Come, Lord Jesus! Come quickly!

Having celebrated the Third Sunday of Advent, our thoughts now turn to the final preparation for Christmas. While Advent has a dual nature--preparing to recall and celebrate the Lord's first coming as well as looking for his return at the end of time--the last days of Advent start to focus us more clearly on the former (see General Norms for the Liturgical Year and Calendar, nos. 39-42).

O Come, O Come Emmanuel has become for many people the quintessential Advent hymn. It is based on the seven O Antiphons, which are still used today as the antiphons for the Magnificat at Evening Prayer December 17-23.

For evening prayer, they follow this order:

• O Sapientia (O Wisdom)
• O Adonai (O Sacred Lord of Ancient Israel)
• O Radix Jesse (O Flower of Jesse's Stem)
• O Clavis David (O Key of David)
• O Oriens (O Radiant Dawn)
• O Rex Gentium (O King of All Nations)
• O Emmanuel (O Emmanuel)

These texts date back to the earliest centuries of Christianity and, in what seems a precursor to backmasking, they are arranged to provide a hidden message. If you take the first letter of each Latin title and reverse the order, it spells: Ero cras, which at least some scholars believe was a hidden message of the hymn meaning, Tomorrow, I come!

The hymn, O Come, O Come Emmanuel, rearranges the verses and uses a translation by nineteenth-century hymn writer John Mason Neale. The origins of the tune are unclear, but it seems to date back into at least the fifteenth century.

I always find it amazing, that for centuries Christians have been calling on the Lord to come, using basically these same texts and often the same tunes. How many times has God heard this plea? How many times has the Church lifted her voice in this manner? After so many generations it may be easy for the Church to become complacent. But we know he will come when we least expect it, like a thief in the night!

I hope you enjoy the clip below. It is a setting of Veni, Veni Emmanuel by twentieth-century composer Zoltan Kodaly. Come, Lord Jesus! Come quickly!