The Way of Beauty The Church, beauty and the Christmas season

Dec 21, 2011

The Catholic Church has earned a lasting place in history for inspiring Christian culture through the literary, visual, and musical arts, understood as beautiful. For centuries, the Church has celebrated the beautiful as the splendid guardian of truth and goodness. By commissioning the finest artists to express the faith in music, the visual and literary arts, the Church has stood as their foremost patron as well. When illiteracy was common, the visual arts served as catecheses that persuaded by their beauty. Every year tourists are overcome by the beauty of the great cathedrals, and, during the Christmas and Lenten-Paschal season, many attend Vespers and Mass to hear the Church’s great heritage of sacred music. Benedict XVI observes that “cities and countries throughout the world house treasures of art that express the faith and call us to a relationship with God” (“Beauty Can Cause a Conversion,” Aug. 31, 2011).

It is especially during the Christmas season that the Church’s special affection for the feast of the Nativity of the Lord overflows with magnificent splendor. The Church cannot contain herself from again bursting forth her joy, wonder, and gratitude as she commemorates the birth of the Messiah into the world, God who became a human being that we might become like God.

The good news of Jesus Christ expresses itself not only in the heightened intensity of the eucharistic liturgy but also in sacred music with its soaring prose and poetry. Christ’s coming in history raised beauty to a new level of significance, and this beauty is to be renewed and restored in Christ. Christianity proclaims that those “who have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Gal 3:27). The sacred arts are also to be “clothed in Christ” (Rom 13:14).

Among the many Protestant hymnodists and composers is gifted Charles Wesley (d 1788). His famous and enduring Christmas carol, “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing” expresses through Old and New Testament references a fulsome theology about the birth of the Incarnate Word. We know the lyrics by memory, and meditating on the rich meaning of these words repays the effort. The italicized words below in the first column alert the reader to the scripture reference in the second column. (This analysis is taken from Dr. Ralph F. Wilson’s web page, “Joyful Heart.”)

1.	Hark! The herald angels sing,	Luke 2:10
	"Glory to the newborn King;
	Peace on earth, and mercy mild,	Luke 2:14; 1:78
	God and sinners reconciled!"	2 Corinthians 5:18-21; Colossians 1:20-22
	Joyful, all ye nations rise,	Revelation 21:24; Haggai 2:6-7
	Join the triumph of the skies;
	With th’ angelic host proclaim,	Luke 2:10-11; Matthew 1:4-6; Micah 5:2
	"Christ is born in Bethlehem!"
	Hark! the herald angels sing,
	"Glory to the newborn King!"	Matthew 2:2
2.	Christ, by highest Heav’n adored;	Luke 2:9-14; Revelation 5:13; Hebrews 1:6
	Christ the everlasting Lord;	Revelation 22:12-13
	Late in time, behold Him come,	Galatians 4:4
	Offspring of a virgin’s womb.	Matthew 1:18-23; Luke 1:26-38
	Veiled in flesh the Godhead see;	Hebrews 10:20. Godhead means "divine nature or essence; divinity; God; the nature of God, especially as existing in three persons" (Merriam Webster Collegiate Dictionary, 10th Edition)
	Hail th’ incarnate Deity,	Incarnation is a theological term which refers to the union of divinity with humanity in Jesus Christ, from in + carne, flesh. There are many NT scriptures on this central doctrine of the Christian faith. See below.
	Pleased with us in flesh to dwell,	John 1:14; Romans 1:3; 8:3; Galatians 4:4; Philippians 2:7-8; Colossians 1:15; 1 Timothy 3:16; Hebrews 1:3; 2:9-11; 1 John 4:2-3; 2 John 1:7; Revelation 22:16
	Jesus our Emmanuel.	Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:23. "Emmanuel" means in Hebrew, "God with us" -- the truth of the incarnation in a single word!
3.	Hail the heav'n born Prince of Peace!	Isaiah 9:6
	Hail the Sun of Righteousness!	Malachi 4:2
	Light and life to all He brings,	John 1:4, 10; 8:12; 2 Timothy 1:10
	Ris’n with healing in His wings.	Malachi 4:2. "Wings" refers to "rays" of the sun.
	Mild He lays His glory by,	Philippians 2:6-8; John 17:5, 24. Theologically this is called the Kenosis, Jesus emptying of himself and his glory, so that he might become a human.
	Born that man no more may die.	John 11:25-26
	Born to raise the sons of earth,	1 Corinthians 15:35-57. The doctrine of the Resurrection of the Dead.
	Born to give them second birth.	John 1:13; 3:3, 6; James 1:18; 1 Peter 1:3, 23; Titus 3:5
4.	Come, Desire of nations, come,	Haggai 2:6-7
	Fix in us Thy humble home;	Ephesians 3:17; Romans 8:9
	Rise, the woman’s conque’ring Seed,	Genesis 3:15; Romans 16:20. This ancient messianic prophecy of Christ crushing Satan the serpent. The hymn is calling on Christ to crush Satan's work in us, the old, sinful nature.
	Bruise in us the serpent’s head.
	Now display Thy saving power,	Hebrews 7:25 and many verses.
	Ruined nature now restore;	Romans 6:6; Ephesians 4:22-24; Colossians 3:9-10; Romans 12:2
	Now in mystic union join	Ephesians 5:31-32; 1 Corinthians 6:17; Romans 6:5
	Thine to ours, and ours to Thine.	Romans 8:9-11; 1 Corinthians 2:14-16
5.	Adam’s likeness, Lord, efface,	Romans 5:12-21, especially 5:14; 1 Corinthians 15:22
	Stamp Thine image in its place:	Genesis 1:26-27; Colossians 3:10; Ephesians 4:23-24
	Second Adam from above,	Romans 5:12-21, especially 5:14; 1 Corinthians 15:47
	Reinstate us in Thy love.
	Let us Thee, though lost, regain	Philippians 3:8-11; Luke 19:10, a prayer for restoration of the broken relationship with God.
	Thee, the Life, the inner man:	John 14:6; 1 John 5:11-12. Ephesians 3:16; 2 Corinthians 4:16; 1 Peter 3:4
	O, to all Thyself impart,	Jeremiah 31:34. Habakkuk 2:14. Philippians 3:8-11
	Formed in each believing heart.	Galatians 4:19; Romans 8:29; Ephesians 4:24; Colossians 1:27; 3:10

Ambassadors for Christ

The feast of Christmas is in fact the feast of Christ the King, which boldly affirms the sovereignty and rule of Christ over persons, families, human society, the state, and the entire universe. Great figures in history have built a better world, but there is none other than Jesus Christ who saved the world. The feast of Christmas bids all men and women, and particularly Catholics, to find meaning and hope in him who is the wisdom and power of God. Each of us is an “ambassador for Christ” (2 Cor 5:20) every hour of every day through the power of good example in attitude, word, and action—in serving others.

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