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Site dedication
13 December, 2005
Over the course of the Church's liturgy in Advent, we hear an extraordinary number of titles of the second Person of the Blessed Trinity. These titles are quite familiar to us, and indeed quite dear to us. We hear him called: Wonder Counsellor, Mighty God, Eternal Word, King of Angels. Many of them come from the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah himself might well be called the Advent Prophet since it was Isaiah who prophesied to the Virgin-birth of Christ, and to the name by which he will be known: Emmanuel (God with/among us). We are quite indebted to Isaiah for the riches he gives us in his writings which speak of the Saviour.
The Church gives Isaiah a privileged place among the prophets during the Advent season for this very reason. Isaiah the prophet, writings some seven to eight hundred years before the Incarnation of the Word, knows him and knows him well enough to include in his writings a whole range of names for him. As I said, these names and titles have become quite dear to us and to many generations of Christians who have gone before us marked with the sign of faith. So dear have these become that they have been incorporated in many hymns and antiphons, as well as the writings of the Church Fathers and Doctors.
One such hymn that displays the Church's favour for Isaiah's writings is itself a favourite: O Come, O Come Emmanuel. Set to very simple Plainchant, the seven verses of this hymn speak of the Messiah who is to ransom Israel, deliver us, open heaven, cheer souls and bind hearts. The tune of the hymn, so well-known to us already (so there is no need for me to add to your Advent penances by singing it for you now), probably dates from fiftteenth-century Portugal. It pains this Dominican to say it, but the tune is most likely to be of French Franciscan origin and used by their nuns as a processional. Of interest to us is that the words of the hymn are more ancient than the fifteenth century.
The foundation text of the hymn, originally in Latin, was composed from Isaiah's prophecies around the time of Charlemagne (the eighth century) and may have English ancestry. There is also a chance that the sixth-century philosopher Boethius had a hand in its preservation. So what we are talking about is indeed one of the more ancient, liturgical, non-Scriptural, texts of the Church preserved for perhaps as many as fifteen hundred years; making this a valuable text for understanding the history of the Church's preparation for celebrating the Lord's Nativity.
The Church uses the same foundational text for two sets of Advent liturgies. The verses of our text are known in monastic and religious circles as the O Antiphons because each begins with the sigh of the heart: O come Emmanuel, O Key of David, and so forth. At Vespers (Evening Prayer), immediately before the Magnificat (the Visitation Canticle of Mary found in Lk 1:46-55) the O Antiphon pertaining to the date from the 17th to the 23rd of December is chanted. According to one source, on the 17th of December, the Abbot would intone the first O Antiphon followed by each principal officer of the monastery taking his turn with another of the Antiphons on successive nights. Now, the fruit of all this was to provide for the fasting and penitential monks some sort of treat, usually edible! The O Antiphons are also used at Mass as the Gospel Acclamation over those last days of Advent - something for the weekday Mass-goer to listen out for.
It is the foundation text of the great Advent hymn, O Come, O Come Emmanuel, which I would like us to reflect upon, hopefully in aid of a little Christmas preparation. Being very Dominican (and therefore brief) about things, I have chosen three of the seven O Antiphons to Christ the Lord, and will treat of them in the order in which the Church uses them in the liturgy.
O Sapientia, O Wisdom: 17th December
O Wisdom,
Who came from the mouth of the Most High,
Mightily reaching from end to end and sweetly ordering all things:
Come and teach us the way of prudence. Amen.
Who came from the mouth of the Most High,
Mightily reaching from end to end and sweetly ordering all things:
Come and teach us the way of prudence. Amen.
We often speak of God as wise. For example, in the Genesis narrative of the fall of Adam and Eve, we see God who makes all things as maker in turn of the very symbol of knowledge. Now, God takes several days to create the world and its inhabitants, including us (the crowning glory of creation). God makes everything in the world, including the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The narrative then tells us that God, having created the Tree of Knowledge, is master of wisdom as its source. The Scriptures also tell us that observance of the Jewish law is a way into God's wisdom. At one point, we are told that the psalmist has: "...more understanding than the old, for [he] keeps [God's] precepts" (Ps 118(119):100). It is worth noting that God's wisdom is accessible to ordinary human beings. This might be surprising at first. There is a contrast to be observed with what St Paul wrote: "How deep the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!" (Rom 11:33). And yet, the Jewish heritage we Christians possess along with the New Testament testifies to human beings tapping into that which without God's ordination is beyond us.
So, we come to share in God's wisdom on account of his gracious will by obedience to his laws. We also know something about wisdom itself as an attribute of God. God is wise, but he is not only wisdom. As an attribute of God, wisdom was personified by many religions of the ancient Near East, Israel's neighbours. Among these, Greek pagan religion deified wisdom in the goddess Sophia. The Greek influence on the Jewish religion cannot be overlooked here. This is not to say that Israel succumbed to influence and pressure from other religions and merely borrowed or adapted elements reconcilable with its own. Rather, for God's chosen people to personify wisdom in their writings along with the religions of their neighbours is suggestive of a certain truth to the matter. For us Christians, we read a little more into the Wisdom literature concerning Christ. For us, wisdom is personified in the person of Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Word of God. When he comes to teach us, the content of his teaching will not be merely human wisdom (for God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom), but his teaching will be founded upon the wisdom that comes from above, that is divine wisdom.
