Ancient Greek. Tr. Robert S. Bridges 1844-1930.Tune: Louis Bourgeois 1510-1559
O gladsome light, O grace
Of God the Father's face,
The eternal splendour wearing;
Celestial, holy, blest,
Our Saviour Jesus Christ,
Joyful in thine appearing.
Now, ere day fadeth quite,
We see the evening light,
Our wonted hymn outpouring;
Father of might unknown,
Thee, his incarnate Son,
And Holy Spirit adoring.
To thee of right belongs
All praise of holy songs,
O Son of God, Lifegiver;
Thee, therefore, O Most High,
The world doth glorify,
And shall exalt forever.
REFLECTION
This Sunday has a rich treasury of texts and occasions. The lectionary Gospel text is Luke 2:22-38, the Presentation of Christ in the temple, forty days after his birth. The Church officially remembers it on Candlemas day, February 2. It is also New Year’s Eve, a secular holiday too often celebrated with decadent drunken parties. While the excesses of the celebrations seem a bad harbinger for a sober year, the New Year also brings resolutions of change and self-improvement—diets, exercise—turning over a new leaf in certain areas of our lives. And then New Year’s Day is the Name Day of Jesus, eight days after his birth, when he was circumcised.
All point to newness. To change and start over. No wonder the image for the New Year is a baby. The old man is left to dodder off into the darkness as we look to the new young baby. While these secular images are without much grounding in our faith, one could argue that the old man Simeon, and the aged prophetess Anna, who greet the Lord Jesus, are holier images of the New Year's images. Here two ancients meet their Lord who is a baby. I love especially Rembrandt’s paintings of this event. In the one immediately above, we see the darkness of the old enveloping almost everyone except the baby, Simeon, and Mary. This simple couple and their little baby are the light Simeon and Anna have spent their lives awaiting and now see. For Simeon who is holding the fulfillment of his hope in his arms, this moment also means his death. He can now go into the darkness and sleep with his fathers, as can Anna. Their light has come!
So this Christian hymn to be sung at vespers, considered one of the oldest hymns we have, praises the gladsome light as night approaches. The Greek cognate in the name--phos hilaron--makes us think of hilarious. Christ, the happy light, the Light of the World, comes into the descending darkness with joyful light, into our darkest nights, our sorrows and ills. His joyful light ends the darkness.
Ole Hallesby in one of his devotional writings mediates on the inscrutability of God. “To be God, our God must also be inscrutable. None of us have therefore learned to know God until we have become aware of his inscrutability.” (Hallesby, God’s Word for Today, Augsburg 1937.) Simeon celebrates the light, he knows it has been prophesied, he even prophesies that Mary she will feel a sword pierce her heart because of this baby, but how is inscrutable.
We wonder what she is thinking as she hears the old man, pondering what the suffering will be. As she heard the angel telling her she would have a baby, she wondered at God’s inscrutability. “How can this be?” she asked the angel. The angel tells her how, but not quite what lies ahead. She accepts his words graciously. No wonder she ponders all this in her heart. From now on every step she takes forward with Joseph and then her newborn is a step into the unknown. Faith is always a step forward in darkness. All Mary knows is that God is leading her forward into a new life she could never have imagined. Much of it inscrutable, but finally, wonderful, for her and all the world! Thanks be to God!
HYMN INFO
Robert Seymore Bridges, in his day considered one of the great poets of England, even named Poet Laureate in 1913, was born in Kent, England and died in Abingdon. A doctor until 1881, he left his practice and moved to Yattendon to devote himself to poetry. His Yattendon Hymnal (1899) contained 100 hymns, mostly from the Genevan psalter. His poetry and translations have fallen by the wayside, but one can tell his workmanship from this translation of what is considered probably the oldest Christian hymn. Today, his greatest claim to fame was that he touted the work of Gerard Manley Hopkins.
The hymn text was written for the evening vespers service. Its focus on the light is typical of hymns for the daily hours used in the monasteries for millenia. They always note the place of the light at the time of the service. The tune varies. The one by Bourgeois is probably most well known.
The links below range from the most popular English tune to a Byzantine chant.
LINKS
Cambridge Singers
St. Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral Seattle
St. John’s Orthodox Byzantine chant