On my least favorite hymn-writer

I don't know what the strange compulsion is to update the English in many wonderful examples of English hymnody, especially when the words would still be understood.  These texts are works of art, and examples of beautiful English poetry.

Many of these updates seem to have been made by someone named 'alt', who generally follows the listing of the original writer and perhaps the translator.  In some hymnals, he seems to have collaborated on almost every hymn written before 1970.

With some changes, I guess its just a matter of taste, whether you want to update 'thee' to 'you'; but there are some where the change makes absolutely no grammatical sense whatsoever.

Case in point:  Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence

Let all mortal flesh keep silence
And with fear and trembling stand
Ponder nothing earthly minded
For with blessing in his hand
Christ our God to earth descending
Our full homage to demand.


Descending is the chosen replacement for 'descendeth'.  Christ is the subject of the clause!  'descend' is the main verb of the clause.  'Descending' in this context makes absolutely no sense.  The proper form would be 'descends'.  I've seen it as 'descends now', but really, is that even  necessary?  Would anyone not get the meaning if they used 'descendeth'?  

This change is especially irksome when they do it to popular or often-sung hymns/prayers.  It's not a hymn, but the Angelus is a good example.  Most people who know the Angelus know its traditional translation.  You throw everybody off when you use a new one.

Sometimes a change might be necessary, I'll admit, when the phrases used a so far out there as to be unintelligible.  But 'thee', 'thou', '-eth', and the like do not fall into such a category.  

But in the end, even if you don't want to use archaic English, at least use meaningful, gramatically correct English when 'updating' hymns.  

And it's good to remember that all things of this world will fade away, even 'alt'.

Advent

Advent is not all that far away, only a few weeks left.  With that, I felt it might be good to discuss it, to show its importance, to strongly emphasize that only through it can we celebrate Christmas properly.

Even worse than the commercialization of Christmas is the retroactive extension of the Christmas season all the way back to Thanksgiving; thus, in all the culture except perhaps in church  (though it may have even crept there), Advent is gone.  Sure, there might be a wreath.  I would admit that people know that Christmas has not yet come- but we'd rather start the party before the guest of honor arrives anyway.

Penance doesn't sell.  Waiting doesn't sell.  Advent is all about waiting.  And, unlike Lent, there isn't the nice tending towards semi-Pelagian self-righteousness giving up of something like chocolate (I'm not completely discounting the practice- only when it leads to semi-Pelagian self-righteousness; which it tends to for many).  Advent gets the chopping block.  

But for our lives here and now, Advent is the most important time of the year.

It bears repeating: here and now,  Advent is the most important time of the year.

Why, one might ask.  Isn't it Easter, or maybe Christmas?  You know, the celebrations of the Incarnation and the Paschal Mystery?

I agree.  Easter, and secondly Christmas (with Pentecost in there somewhere) are the most important parts of the year.  I never claimed that spot for Advent.  Rather, Advent is the most important as regards our lives here and now!

Let me explain:

The Christian lives simultaneously in two worlds.  In one world, Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Son of God has died for the sins of all and has risen gloriously, forever defeating death and making creation anew, bringing all who are in Him to the glory of the Father.

In the other world, the Christian struggles with sin and death (which seem not to have gotten the memo that they have lost the war), and all the problems that keep us from looking to and loving God.  In this other world (as in my first post), we live as though that described above hasn't happened yet.  We're still waiting for Jesus to come.  If someone asks me "Are you saved?", I ask them the same question phrased differently, "Have sin and death been completely overcome in your life?"  This usually confuses, and then begins a long conversation over what St. Paul really said (which, in the end, boils down to "I have been saved, I am being saved, I hope that I will be saved").

The first world is the truth.  The second world is the one we experience.  Though we have experienced the Resurrection and are being made partakers in the Divine Life, we're a lot closer to pre-Incarnation than post-Resurrection in the way we carry ourselves.  This is why Advent is so important- it doesn't allow us to become satisfied with ourselves or with the world or even with the state of the Church.  In Advent properly celebrated we experience most fully the lack of Christ which tends to resonate much more with our experience than the actual reality of how present Christ is in our lives.  We realize how much we need to change, how much we need God's grace, how much we need God.  

Living in both worlds, we are in a both/and situation, not either/or.  When one participates in the Eucharist, and experiences Christ made present under the forms of bread and wine, there is a reality and a non-reality.  Christ is truly and completely there, but it sure doesn't look that way- just like the two worlds described above.  Just as in the Easter season we emphasize the fact of the first world, Advent is the time for emphasizing the second- with Christmas being the definitive inbreaking of the former world into the latter.

