December 24: Peace, Good Will Toward Men
♫ Music:
Day 26 - Thursday, December 24
CHRISTMAS EVE
Title: PEACE, GOOD WILL TOWARD MEN
Scripture: Luke 2:13-14
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God, and saying: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.”
Poetry:
The Oxen
by Thomas Hardy
Christmas Eve, and twelve of the clock.
“Now they are all on their knees,”
An elder said as we sat in a flock
By the embers in hearthside ease.
We pictured the meek mild creatures where
They dwelt in their strawy pen,
Nor did it occur to one of us there
To doubt they were kneeling then.
So fair a fancy few would weave
In these years! Yet, I feel,
If someone said on Christmas Eve,
“Come; see the oxen kneel,
“In the lonely barton by yonder coomb
Our childhood used to know,”
I should go with him in the gloom,
Hoping it might be so.
GOD IS NOT DEAD, NOR DOTH HE SLEEP
This Scripture awakens a childhood memory. I was staying with my grandparents at their home in the high Sierras. My grandmother gave me the key to the town church so that I could practice my piano lessons, and I felt grown-up and responsible to be trusted with it. When I opened the door, the dark grey clouds overhead made the inside of the church even more shadowy. The rope to the bell tower hung still and the pine pews were empty. Sitting down at the piano, I played “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day.” It was the first time I had heard the song, and the beauty of the words by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and their strange intermingling of sorrow with triumphant hope caught at my heart. Softly, so as not to disturb the deep silence of the church, I sang the lyrics while I played:
I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
and wild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
And in despair I bowed my head;
"There is no peace on earth," I said;
"For hate is strong,
And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!"
Later, I discovered that before writing these words, Longfellow had received news that his oldest son had been critically injured while fighting for the Union Army. At the time, Longfellow was still grieving the loss of his wife who had died in a fire. He had been badly burned while trying to save her and fell into a deep depression after her death. The season of Christmas, Longfellow believed, could never again lighten his heart; nevertheless, on this Christmas Day, he picked up his pen to write a poem while a war between hope and despair raged within him. Incongruity between the refrain of “peace on earth, good-will to men” appeared not only in his personal circumstances, but also in the nation, afflicted by Civil War and the evils of slavery.
After a year spent suffering a pandemic, racial unrest, the California fires, and political polarization, many of us share Longfellow’s feelings of disharmony between the joy of Christmas and our current situation. The same truth that inspired him continues to hold true for us, however, and to pull us from despondency:
Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
"God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The Wrong shall fail,
The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men."
In the blessings that surround us, we often forget that incongruity is always present in this life. Our world has never been at peace. Wrong often appears to prevail over right. Yet Christians through the centuries have celebrated the birth of our Savior and the love that sent him to earth. Christmas reminds us that God is not dead nor does he sleep. Instead, he rules over all, omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent.
Prayer
God over all, the glory of the angels overwhelmed the shepherds, but that was only the smallest glimmer of your glory. You sit enthroned above the cherubim. Together with the angels, we cry out in worship to you and in gratitude for the abundant good-will, the benevolence toward us that caused Christ to set aside his glory and come to earth. We thank you for the peace that we now have with you, a peace that enables us to have peace with one another. We wait in eager anticipation for the day when that peace will be made complete.
Amen.
Laurie Wilson
Assistant Professor
Torrey Honors College
Biola University
About the Artwork #1:
The Shepherds: Glory to God in the Highest
Hanna-Cheriyan Varghese
2006
Acrylic on canvas
24 x 20”
Special thank you to the Estate of Hanna-Cheriyan Varghese
The sheer joy of the angels and shepherds in the field praising and lifting their voices to the skies in celebration of the birth of Jesus is evident in this painting by Malaysian artist Hanna-Cheriyan Varghese.