The second half of this O Antiphon speaks of right conduct and wise action: "Come and teach us the way of prudence." As you may know, prudence is one of the four cardinal virtues. Faith, hope and love are the theological virtues; prudence, temperance, courage and justice being the cardinal virtues. So, when a person (who may or may not be a believer) possesses and practices the cardinal virtues, that person grows towards ordering all their actions according to right-conduct. In other words, the virtues are qualities of the human person orienting them to choose good. So, the O Antiphon petitions Christ the Wisdom of God to come and teach us the way to right-conduct. However, there is more to the story.
St Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) gave pride of place to prudence among the cardinal virtues. For St Thomas, prudence governs all the other virtues, for it is the practical virtue - the virtue that disposes the person to the other virtues. Prudence is that virtue which enables us to perceive in any given human situation the virtuous action to be taken. So, when my younger brother is presented with a block of chocolate, because he loves the stuff, he is very likely to devour the lot in one or two sittings. However, with prudence, he will come to know that this will make him ill and probably not help the pimple situation. So, he is to grow in another virtue, temperance (as the fruit of prudence), to regulate his intake of the chocolate.
So, what is being prayed in this O Antiphon? Firstly, it is a reflection on the origin of Christ as the Wisdom of God. The Christ-child is divine for he is spoken from the mouth of God. So when he speaks, it will be with that wisdom that comes from on high - the same wisdom that was revealed to Adam and Eve in Eden, revealed to Israel in the law, and will be revealed to us in a little while. Secondly, what we are asking of him is not just an infusion of virtue, but the lessons in the first virtue among the cardinal virtues: prudence. Out of our living of prudence will come the other virtues.
O Radix Iesse, O Root of Jesse: 19th December
O Root of Jesse,
Which stands as an enisgn for the peoples,
Over whom kings shall stop their mouths and
to whom the Gentiles shall make supplication:
Come to deliver us, and delay not. Amen.
Which stands as an enisgn for the peoples,
Over whom kings shall stop their mouths and
to whom the Gentiles shall make supplication:
Come to deliver us, and delay not. Amen.
We have already seen how there is some significant import from the Jewish tradition into Advent preparation for the Saviour. In this the third O Antiphon, this import is confirmed once again; this time with an appeal to Jesus' family tree.
At this point, it is worth focusing on the meaning of radix, as in O Radix Iesse. The Latin radix is one of those words whose meaning in English can be elusive. We Dominicans use the same word to describe Our Lady in an antiphon to her for the Assumption. We sing to her: "Salve Radix Sancta", which is usually translated as "Hail Holy Source". It is likely that O Radix Iesse refers to Christ's ancestry, but we might also appeal to Christ's divinity being testified to here. Christ as the second Person of the Trinity participates in the creative act of the Godhead, for through him all things were made (including Jesse). I would like to think that for us there is a convenient ambiguity bringing out both senses. This would be consistent with a number of other ambiguities or seeming contradictions in the Christian tradition; like Virgin Mother, Infant King, and Crucified Saviour.
However, given reference to Isaiah's prophecy, the emphasis is to be placed on the Messiah's generation from a particular line of ancestors:
A shoot shall come
from the stump of Jesse,
And a branch shall grow out of his roots.
- Isaiah 11:1
And a branch shall grow out of his roots.
- Isaiah 11:1
It would be inaccurate to say that this prophecy of Isaiah concerns only the coming Messiah. From the mention of Jesse, we can see how this prophecy concerns King David, the son of Jesse. The prophecy of Isaiah 11 goes on to speak of his judgment of the poor in righteousness, deciding with equity for all people - characteristics we usually associate with Israelite kings. So, we have here in Isaiah a prophecy concerning David. The important point we Christians ought not to miss is the significance of earlier Christians applying this prophecy to Christ the Lord. Why on earth would our Christian forebears hijack such an overtly Davidic prophecy?
Bear in mind the reference to Jesse. He is the key as to how we are to understand Christ's messianic action. When we meet someone with a famous name like Howard, Pell or Wolter, we check with them to see if they are any relation to John, George or Chris to get a sense of their lineage, of the kind of stock they come from. Jesse, the Israelite patriarch of a family of shepherds, is the ancestor of note for the Messiah. Jesse's family was not a ruling dynasty. Rather than a royal house or a line of soldiers, they were shepherds, tending flocks (considerably large flocks given that all the sons are out in the field when Samuel comes to anoint one of them). Perhaps now we can understand a little more of what this O Antiphon is saying about Christ:
Over whom kings shall
stop their mouths and
to whom the Gentiles shall make supplication...
to whom the Gentiles shall make supplication...
