Il est né…

It doesn’t take me more than ten seconds to cry if I think about the Catholic Church.

I cry with awe and stupefied joy that God has given us such an impossibly amazing gift, this great machine for redivinizing, recivilizing, the world, which produced all this architecture, art, knowledge, science, universities, saints, heroes, epics, poor houses, hospices, hospitals.

One of my favorite Christmas hymns is the French classic “Il est né le divin enfant”. The Church also produced this, and generations upon generations of people, most of them quite poor, at least by our standards, heard it, and heard the Gospel.

It is exceedingly simple, and yet exceedingly profound.

Take the third verse:

O Jesus, O roi tout puissant
Tout petit enfant que vous êtes
O Jesus, O roi tout puissant
Régnez sur nous tout entièrement

O Jesus, O almighty King
Such a very little child
O Jesus, O almighty King
Reign on us completely

Here it is! The whole mystery of the Gospel! The mystery of the Incarnation: that the almighty King of the Universe could be a little child, and the revelation of this mystery immediately leads to worship, and then disciple ship: reign on us completely.

What more is there to say? What theological treatise gets at the mystery of the Incarnation in a more profound, or subtle, way? Can’t think of any.

Then:

Une étable est son logement
Un peu de paille est sa couchette
Une étable est son logement
Pour un Dieu quel abaissement

He is housed in a barn
And sleeping on straw
He is housed in a barn
For God, what a lowering

God is with the poor. God is on the side of the poor. God made himself poor.

Again: what else do you need to know about Christianity?

There is often a myth (with some truth, I’m sure) that “previous generations” (you know, unlike ours) were poorly catechized, they didn’t understand nonnathat Latin mumbo jumbo, and all the rest. But this very simple hymns distills the Christmas mystery, and through it, the entire Gospel, just perfectly, and with great depth and a mighty punch. This hymn was not made entirely by human hands. There were angels involved, I can swear it.

When I think of generations and generations receiving and singing this hymns in candlelit Midnight Masses, year after year after year, this unbroken chain of grace of the Church….Well, I tear up.

What beauty, what grace is the Church. O Lord, we thank you so much for everything you have done for us so graciously.

O Jesus, O almighty King, reign on us entirely.