Such things as this might seem new since our childhoods, or even a decade ago; don\u2019t we all say such things? But in fact we should remember \u2013 we must<\/em> remember \u2013 that Jesus came to earth, God becoming flesh to dwell amongst us, the Incarnation\u2026 and the world hated Him. The world-system tried to prevent His birth; it hounded Mary and Joseph into Egypt; it persecuted Him; it framed Him, tortured Him, and killed Him. From manger to tomb, humanity fiercely rejected Him.<\/p>\n Mary and Joseph were desperate the week Jesus was born, and the manger was a despised and dirty place. How welcome Jesus was \u2013 and how the world viewed Him \u2013 was the same at His birth and His death. And was prophesied precisely by Isaiah 800 years earlier: \u201cHe shall grow up\u2026 as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: He hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows\u2026(Chapter 53:2-4).\u201d<\/p>\n The somber aspects of the Christmas story are many, and might discomfit a Hallmark cr\u00e8che or a Sunday School pageant, but we ultimately are driven to a fuller appreciation of the Incarnation. The \u201cbirth pangs\u201d were not just those of Mary. The Bible (Matthew, Chapter 2) and historical tradition point to King Herod\u2019s obsession with preventing a rival to his authority; and when he was convinced that biblical prophecy was close to fulfillment, he ordered the death of boys less than two years old throughout the land. It has become known as \u201cThe Slaughter of the Innocents.\u201d<\/p>\n It was symbolic, of course, of the world-system\u2019s vicious resistance to the very existence of a Messiah. The presence of Jesus is a rebuke to those feel no awareness of their sin and dependency, who elevate Self over Revealed Truth. Christ\u2019s enemies are not trivial nor easily dismissed, no matter how surely to be conquered. The Slaughter of the Innocents \u2013 a part of the Christmas story as relevant as the shepherds and angels \u2013 reminds us that ugly forces in life tried to keep our Savior from us. And still do.<\/p>\n One of the most haunting of Christmas carols is known as The Coventry Carol<\/em>. It was written in the 1500s, and its plaintive melody is one of the great flowerings of polyphony over plainsong in Western music. \u201cLullay, thou little tiny child,\u201d is not a lullaby, and does not refer to the baby Jesus.<\/p>\n The carol is a lament by a mother of one of the babies slaughtered by Herod\u2019s soldiers:<\/p>\n Lully, lullay, Thou little tiny child, O sisters too, how may we do, Herod, the king, in his raging, That woe is me, poor child for Thee! Utterly melancholic, as the harmonies are hauntingly beautiful. It is a fitting creation that must be part of our Christmas observances. Kings are still in their raging, but Jesus cannot be stopped by debates. He has never long been thwarted by bureaucratic rules. He was not even subject to death and the grave.<\/p>\n May a merry, and a profound, celebration be yours this Christmas.<\/p>\n + + +<\/p>\n The Coventry Carol is so named because this song, in Old English first called \u201cThow Littel Tyne Childe,\u201d had its origins in a \u201cMystery Play\u201d of Norman France and performed at the Coventry cathedral in Britain. The play was called \u201cThe Mystery of the Shearmen and the Tailors,\u201d based on the second chapter of Matthew. The anonymous lyrics are a mother\u2019s lament for her doomed baby boy. All but this song from the mystery play are lost today. The earliest transcription extant is from 1534; the oldest example of its musical setting is from 1591. It still speaks to our hearts today. Performed here by Collegium Vocale Gent, conducted by Peter Dijkstra, in the
\nBye, bye, lully, lullay.
\nLullay, thou little tiny child,
\nBye, bye, lully, lullay.<\/p>\n
\nFor to preserve this day
\nThis poor youngling for whom we do sing
\nBye, bye, lully, lullay.<\/p>\n
\nCharged he hath this day
\nHis men of might, in his own sight,
\nAll young children to slay.<\/p>\n
\nAnd ever mourn and sigh,
\nFor thy parting neither say nor sing,
\nBye, bye, lully, lullay.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n
\nBegijnhofkerk at Sint-Truiden, Flanders.<\/p>\n