Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht

Tonight, the stars are set against a frigid background of blue. Every year at this time I feel a yearning and a wish for something that eludes me…something that eludes us.

Maybe it’s because this is the season of light when all things seem possible. Yet Earth, under our stewardship, has not fared well. She has suffered irreparable damage caused by our misguided perception of progress, fueled by ignorance and greed.  

Jesus said, “Whatever you do to my brethren you do to me.”  And yet so many of our brothers and sisters continue to suffer. Children, our most vulnerable and most in need of our care and protection, go to bed hungry and are abused in unspeakable ways. Wars are still waged in the name of who knows what?

But even in times of despair, we have shown ourselves to have the capacity to transcend our circumstances and embrace hope. I can’t think of more hopeful words than those first sung on Christmas in 1818 in a church in Obernforf, Austria: “Stille nacht, heilige nacht – Silent night, holy night.“

Father Joseph Mohr, who wrote the lyrics and Franz Gruber who composed the melody could not have known that their creation would ultimately be translated into 140 languages, and that it would shine as a beacon in a weary world for almost 200 hundred years, even during one of our darkest hours.

Almost a century after Silent Night was composed, World War I raged in Europe. On Christmas Eve in 1914, Silent Night was sung in French, German and English during a Christmas truce by troops facing each other on the front line. It was the one carol that the soldiers on both sides knew.

In that moment, men who had been mortal enemies hours earlier, put down their weapons and for a short time, shared the gift of hope. Hope, that the war would soon end. Hope that they would survive the conflict and return home to their loved ones.

This Christmas, my yearning for something that eludes me…eludes us, notwithstanding, I choose to focus on the transformative power of hope. I look with great expectation for the day, though I know it will not come in my lifetime, when a lasting truce is declared wherever there is ignorance and strife.

It will be a day when a lasting global truce is reached in the hearts of men and women around the world. A day when we lay down our ignorance, our hatred and our fears and embrace the gift of hope.

For me, that is the essence and the meaning of Christmas. “Stille nacht, heilige nacht.”