The First Noel Verse 2

They looked up and saw the star

Shining in the East beyond them far

And to the Earth it gave great light

And so it continued both day and night 

 Noel, Noel, Noel, Noel

 Born is the King of Israel

To be honest, I'm not sure who this verse is about.  The first verse of the song is explicitly about the shepherds and by the third, it's explicitly about the Wise Men.  But the verse starts with "They" as if we're still talking about the shepherds who cannot be said to have travelled "day and night" to...yeah, not feeling as wise and like I've got a handle on this verse tonight.

You probably have to go straight to metaphor on this one.

Then again, a part of me wonders if part of the surplus of supposed messiahs my religion teachers always talked about during Jesus's time were because of these spectacular signs in the heavens.  Everyone about Jesus's age could claim they had been for his birth, after all.  Even if you just take people born on the same day, give or take one or two, that's still a sizable population with ready made propaganda to shill.

Which puts me straight back in graduate school rehearsing a scene from Henry 4 With 4 where a character cannot stop showing off his impressive birth story even to sign a war treaty agreement.  And a knight obsessed with out-Knighting Lancelot himself (although he never officially says so) gets annoyed and starts dismantling it and shouting about how it can't be any such thing.

Everyone in the scene and just about everyone watching the scene is trying to telepathically scream at Hotspur (the knight) to just let it go.  Of course the Earth didn't really shake at his nativity.  Everyone knows that sort of thing doesn't happen.  Besides, even if it did, he's on your side.  So why act the fool?

But I wonder now why Hotspur found it so upsetting.  He doesn't have a "let it go" bone in his body, of course, and he likes people to speak plain and to the purpose.  And I wonder if what was really frightening to him was the idea that Glendower was speaking the plain truth.  Because if that was the case, his whole world would be different.

Which is the situation that each of those shepherds and the three wise men were all facing.  The shepherds saw gorgeous proof and the wise men saw a glorious star lighting the sky both day and night -- rivaling the sun itself!

And either of them could have gone about their days.  The shepherds could have shrugged it off -- a vivid dream, surely.  Things like this don't really happen.  Of course the skies don't open to the heavenly sounds of the celestial hosts.  Everyone knows that sort of thing doesn't happen.  Besides, even if it did, no one will believe you.  So why act the fool?

And how much more the three wise men?  They didn't have to make their decision in a moment, which is both harder and easier.  Surely they sat in debate with people with alternative explanations because the truth was ridiculous or at least fantastical.  Miraculous.  Of course God doesn't really come to Earth, His passage marked by a brilliant star appearing out of orbit.  Everyone knows that it's best when gods stay in their heavens and even if it would be better it doesn't matter.  Besides, even if it did, the god is just as likely to zap you.  So why act the fool?

For a long time, I envied the people with proof.  The Doubting Thomases or the ones who saw visions for the clarity of their purposes.

But even those who saw, who touched Jesus's wounds, have to make the choice to believe.  And to change their lives because of that belief.  I will remember all my life the story of the boy in Mejugorie who saw the first of the visions of Our Lady but didn't go back the next day because "seeing visions is for children."  Who didn't have enough bravery to admit that the world was different and these were the signs.  To star at a brilliant, brightly shining star and know that the world was different now...and that we should follow that beautiful light to something better.

Maybe that's what faith is always and still required: anyone can look up at a sky full of the heavenly host and know that the world has changed.  Faith is believing that the world has changed for the better.