A 35-year
old French poet was asked to celebrate Christmas in his hometown. That must have
been an easy request for this fellow, who loved to write poetry. The town was
Roquemaure (see its coat of arms here) in southern France, where Placide Cappeau
was the mayor and wine merchant, and the poet to whom the church’s priest
looked for some words to rejoice on the occasion of Christmas and the use of
the church’s refurbished organ in 1843. It must have been a hit, for it made its
way across the ocean not long afterwards to another poet in America, 42-year old
John Sullivan Dwight, who translated the song-poem into English in 1855. What was
it Placide and John wanted to say about the holy night? For Placide, did the
renovation of the church’s organ remind him at all of the celebration of humankind’s
renewed condition because of Him?
Jesus was the
central message of the poem that Placide wrote and that John recast into
English – not really a surprise for a Christmas message. The Divine babe is the
focus, with the scriptural imagery of rejoicing angels and worshipping wise men
from the East inhabiting the words of the first two verses translated into the
English language version. Man’s troubled condition lay in juxtaposition to the
holy child, as the author reminds us that He’s here to address…’the world in
sin and error…’ (v.1) and in ‘…our trials’ and ‘…our weakness’ (v.2). It’s
evident that the Frenchman Cappeau and his American counterpart Dwight were of
the same mind – we earthlings need help from above, and that His arrival should
indeed spawn elation among us who acknowledge our mortal condition. The message
of love, brotherhood, and redemption that the Christ conveyed once He came out
of the crib walking and talking and relating to people (v.3) concludes ‘O Holy
Night’. This was a new concept that was difficult for the first century’s humans,
even if they accepted their prophets’ and scribes’ teachings, to grasp. Just
look at Jesus’ contemporaries’ reactions. What, no earthly kingdom? And, we’re
supposed to love our enemies? And, the Christ will die (something that Placide
and John do not directly mention, actually) in order to trigger the redemption
clause in this God-to-human relationship? Kinda revolutionary, wouldn’t you say?
Yet, it is the beginning of His earthly life, and His undisputed power to reclaim
my lowly, decaying state, where Cappeau and Dwight center their thoughts.
Let’s
rejoice! When Placide’s priest suggested to him that repair of the church’s organ
should arouse their spirits, we can imagine that the poet agreed, since he did
take up his pen to write. The circumstances of ‘O Holy Night’s’ inception may
have been the successful repair of a piece of equipment, but what stuck out to
Cappeau –and translated by Dwight – was the same sort of regeneration for the
human. Where do you and I go to get the repairs we need? Doctors are really
helpful, with diagnoses that usually have me feeling better and at peak (as peak
as I can be here in this body!) condition before too long. And yet, I often
have a recurrence of the ailment, or I get others I haven’t had before. And,
there’s that other type of problem that never seems to heal up – that blemish,
like an ugly wart. Placide and John had this affliction too. It’s called SIN. You
think that maybe that’s why they cherished the holy night so much?
See the
link here for brief biography on the original French author: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/c/a/p/cappeau_p.htm
See the
link here for brief biography on the American writer/translator of the English
language version of the song: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/d/w/i/dwight_js.htm
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