There should be a little surprise as we hear this O Antiphon repeated in the liturgy. How is it that a shoot from the shepherd-patriarch Jesse should receive the silence of kings and prayers of Gentiles who do not know the Lord? It jars a little, and so it should. O Radix Iesse speaks to the humble beginning of the Messiah: among the animals. Just as Jesse's sons dwelt among the sheep, so too will the Messiah be born for us among farm animals in a stable. Remember what he will say to Pilate: "You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice (Jn 18:37).
O Oriens, O Dawn in the East: 21st December
O Dawn in the East,
Brightness of light eternal and Sun of Justice:
Come and enlighten those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death. Amen.
Brightness of light eternal and Sun of Justice:
Come and enlighten those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death. Amen.
We are very familiar of course with the light and darkness theme which runs through Christianity. In the Gospels, Christ speaks about human actions in terms of light and darkness: "No one after lighting a lamp hides it under a jar ... but puts it on a lampstand, so that those who enter may see the light. For nothing is hidden that will not be disclosed..." (Lk 8:16). He also describes the apostles as the light of the world (Matt 5:14). Then there are a whole range of light and darkness scenes in the Gospels. Take John's Gospel for example. John integrates his motifs such that he presents light as an image for the truth, for Christ himself (eg Jn 3:19). In the liturgy, light is used to emphasise certain places in the Church over others: the Altar, the Lectern during the Gospel reading, the Baptismal Font. Of course, there is also the Service of Light during the Easter Vigil - that great liturgical action for the Resurrection of Christ, the central mystery of our salvation.
Something of this appealed to John Henry Newman, especially as he was coming 'home to Rome' after his conversion from Anglicanism. Newman, the ninteenth-century philosopher, fled from a form of Anglicanism that had Calvinist leanings. Close to the core of Calvinism are the five solas: Sola Scriptura and Sola Fide being the most famous of them. Without going too far into these false positions, it is for us to note that Newman embraced Catholicism because therein is found the fullest expression of the truth about God, the human person and the relationship between them. His famous epitaph speaks of what he believed his conversion was all about: Ex umbris et imaginibus in veritatem (Out of the shadows and images into the truth). For us Christians, the symbol of light in our liturgy, Scripture and tradition is intimately bound up with the truth about Jesus. He is the light of the world, as he himself has said (Jn 8:12). So this O Antiphon holds up once again that very relationship between light and truth to us.
I have already mentioned the Service of Light during the Easter Vigil. This O Antiphon, O Oriens, presents a very particular slant on the relationship between light and truth. It is not just any light which is being invited to "...enlighten those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death." Oriens is the word used for the dawn, the first light which breaks the night. It speaks of the Resurrection. There is a great hymn which the Church provides for Morning Prayer on Sundays. It has some great lines which beautifully describe the effect the dawn has on the world:
Transcendent God in
whom we live,
The Resurrection and the Light,
We sing for you a morning hymn
To end the silence of the night.
When early cock begins to crow
And everything from sleep awakes,
New life and hope spring up again
While out of darkness colour breaks.
The Resurrection and the Light,
We sing for you a morning hymn
To end the silence of the night.
When early cock begins to crow
And everything from sleep awakes,
New life and hope spring up again
While out of darkness colour breaks.
This O Antiphon points to the Resurrection of Christ and sings of God's praises on that count as preparation for his coming. Christ is the day-star, the sun, which enlightens all and breaks the long silence of death by his rising again.
It might seem a little odd to be singing the praises of God in the Resurrection of his Son as preparation for the Nativity, to be singing about Easter to prepare for Christmas. Sure, there is no disharmony between the events of Christ's life. Indeed, an excellent reason why we celebrate the Nativity is because of the Resurrection that will follow. However, look at the other O Antiphons: O Wisdom, O Root of Jesse, O Adonai. It does not seem to make a whole lot of sense to be singing about Easter preparing for Christmas. To one way of thinking, this O Antiphon seems to be inconsistent with the rest of them. It is, however, only an apparent inconsistency.
The invocation of this Antiphon: "Come and enlighten those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death" is almost an exact quotation from the Canticle of Zechariah who sang his Benedictus when his tongue was loosened after naming his son John, who was to become the Baptist (Lk 1:63, 79). The picture given by both the Benedictus and O Oriens is of a world over-burdened by sin and death. We know and we believe that Christ, the risen Saviour, is the only one who can release us from this burden. In his son John, the righteous Zechariah recognised our total dependence on the one God will send.
The O Antiphons speak to us of the divinity of the one who is to be born for us. He is the one chosen by God to lead his people out of the shadows and images and into the truth. By his teaching, he will give us the wisdom and knowledge he himself is. By shepherding us as Jesse did his flocks, he will usher in a new reign of justice and peace. By his death and resurrection, he will lead us to life by his gentle light which illumines all things. Let him not delay.
