Josh Groban had an hour-long musical program on television last week. At one point he had a duet with Jennifer Hudson. I appreciate their talents by themselves; together they transport you into another realm. Their selection together was O Holy Night.
To some extent, it was like my hearing the carol for the first time. I was invited into a thin space where the temporal gave way to the eternal. Words jumped out at me; phrases made me ponder. By the time the music was concluded, I was lost in thought and soothed in spirit. I had to immediately write down some of the words that jumped out at me, and make a notation it would be substance for this column. It was a new experience of an old carol. I remember singing it as a solo in church as a child.
The most thought provoking phrase was the soul felt its worth. The whole idea of a soul concerned me several years ago. I was led to do some research and discovered that its origin in anthropology was the word for breath. People saw the breath leaving the body at death and called it the soul. Of course, it has taken on a whole different and far greater meaning in our time. That new understanding likely began in the 8th century with the Old English word swol, which was used to describe the immaterial, spiritual, or thinking aspect of a person.
Soulful singers like Josh and Jennifer provoked me to think about soul, and the rest of the carol.
Then there were the words, Long lay the world in sin and error pining. If these words were written in the 1800s, how did the writer know they would be so relevant today? Is the human condition such that we are fated to sin and error? And the writer, the French poet Cappeau, was a socialist and abolitionist, including social sins of his time in the final verse of the hymn that still exist today. In light of our continuing failings, we are invited to recognize, His law is love and His Gospel is Peace, not racism and oppression.
Then there are words of promise. Theres a song of hope. The weary world rejoices. A new and glorious morn is breaking. There are angel voices, and we are asked to fall on our knees to hear them.
Perhaps this is one of the greatest failures of the Christian faith and our common humanity. Were seldom humble before the Christ Child. We stand like kings rather than kneel like shepherds. Muslims take off their shoes on entering the Mosque and they prostrate themselves before the Holy One.
Christians may kneel for communion at the front of the sanctuary, or they may have access to a pull-out kneeler in the pew, but an outright sign of humility is not considered essential in approaching the Holy One. O Holy Night suggests otherwise.
Humility is necessary to honor the Holy One and hear the angels sing?
In this season of Christmas, I would wish everyone a time of humility and openness to an experience of the Holy One. Barbara Holmes, a spiritual visionary, writer, teacher and seminary president, said it so well shortly before she died. I find myself in thin places, geo-spiritual places where I experience God unfiltered. In these spaces where great beauty runs rampant, I contemplate the artistry of the divine one who beckons me.
As I wrote in a recently published memoir, The Temporal and Eternal, The eternal could be just below the surface of life. It pokes into the temporal like the flowers broke through the asphalt outside our home in Worcester, Massachusetts. Or like new life and relationship blossomed from a young, tragic death in Northampton. Or like the friends who have died in clock time before us, stick their heads into our temporal dreams and memories, to invite us into their eternal time zone.
There are thin places in life. Im always intrigued by the witness of those with near-death experiences. They experience that thin place first hand. Its a space between the temporal and the eternal. We can get glimmers of it in our every day with soul-full singers and expressions of love during the holidays. May it be yours.
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