“Chains He Shall Break”

UPDATE- Jan 3rd, 2024

As I run across this now two year old post, here as I’m formalizing my evangelical work, I find it really interesting to see where I was in years past. How this work can be healing in ways I never quite knew until I read where I was at this same time years ago. “O Holy Night” doesn’t quite fill me with the same sadness that I wrote about below, though it does give me chills, and makes me reflect on how far I’ve come. God is such a blessing in my life!

OP- December 28th, 2021

For those of you who beleaguer the ills of social media, I learned something on Facebook, through a meme- that I later verified. There is an oft missing verse in “O Holy Night”.

This song means a lot to me as it is, because I can remember one particular Christmas- when I was scared, and stalked, and threatened… and spent more than one evening going through the Chick Fil A drive through on Tom Hill. “O Holy Night” would come on, and I would just cry silent tears as my children ate their ice creams- or even napped. Even hearing the song now when driving through the Light More Homes installation, the trauma comes back- so many years later, so far removed from it all- and I am filled with the same emotions.

“‘Till he appeared and the soul felt its worth.
A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices,
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn;

Chorus
Fall on your knees, Oh hear the angel voices!
O night divine! O night when Christ was born.
O night, O holy night, O night divine.”

(Lyrics link)

Til He appeared- and the soul felt its worth, my soul was struggling to feel it’s worth, and sometimes still even now. Christmas was a reminder that so many things weren’t as they should have been, and yet I saw my lights in my children, the gifts that God had given me, and knew my duty to nurture and protect them. Christmas was to be as magical as possible for them, even in the midst of my heartbreak.

And then, the new knowledge about the deeper meaning of this song. From a meme, which seemed too good to be true, but later verfied through multiple articles. The song was written by a French man with anti-slavery views. These lyrics are often left out, but they are so- so good:

“He knows our need, To our weakness no stranger!
Behold your King! Before Him lowly bend!
Behold your King! your King! before him bend!

Truly He taught us to love one another;
His law is Love and His gospel is Peace;
Chains shall he break, for the slave is our brother,
And in his name all oppression shall cease,
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful Chorus raise we;
Let all within us praise his Holy name!“

(More info)

(Lyrics link)

For the slave is our brother- so controversial at that time, and even still in a greater light- is so now. Slavery has simply evolved, in so many ways. I listen, and think, and relate- in my own way, although not the same.

At this time of year, we wait for Christ, this season of Advent waiting leading up to Christmas… How long do we wait for equality for all? How long do we wait for all to be seen as human? I think of John the Baptist, leaping in Elizabeth’s womb, John who as Bishop Wright says came from a family that knew their Windsor knots. They were proper. And yet, John made himself at home in the muddy waters of the Jordan river- baptizing those in the name of Christ. In the truth that He came to set us all free. John who evangelized the word of his cousin Jesus, who knew his cousin even in the womb.

Christmas may be here in the liturgical sense, but for so many that freedom has not arrived- whether from abuse, racial injustice, or other very real problems. I wish I had an answer for it all, for me the comfort is in prayer and the hope that better days will come. They have, finally, for me- and I pray they do for everyone else as well while also knowing that often prayer needs action. 2021 was my year of rest and reflection, 2022 I hope will be my year to take meaningful and directed action to work towards these things.