The season of Advent, the traditional period of preparation before the feasts of Christmas and Epiphany (the Christmas Holy Days) is the perfect opportunity to revisit some of the hymns authored by our father among the saints Ephrem the Syrian. First, let's remember the context in which these extraordinary works were formed. Ephrem's voluminous output is due to the fact that he was leading a choir formed by members of his own ascetical community (the B'nai Qyama-- the Sons of the Covenant). Often, he would write the hymns that were then chanted under his direction.
In Hymn III on the Nativity, Ephrem celebrates the way that the Christmas feast is the key to understanding the rest of the year. He argues that all the other feasts attain light from this feast, that is, they take their meaning from the Christmas feast. He writes, "All the days from the Treasure of Thy bright day gain blessings. All the feasts from the stores of this feast have their fairness and their ornaments... A store of medicines is this Thy great day, because on it shone forth the Medicine of Life to the wounded!" He then goes on to explain how the feasts of Epiphany and Pascha (Easter) depend on the Christmas feast. Once he has established these three feasts, he goes back and fills in all the gaps, showing how Lent and all the Gospel readings on the Sundays before Lent and during Lent attain their brightness and clarity from the light of Christmas. This unity of the whole Church's liturgy leads to St. Ephrem giving voice to a very fervent prayer to Christ: "Heal us, O my Master, every time that we see Thy feast. May it cause rumors that we have heard to pass away. Our mind wanders amid these voices. O Voice of the Father, still [other] voices; the world is noisy, in Thee let it gain itself quiet; for by Thee the sea was stilled of its storms."
For St. Ephrem, the Mystery of the Incarnation (showing forth in its feast, the feast of Christmas) is what gives meaning and sense to everything else. Christmas is then hermeneutical key by which the rest of Creation is rendered intelligible. Because of the unifying action of the Incarnation in us, the world with all its noise and tumult is rendered quiet. This is the action of the Medicine of Life. It heals the noise, busyness and disquiet within us.
Nevertheless, what the Mystery of the Incarnation does objectively is not what it does automatically. No, on the contrary, we have to willingly descend into the mystery of this feast, put it on like a coat, and sit in it like a room. Our Father Among the Saints Moses the Ethiopian is famous for saying to his disciples, "Sit in your room, and it will teach you everything." In this period of serious prayer, fasting and almsgiving, the cave of Bethlehem has to become our home, as we ponder as ceaselessly as possible the truth of God becoming man for our salvation. With the eyes of God, look deeply into the manger by means of your own creativity. No two persons' reflection will ever be the same. Think how the Church is enriched if all her children fervently pray in this way. In the midst of all the turmoil of the 19th century, Dom Prosper Gueranger is famous for his peaceful reflection on the birth of the Lord Jesus. He thought of the feasts of the saints surrounding the feast of the Nativity as a royal and holy entourage gathered to welcome the King of the Universe. He thought of these great saints as being personally present in the cave-stable of Bethlehem. Their very variety was a great source of deep insight into the Incarnation itself: St. Stephen the Protomartyr, St. John the Evangelist, St. Thomas a Becket, the Holy Innocents of Jerusalem and its environs. Gueranger pondered, "what does it mean that so many of these gave their lives?" His conclusion-- the Lord Jesus is a Master all-loving and all-lovable, but He is not easy. He puts great demands on us for such is the internal, intrinsic logic of love. As all the members of the entourage of the Great, Loving King had to give their lives, so I too must give my life, gladly, joyfully, completely.
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