O come, thou Dayspring, come and cheer
Our spirits by thy justice here;
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
And death’s dark shadows put to flight.
Many of our beloved and favored Christmas Carols center around the nighttime and darkness. Carols such as Away in aManger, It Came Upon the Midnight Clear, O Little Town of Bethlehem, The First Noel, and Silent Night sing of the holy and sacred night when Christ was born. For me, it is poignant that Christ was not born in broad daylight when all kinds of human activity would create all kinds of distraction from this holy moment. Symbolically, Christ was born in the darkness, literally and figuratively, to shine Light on the world. It was the bright Star of Bethlehem that led the three Wise Men to the manger. In darkness, the heavenly host of angels beamed radiant light that led the shepherds to the Christ Child. The imagery of the nocturnal birth of our Savior just would not seem right in carols or on Christmas greeting cards if Christ came into a world of blazing sun and Ray Bans. Instead, God gave us His Son as the brightest Light in all of creation.
For the span of my more than forty-year music career, I have been blessed to accompany and conduct musicians performing the acclaimed composition O Holy Night. At St. Luke’s, we have been blessed over the years to hear gifted vocalists sing this well-known piece, their beautifully trained voices adding depth and majesty to this artistic rendering of that holy night. O Holy Night has been arranged and recorded in numerous venues and styles, as have so many other much-loved Christmas songs. Vocal artists all over the world have contributed their varying musical genres to this one song. No matter how varyingly O Holy Night has been musically presented, the message is constant and profound: Christ was born at night as Light in a world of darkness.
Over two thousand years later, the world still lies in darkness, but the Light of Christ born on that Holy Night beams so brightly that you cannot help but feel a Thrill of Hope.
Robert Fasol, Organist and Choirmaster
