All right, everyone, let’s talk Christmas carols! Are all you happy Catholics on board to learn about those sprightly, bouncy, present-promising, jingle-belling tunes we hear at Yuletide?
If so, you came to the wrong place.
Carols began as musical compositions in Medieval England and France, songs accompanying circle dances at seasonal festivities. Before long, the carol form spread throughout Europe. They soon accompanied the action in mystery plays: dramatized stories drawn from the Bible. Carols were incorporated into plays joyously celebrating the Nativity. Gladsome carols for Advent and Easter plays soon followed.
So what, you ask, has all this happiness to do with the sorrow we feel on Good Friday for the death of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior? In his Life of Christ, the Venerable Fulton J. Sheen stated quite directly that the reason Christ was born was so He could die. Your Humble Scribe wishes you to ponder a few carols reflecting real Christmas joy: blissful, never-ending life with the one, eternal God who loves us so dearly He chose to experience death—even death on a Cross.
Consider “Of the Father’s Love Begotten,” Corde Natus ex Parentis in Latin. Its third verse explains the purpose for God the Son entering space and time:
He is found in human fashion; death and sorrow here to know,
That the race of Adam’s children doomed by law to endless woe,
May not henceforth die and perish, in the dreadful gulf below,
Evermore and evermore!
Sung to the hauntingly ethereal melody, Divinum Mysteriuum, composed by Henry Baker in 1859, these lyrics poetically describe Jesus dying to save humans from eternal death in Hell. One of many hymns composed by Aurelius Prudentius in the 400s, it was beautifully translated into English by a 19th century Anglican minister, John Mason Neale, who was also responsible for writing his original composition, “Good King Wenceslaus”.
Speaking of royalty, “We Three Kings” has three verses explaining the significance of the Magi’s gifts: gold betokens Christ’s royalty; frankincense His divinity; and myrrh, one of the unguents and herbs used in burials, reminds us of Our Lord’s redemptive death:
Myrrh is mine, its bitter perfume
Breathes a life of gathering gloom
Sorr'wing, sighing, bleeding, dying,
Sealed in the stone-cold tomb.
Some hymnals and carol collections omit these stanzas. Even if they are included, some choir directors simply omit them, pushing on to the carol’s final verse:
Glorious now, behold His arise.
King and God and Sacrifice!
Alleluia! Alleluia!
Sounds through the earth and skies.
While revealing the Resurrection and bowing to Jesus as God incarnate, omitting
the previous three stanzas lessens the bold theological impact of the last one.
Much the same is true of “What Child is This?” sung to the tune of “Greensleeves”, possibly composed by King Henry VIII. William Chatterton Dix’ lyric, originally entitled, “The Manger Throne” unites Christ’s two earthly thrones the manger and the Cross. Oh, you may hear the second stanza but probably not its accompanying refrain which swells its redemptive depth:
Why lies He in such mean estate,
Where ox and ass are feeding?
Good Christians, fear, for sinners here
The silent Word is pleading.
Refrain:
Nails, spear shall pierce Him through,
The Cross be borne for me, for you.
Hail, hail the Word made flesh,
The Babe, the Son of Mary.
In His manger-cradle the non-verbal; Word pleads with the Father for our salvation no less than He did on the Cross. Such is the astonishing humility of God.
As with several carols, an anonymous work first seen in 1913, “Come to the Manger”, is a lullaby. Its second verse encapsulates why God the Son took flesh, yet ungrateful humanity chooses sin over salvation:
He leaves all His glory behind,
To be born and to die for mankind;
With grateful beasts His cradle chooses,
Thankless man His love refuses;
Lord, have pity and mercy on me!
And yet, as the final verse shows, Our Lord continues to invite sinners the the manger, the place where farm animals feed:
To the manger of Bethlehem come,
To the Savior Emmanuel’s home;
The heav’nly hosts above are singing,
Set the Christmas bells a-ringing,
Lord, have pity and mercy on me!
The name of the place where Jesus was born, Bethlehem, means “House of Bread”. Here the Bread of Angels is found in a feeding trough—an example of God’s exquisite sense of humor.
The Greek word eucharistia means thanksgiving. Christ’s death as one of us atones for the sins of all of us. At Mass, in the Most Holy Eucharist, we do thank the God the Father by partaking of God the Son through the power of God the Paraclete — or do we prefer to remain among the thankless?
“The First Noel (or Nowell)” is of Cornish origin, one of the carols discovered and collected by William Sandys and Davies Gilbert in the early 19th century. Its sixth verse explains all humanity should show our Creator the highest acclaim:
Then let us all, with one accord
Sing praises to our heavenly Lord;
That hath made Heaven and earth of naught,
And with His blood, mankind hath bought.
Theologians describe our universe as God’s creatio ex nihilo, that is “creation from nothing.” Here we are reminded of God’s love, so “bursting to be,” that, having created us out of love, He redeems us out of love. As the ever-popular John 3:16 puts it: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son that those who believe in Him may not perish, but may have life everlasting”
Lack of space prevents me from going on. Allow me to recommend the following websites where you can hunt titles, read lyrics and listen to music:
- The Hymns and Carols of Christmas
- Melodies and lyrics are found at Richard Adams’ The Cyber Hymnal ™. All for the glory of God Mr Adams, for decades has maintained this website without asking for donations or taking ads.
- Bob Sorem’s Christmas MIDI/MP3/Lyrics
- GodSongs.net
- Learn more about the history of carols in the article “English Carols” at The Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology
And for people celebrating the holiday alone, I offer as a Christmas prayer a verse I wrote for the carol “Break Forth, O Beauteous, Heavenly Light”
And o’er the course of rolling years
The Eucharist Thou left us.
Through bread and wine Thou dost remain
And in Thy love have kept us
O Jesu, all my joy Thou art,
Blest Son of Mary never part,
Let me not be a stranger.
But make my heart Thy manger.
Sean M. Wright, MA, award-winning journalist, Emmy nominee, and Master Catechist for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, is a parishioner at Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Santa Clarita. he answers comments at [email protected].