So here's a challenge:  Try to live Advent as Advent this year.  Don't sing Christmas songs until Christmas (Especially for me, this is hard...But sing all the Advent tunes you wish!).  Wait, like you waited as a child for the presents on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.  Actually wait, be patient- pray!  Beg for God's coming.  Ask again and again.  Prepare a way for the Lord and make straight His paths.  Look at where you have not let God enter your life.  Look at where you have shut God out, where you don't want Him, where you think you don't need Him, where you want to make it on your own.  Celebrate Advent- and I guarantee that this Christmas may spiritually speaking be one of the best ever.

von Balthasar is wonderful

The greatest revelation of the Trinity is the revelation that God is Love (1 John 4:16). For if the Absolute was not Trinity, then the Absolute would be not Love, but Knowledge- merely Logos. (paraphrase of van Balthasar, Love Alone is Credible). There is no love without Other. And yet God was Love before creation. Thus, there must be some sort of multiplicity within the Unity. Alright, but why three Persons, and not only two? Because Love is fruitful. Loving produces an objective love that is more than the love of the subjects. The Father begets the Son, the Son returns Himself to the Father, and the Spirit is the Love between them so powerful that it is itself a Person.

Any who conceived of the Absolute before the revelation of the Trinity, or without it, did not conceive of it as Love. Absolute knowledge, absolute being perhaps, but not absolute Love. For the Greeks, it was Logos. For the Hindu, the great 'I'. For the Hebrews it was "I AM". For the Deists, the Prime Mover. In all cases, the Absolute was in some way One. The deepest reflections from all over sense a unity as the foundational principle of the universe. This was a start, a very good start. But it is not Love. If one wants Love to be the foundational principle of the universe, there must be Unity in Trinity. 

It is truly unfortunate that the Athanasian Creed has fallen into such disuse. It should at least be recited on Trinity Sunday, as I understand it is in most if not all of the liturgical Protestant communities (good for them!). Here is the Trinitarian section:

"...We venerate one God in the Trinity, and the Trinity in oneness; neither [confusing] the persons, nor dividing the substance; for there is one person of the Father, another of the Son, another of the Holy Spirit; but the divine nature of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit is one, their glory is equal, their majesty is coeternal. Of such a nature as the Father is, so is the Son, so is the Holy Spirit; the Father is uncreated, the Son is uncreated, the Holy Spirit is uncreated; the Father is immense, the Son is immense, the Holy Spirit is immense; the Father is eternal, the Son is eternal, the Holy Spirit is eternal: and nevertheless there are not three eternals, but one eternal; just as there are not three uncreated beings, nor three infinite beings, but one uncreated, and one infinite; similarly the Father is omnipotent, the Son is omnipotent, the Holy Spirit is omnipotent: and yet there are not three omnipotents, but one omnipotent; thus the Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God; and nevertheless there are not three gods, but there is one God; so the Father is Lord, the Son is Lord, the Holy Spirit is Lord: and yet there are not three lords, but there is one Lord; because just as we are compelled by Christian truth to confess singly each one person as God and Lord, so we are forbidden by the catholic religion to say there are three gods or lords. The Father was not made nor created nor begotten by anyone. The Son is from the Father alone, not made nor created, but begotten. The Holy Spirit is from the Father and the Son, not made nor created nor begotten, but proceeding. There is therefore one Father, not three Fathers; one Son, not three Sons; one Holy Spirit, not three Holy Spirits; and in this Trinity there is nothing first or later, nothing greater or less, but all three persons are coeternal and coequal with one another, so that in every respect, as has already been said above, both unity in Trinity, and Trinity in unity must be venerated..." (Denzinger, Enchiridion Symbolorum, 39)

This also shows quite clearly the error in the ideas of some who change the invocation of the Trinity to something like "Creator, Redeemer, Sanctifier" or some such in order to avoid masculine imagery. The Father is not the Son nor the Holy Spirit; but the Father is the Creator, the Son is Creator, and the Spirit is Creator. The name Father differentiates between the Persons, Creator does not. Same for Redeemer and Sanctifier. When the Trinity acts, the entire Trinity acts. We refer in general to the Father as Creator, the Son as Redeemer, the Spirit as Sanctifier by 'appropriation'. We conceptually assign each Person differing functions, but in reality this is not the case. One Person is best for expressing it, for creating a picture of it in our minds. But all Three perform each. Only Father, Son, and Spirit (Ghost) properly identify each Person as distinct Person, while preserving oneness of Godhead.

Of course, this is not a complete explanation. This is a mystery. A complete mystery. THE mystery. But that doesn't mean we ought not contemplate it. But the reason stems from a simple conditional: 

If God is not Trinity, God is not Love.