A Christmas Poem by Richard Crashaw

At Bethlehem

Come, we shepherds, whose blest sight

Hath met Love's noon in nature's night;

Come, lift we up our loftier song,

And wake the sun that lies too long.

Gloomy night embraced the place

Where the noble infant lay:

The Babe looked up and showed his face;

In spite of darkness, it was day:-

It was the Day, Sweet! and did rise

Not from the east, but from thine eyes.

We saw thee in thy balmy nest,

Young dawn of our eternal day;

We saw thine eyes break from their east

And chase the trembling shades away;

We saw thee (and we bless the sight),

We saw thee by thine own sweet light.

Welcome, all wonders in one sight!

Eternity shut in a span!

Summer in Winter! Day in night!

Heaven in earth! and God in man!

Great Little One, whose all-embracing birth

Lifts earth to heaven, stoops heaven to earth.

~~~~~

This wonderful short poem was written by Richard Crashaw (1613-49) who became an ordained Parish priest, but is primarily known as an English poet of Christian poetry which is full of vibrant stylistic ornamentation and indicates a brilliant wit.

Richard, the son of of a learned and enthusiastic Puritan minister, was educated at Cambridge, where he learned Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Spanish and Italian. In the same year as his graduation, 1634, he published "Epigrammatum Sacrorum" (A book of Sacred Epigrams). which consists of of a collection of Latin verse on Biblical subjects. He help a fellowship at Peterhouse, Cambridge, a centre of High Church thoughts and ideas, where he was ordained.

During the first Civil War, (1642-51), Richard's position at Peterhouse became increasingly difficult and then impossible to maintain, as a result of his increasing inclination to Roman Catholicism. He finally decided to resign his post before the Puritans could get round to evicting him. He then began preparing his first edition of "Steps to the Temple, Sacred Poems, with other Delights of the Muses" which was published in 1646. This incorporated Christian and secular poems, both in Latin and English.

In 1644, Richard Crashaw went to France, where he became a Roman Catholic. Two years later, when Queen Henrietta Maria of England, consort to Charles I, moved to Paris with her entourage, Richard was found by his fellow poet and friend, Abraham Cowley, living in poverty. The Queen arranged for him to be sent to Rome with a strong recommendation being made to the Pope, but he was assigned to a cardinal who merely made him a member of his household. Only a few months before his death was he to receive the position of canon of the cathedral of Santa Casa (Holy House) at Loreto.

Richard Crashaw's Christian English poems, entitled "Carmen Deo Nostro" ("Hymn to our Lord") were republished in Paris in 1652. This publication was illustrated with 12 of his drawings, and included some additional poems with some of his finest lines, those appended to "The Flaming Heart," a poem about St. Teresa of Avila.

Owing to the fact that he had read a lot of works by the Italian and Spanish mystics, Richard's poems reflected very little of the English metaphysical poets, but featured more of the flamboyant imagery of the continental Baroque poets. The standard text of his poems was edited by L.C. Martin (1927), which appeared in a revised edition in 1957.

In "At Bethlehem" we see a wonderful projection of what it must have been like as a shepherd, to have experienced the angels' appearance in the field near Bethlehem. We can imagine the feelings of being "sore afraid" and the announcement of good news, (the solo verse) "For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord." This announcement is followed by what must have sounded like a glorious heavenly choral performance, featuring a multitdude of the heavenly host praising God with "Glory to God in the Highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men." Looking with hindsight through 2,000 years of history, we can honestly say that peace and goodwill toward men are more needed today than they ever were, with a broken and divided world, of warring factions, self-seeking and political and religious divisions.

"At Bethlehem" describes the salvation and deliverance that God brought about by sending His only Son, Jesus into a dark world to save us from sin and deliver us from sin, ourselves and evil. The poem draws out the contrasts between darkness and light, nature's night and Love's noon. A smile from the baby Jesus brings daylight to the darkest night, love to the hardest heart. The sun rises here, not from the east but from the Saviour's eyes. It is often said that the eyes are the light of the soul. No light was needed to see the Saviour, because light shone from His face. In the Gospel of John 8:12 Jesus says of Himself, "I am the Light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life."

