O Come, All Ye Faithful

Monday, December 9, 2013
"O Come, All Ye Faithful"

I think I need to pick the lesser known hymns.  They are classics for a reason, but just for that reason, I tend to consider them as a whole.  "O Come, All Ye Faithful" is not the meaning of the song in pieces or in entirety, it is learning the Latin and feeling soooooo proud of myself in the children's choir all those years ago.  It is wondering if suddenly singing the Latin when it wasn't in the hymnals (it was, I was a stupid kid) would confuse people.  I remember wondering what the fourth verse was in English, and then wondering (once it was explained to me/I noticed the concurrence of "Bethlehem", I can't remember which") what the Latin of the other two verses was.

It's one of those songs that's a Christmas song not so much for the subject matter but because, well, it's a Christmas song.  Innumerable Christmas singings have made it so.  It is not so much a song about Christmas as a song endowed with the spirit of Christmas.  It is a piece of the holiday.

It's also another "Rejoice!" and even a bit of "Praise and party down!" which shows what I think a good party is (everybody singing).  Of course, that is my idea of a perfect night with people - dinner, conversation, followed by a jam session preferably in Brian Falbo's garden or around a campfire.  Man, I miss grad school.

Anyway...

It's hard to separate all of that feeling from the meaning of the hymn itself.  It is appropriate, however, that this song is indelibly tied to a time of joy -- after all, that's what it calls us to do.

O come, all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant

And I wonder if it's not just that this, unlike the Advent songs I've mostly stuck to, is designed to be sung at Christmas that makes the present tense so conspicuous here.  Not be ready to come when Jesus returns, but be joyful and triumphant now.

That's what I've always thought the benefit of religious devotion was: experiencing the joy of a relationship with God now rather than having to wait until He helps us find our way after we die (see first post of Advent for my take on the afterlife).

I've written a couple of times about the importance of religion staying firmly rooted in the now -- not staying mired in the past or looking forever forward to a time when it will all be better but now.  What grace of God do we have to work with and spread now.  What can we do to protect and love and serve others now.

O come, all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant! O come ye right away.