Carol Contemplation: O Come, O Come Emmanuel

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, thou Dayspring,

Come and cheer our spirits

By Thine advent here;

O drive away the shades of night

And pierce the clouds to bring us light.

Rejoice! Rejoice!

Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

12th Century Latin hymn (Veni, veni)

13th Century Plainsong.

This one is old. It’s also the first Christmas song listed in my hymnal. It has that sense of hushed expectation, the waiting, the hoping, the longing. One of my favorite versions of this carol is on an album called The Carol Album–Seven Centuries of Christmas Music by the Taverner Consort. They sing the Latin version, and it opens the album. At first, you think that something is wrong with your recording, because nothing seems to be happening. But then, very quietly, you hear "Veni, Veni, O Emmanuel. . ." They are singing it in procession, and you hear them coming towards you. In my mind’s eye, I see a torch-lit procession (almost like the funeral scene in much ado about nothing, but that is for another post), the singers lit with the golden glow of flame, and the song sneaking up on you, filling your ears like honey. Then it rings out, "Gaude! Gaude!" Rejoice, rejoice! I LOVE it.

Another picture comes to mind when I hear or sing this carol. A captive Israel, under the thumb of Roman rule, waiting for their Messiah. A young girl and her fiance, riding stony roads to Bethlehem. A baby born in poverty, in dirt and animal mess, in obscurity. God’s answer to our longings almost never comes the way we expect it to. Who would have dreamed up the night of Christ’s birth as the coming of the Messiah, the Savior of the world?