After reading about the light from the eyes of Jesus "chasing the trembling shades away" in the third stanza, more contrasts are added to the wonders of that night of the Incarnation in the final section. We read of "Eternity shut in a span" which is another aspect of the wonder of the Incarnation, God becoming completely man and yet remaining completely God. God is eternal and exists in time and yet in Jesus He experienced the restrictions and constraints of time and space, "Heaven in earth! and God in man!" The juxtaposition of the words "Great" and "Little" in the penultimate line reveal afresh to us the humility of Jesus which we are called to follow in Philippians 2:3-11 as we seek to be His followers and servants.

The reference to Jesus' "all-embracing birth" signifies that salvation and redemption are available to all who believe in Him and receive Him as their Lord and Saviour, John 1:12-13.

Take time if you can, this Christmas, to meditate on the experience of the shepherds keeping watch over their sheep by night, by reading this poem again and the historical account in the Gospel of Luke 2:1-20. May it be the most blessed Christmas you have experienced so far in your life!

A Song for All Saints Day, 1st. November.

Not so long ago we had a visit to the UK by Pope Benedict XVI from the Vatican. Part of the purpose of his Holiness visiting the UK was to beatify Cardinal John Henry Newman (1801 – 1890) who, as many will know, converted from the Anglican Church to Roman Catholicism.

I read an article more recently which informed me that beatification is the moment at which the Church of Rome acknowledges that the beatified person has officially been allowed to enter Heaven. Apart from feeling a heaviness of heart that such an idea could exist, I then thought, what hope is there for anyone else, especially me?!

As if one doesn't have all the tests of Purgatory to go through first, before reaching the elevated state of beatification, according to the Roman Church, in order to actually become a Saint, two answers to prayers for miracles would have to be answered by praying to your deceased being. My, what a lot of politics that must involve in Heaven, even God's own intervention may have to be involved at some point. apart from Mary and Jesus being part of the process, or could they be bypassed in some way?

J.H. Newman hasn't been officially made a Saint yet by the Roman Catholic Church, because only one prayer for a miracle has been answered to date, the details of which I am not yet aware. In other words, he's reached the halfway stage of the process.

I was brought up to believe that any person who received Jesus into their life as their Lord and Savior became a Christian at that point and heir to eternal life. In John 1:12 we read "To all who did receive Him (Jesus), who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God." Further on, in John's Gospel, Chapter 11:25-26a we read "Jesus said, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die." " Jesus then asks, "Do you believe this?" That is the question I would like to leave you to think about and seriously consider today, while you are still alive and able to do so.

I was also given to believe that when one becomes a Christian, Christian=Saint, which is a much easier concept to grasp than the super-structure put in place by the vain traditions of men which thankfully didn't exist in the early Church. Thus, when Paul wrote his letter to the Romans, which we find in the New Testament, in Romans 1:7, we see he addressed it "to all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints," that is, all the Christian believers in Rome.

I can remember singing the following song at school, which underlines the fact that all those of us who believe that Jesus died on the cross to forgive us our sins and are called to follow Him, are saints. There is no hierarchy, we are just forgiven Christians, brothers and sisters, sons and daughters of the living God, serving together to uplift Jesus who is the answer to all our problems in today's broken world.

I Sing a Song of the Saints of God

I sing a song of the saints of God,
Patient and brave and true,
Who toiled and fought and lived and died
For the Lord they loved and knew,
And one was a doctor,
And one was a queen,
And one was a shepherdess on the green:
They were all of them saints of God--and I mean,
God helping, to be one too.

They loved their Lord so dear, so dear,
And his love made them strong;
And they followed the right, for Jesus' sake,
The whole of their good lives long.
And one was a soldier,
And one was a priest,
And one was slain by a fierce wild beast:
And there's not any reason--no, not the least,
Why I shouldn't be one too.

They lived not only in ages past,
There are hundreds of thousands still,
The world is bright with the joyous saints
Who love to do Jesus' will.
You can meet them in school, or
In lanes, or at sea,
In church, or in trains, or in shops, or at tea,
For the saints of God are just folk like me,
And I mean to be one too.