O Come, O Come Emmanuel

Music is such a part of life and, in a special way, this particular season of Advent.   Very often we will be singing the words to “O Come, O Come Emmanuel.”  This song, so much a part of our tradition, lends itself to much reflection.  Even the introduction, which is mellow and haunting, reminds us of this season of darkness.  In Advent, we live liturgically in the place of waiting and longing that we find ourselves in at many moments of our lives.  

The song calls us to name our longings in the darkness as we wait for light.  What do you long for in this Advent season?  It is a good time to pause in this in between time of the “here and not yet.”   We wait in anticipation for a new understanding of God becoming one of us – Emmanuel – God with us.   We name our longings and call for God to be with us, to come and give light to our lives.

When I reflect on my longings in this moment of time, I find myself looking for the insight to see as God sees.  My sight is so bad – and I don’t mean my eyesight.  My perspective can be very myopic, very one-sided.  I see from my limited experience.  I need to get my priorities straight, to see in a new way.  I am in the dark when it comes to truly understanding the pain of the person I don’t know—the stranger.  I pray in song for wisdom:

“O come, thou Wisdom from on high, who orderest all things mightily; to us the path of knowledge show, and teach us in her ways to go.”

Facing my longings in the darkness,   wrapped in the shroud of silence only this darkness can bring, I am reminded of a time shortly after my mother’s death.  I was sitting on the couch in the home we shared.  It was October, and darkness came early.  I suddenly found myself wrapped in the darkness of longing, sorrow, silence and waiting.  Yet in the midst of this darkness I felt the gentle presence of my mother, of God, of family and the glimpse of light and understanding that I was not alone.  

    “O come, thou Dayspring, come and cheer our spirits by thine advent here;

    Disperse the gloomy clouds of night, and death’s dark shadow put to flight.”

Advent gives us time to be free from time, for a moment, to live another time.  We live the waiting knowing that in our darkness the light has come.  We linger in the darkness of times when we could not sense the light of Christ in our lives.  We surround ourselves with darkness and candles, music and silence, heartache and joy, solitude and community and realize our deepest longings—wisdom, freedom, light, home, direction, mercy and peace.

    “O come, Desire of nations, bind in one the hearts of all mankind;

    Bid thou our sad divisions cease, and be thyself our King of Peace.”

This Advent and Christmas find the song that speaks to your heart.  Ponder the words that reveal the Word made flesh, God with us.  Pray with the song and allow it to catechize you, to echo in your mind and spirit the life of God that you bear within you.  

    “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel,

    that mourns in lonely exile here until the Son of God appear.”