A Christmas hymn

For this Christmas season, the Dominican student brothers at Blackfriars, Oxford have recorded the hymn for Vespers of the Nativity: Veni, Redemptor gentium.

In the liturgy, we do not sing this hymn after the Christmas Octave, which ended on New Year's Day. But, since the Christmas season as a whole is ongoing – at least until the Epiphany (6 January), if not until the Presentation (2 February) – perhaps we can still sing or hum along to this beautiful music for the time being. And which of us could honestly claim never to have sung (or whistled!) one of countless other catchy Christmas jingles, secular or sacred, in all the other months of the year...?

The text can be found here.

Mother of God

On this the Octave Day of Christmas we celebrate the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. How often we Christians use that title and with such ease. It slips of the tongue or greets us on the page so innocently and disarmingly. We use it so often, in the rosary or at at Mass, that we can simply overlook how profound and shocking a statement it is. Indeed, to some of other faiths it would simply be blasphemous to announce that God, the eternal and uncreated, could ever lower Himself to be born of, and cared for by, one of His creatures.

In the first few centuries of the life of the Church many Christians also found it a difficult statement to accept. Even if one accepts Mary as the mother of Jesus, isn't it a bit much to go around proclaiming a humble women to be the 'Mother of God'? Are we not in danger of proclaiming a creature the originator of the Godhead? This title, a western derivation of the Greek theotokos, or God-bearer, was first formerly adopted at the Council of Ephesus in 431. It was used here as a way to assert the divinity of Christ against those who would emphasise a disunity between Christ's human and divine natures. The Council sought to show that Jesus was both fully divine and fully human; one person, two natures; fully God and fully man. As such it follows that what can be predicated of Jesus Christ can be predicated of God also. So it was that this highest title of honour was formerly affirmed in the Church. The Church says; the one whom Mary bore is God, not that Mary is the origin of the Holy Trinity.

We should still be shocked by this wonderful title; not to the point of disbelief, scepticism or mistrust, but in the sense of being in awe of the statement. The title can tell us much about Mary and much about her Son. It should remind us of how powerful an event the Incarnation really is and what an example of all that is faithful and holy Mary is. The courageous and humble fiat that Mary proclaimed enabled the Incarnation to occur and she became unique as 'Mother of God'. No other human would or could be as close to God as Mary is to her Son; but in this closeness we are reminded that it is Mary that enabled the Word to take flesh that He might share in our humanity and we in His divinity. We too can share in that bond between Mother and Child; we can share in His divinity because He, through Mary, was clothed in our humanity.

Amidst the excitement and anticipation of the beginning of a New Year we should take time to ponder these truths and to ask how we, with the help of God's grace, might share a greater closeness in the mystery we proclaim and at which Mary is at the heart. 

The Feast of the Holy Family

The Feast of the Holy Family is on the Sunday between Christmas and the Feast of Holy Mary, Mother of God (1^st January). It is an important feast, not only because of the role it played in our redemption but also the fact that it is still the model of a Christian family, even today.

Ten years ago, Blessed Pope John Paul II expressed his wishes for today’s families to have ‘the peace, harmony and love of the house in Nazareth.’ It is not to mean that the Holy family did not experience problems. Already before Joseph and Mary were together she became pregnant and Joseph was in great confusion and wanted to divorce her quietly until he had a dream and the angel of the Lord invited him to take her in his house. When the child was about to be born, the family could not find a room in the entire village of Bethlehem. When Jesus was presented in the Temple, the prophet Simeon told Mary that her heart would be pierced by a sword. Later, when Herod heard that a child was born to become King, he tried to kill him and the family had to go to Egypt. When Jesus was twelve years old, the parents lost him in the Temple of Jerusalem. It is highly probable that Joseph’s business had some financial problems as it is the case for poor families in occupied territories where the conquered people have to pay taxes to the occupier. Pope John Paul II said that those qualities of the Holy families (despite the hardships they went through) would help today’s families ‘overcome trials and difficulties [they] encounter on [their] way’.

Among other current issues dealt by Church authorities, family issues have taken an important place. The Holy Family of Nazareth is the ideal of a Christian family even though we all recognise the fact that many families do not look much like the Holy Family and are still good families. The United Kingdom is also very much affected by the family breakdown. Many children are raised by a single mother, a single father or in other kinds of households where the traditional setting ‘father-mother-children’ does not obviously appear. Today, several children have had more than two fathers or mothers by the time they leave the family house for studies, jobs or other commitments. Most of the time those children become very decent, responsible members of the society. However, they often have to go through extra pains while growing up. It may also destroy their future completely.

The Holy Family still inspires indeed. It went through many problems that have always been experienced by families: homelessness, poverty, doubt, confusion, persecution, exile, occupation of their land by a foreign army, heavy laws imposed by corrupted leaders, etc.  The fact that it kept its dignity and became the ideal family for all Christians depended on the harmonious relationship and love between Joseph to Mary and Jesus.

Just as prayed Blessed John Paul II in 2002, ‘let us entrust to the Holy Family of Nazareth the families of the whole world, especially those that have been most harshly tried by suffering or are in difficulty’.