Saturday, December 16 - O Come O Come Emmanuel

In the devotion for the First Sunday of Advent, I referred to how Advent is not a time to pretend Jesus hadn't been born yet.  This is true, in the sense that the 'Advent', or 'coming' that we expect now is not the coming of the infant Christ, but the second coming of the risen and ascended Christ.  Even so, Malcolm Guite, in speaking about the seven "O Antiphon" prayers that eventually composed the famous hymn "O Come O Come Emmanuel", thinks its important to go back:

"The whole purpose of Advent is to be for a moment fully and consciously Before Christ.  In that place of darkness and waiting, we look for his coming and do not presume too much that we already know or have it.  Whoever compiled these prayers was able, imaginatively, to write 'BC', perhaps saying to themselves: 'If I hadn't heard of Christ, and I didn't know the name of Jesus, I would still long for a saviour.  I would still need someone to come.  Who would I need?" (Guite, Waiting on the Word, 67)

Guite answers his question with the words that make up the "O Antiphons": 'Wisdom', 'Lord', 'Root', 'Key', 'Dayspring', 'King of Nations', and 'Emmanuel'.

I heard an interview with Malcolm Guite with Ken Myers on 'Mars Hill Audio'.  Guite spoke of the richness of these words for speaking about Christ with people who had soured on religion.  I read two of Guite's books recently.  I highly recommend them both: Waiting on the Word is an anthology of Guite's and other peoples' poetry for every day of Advent and Christmas, with Guite's annotations.  Sounding the Seasons is a book of sonnets written by Guite that move through the whole Christian year.  I just gave a copy to my mother for Christmas...OOPS, I mean...(just kidding, she already unwrapped it : - )

Through December 23, we'll move through these O Antiphons with the help of Guite's sonnets.  Here are the verses of John Mason Neale's hymn, "O Come O Come Emmanuel", taken largely from the reprinting of them in George Grant's book, Christmas Spirit:

O come O come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here,
Until the Son of God appear.

Rejoice! Rejoice!  Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, O come, Adonai,
Who in thy glorious majesty
From Sinai's mountain, clothed in awe,
Gavest thy folk the elder law.

O come, thou Branch of Jesse!  Draw
The quarry from the lion's claw;
From the dread caverns of the grave,
From nether hell, thy people save.

O come, thou Key of David, come
And open wide our heavenly home;
Safeguard the way that leads on high,
And close the path to misery.

O come, O come, thou Dayspring bright!
Pour on our souls thy healing light;
Dispel the long night's lingering gloom,
And pierce the shadows of the tomb.

O come, O King of Nations, bind
In one, the hearts of all mankind
Bid all our sad divisions cease
and be thyself our King of Peace