About the Artist #1:
Hanna-Cheriyan Varghese (1938-2009) was a Malaysian artist born to Christian parents. She started her career as an art and English teacher. Though Hanna worked with different mediums, her passion was painting with acrylics on canvas and batik-dyeing fabric. From the early eighties, Hanna began expressing in tangible form her faith, spiritual thoughts, and experiences combined with Biblical imagery. She was inspired by the artwork created by the many Asian Christian artists in IMAGE Magazine. Hanna was coordinator of the Malaysian Artists Fellowship and served on the committee of the ACAA (Asian Christian Art Association) from 1998 to 2003. Her work has been featured in many journals and publications and, while she was artist-in-residence at the Overseas Ministries Study Center in 2006-2007, exhibitions of her work were held at the Institute of Sacred Music at Yale Divinity School and at Princeton Theological Seminary. Her work has been exhibited in Hong Kong, Japan, India, Indonesia, China, Sri Lanka, South Korea, and the Philippines. She said of her work once, “When I see one image that I worked on being used by a publisher or presented in a workshop/seminar/Bible study, I know it is my one drop of contribution to Christian ministry. We are all here to be a blessing to others.”
https://www.omsc.org/artist-varghese
About the Art #2:
Nuit de Noël (Christmas Eve)
Henri Matisse
1952
Maquette: gouache on paper on board
271.8 x 135.9 cm
Window: Stained glass
Museum of Modern Art
Manhattan, New York
Commissioned by the Time Life Company, this festive stained glass window was installed in Rockefeller Center on the 8th of December 1952, just in time for the holiday season. By this point in his prolific career, the 83-year-old Matisse had turned to using paper cut-outs in his art, as a result of a surgery that left him wheelchair-bound. To make Nuit de Noël, the artist cut and pasted brightly colored paper into a preliminary maquette that was then sent to an Italian stained-glass craftsman for fabrication. In a comment to Alfred H. Barr Jr., then director of the Museum of Modern Art, Matisse compared the final, roughly 11-foot-tall window to a “performance by an orchestra.” The maquette and stained glass window were both donated by Time Life to the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
About the Artist #2:
Henri Émile Benoit Matisse (1869-1954) was a French artist, known for both his use of color and his fluid and unique draughtsmanship. He was a printmaker and sculptor, but is known primarily as a painter. Matisse is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Picasso, as one of the artists who best defined the revolutionary developments in the visual arts throughout the early decades of the twentieth century. The intense colorism of the works he painted between 1900 and 1905 brought him notoriety as one of the group of artists known as the Fauves. Many of his finest works were created after 1906, when he developed a rigorous style that emphasized flattened forms and decorative patterns. In 1917, he relocated to a suburb of Nice on the French Riviera, and the more relaxed style of his work during the 1920s gained him critical acclaim as an upholder of the classical tradition in French painting. When ill health in his final years prevented him from painting, he created an important body of work in the medium of cut paper collage. His mastery of the expressive language of color and drawing, displayed in a body of work spanning over a half-century, won him recognition as a leading figure in modern art.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Matisse
Music #1:
“Navidad Nuestra: 3. El Nacimiento (Vidala Catamarquena)” from the album Misa Criolla
Lyrics:
Noche anunciada, noche de amor,
Dios ha nacido, pétalo y flor,
todo es silencio y serenidad,
paz a los hombres, es Navidad.
En el pesebre, mi Redentor
es mensajero de paz y amor,
cuando sonríe se hace la luz
y en sus bracitos crece una cruz.
Ángeles cantan sobre el portal
Dios ha nacido, es Navidad
Esta es la noche que prometió
Dios a los hombres y ya llegó,
es Noche Buena, no hay que dormir
Dios ha nacido, Dios está aquí.
Lyrics (English Translation):
The Birth
Night foretold, night of love
God is born, petal and flower
All is silence and serenity
Peace to all men, it's Christmas
In the manger my redeemer
He is the messenger of peace and love
When he smiles there is light
And his little arms form a cross
Angels sing over the entrance
God is born, it's Christmas
This is the night that was promised
By God to mankind, and now it has arrived
It's Christmas Eve, you don't need to sleep
God is born, God is here.
The Misa Criolla (Creole Mass) by the Argentine pianist and composer Ariel Ramírez is based on South American folk music. The traditional mass texts are not in Latin, but rather are sung in Spanish. With its successful synthesis of folkloric and liturgical styles, it is now recognized worldwide as the epitome of popular music in Argentina. In Navidad Nuestra, Ramirez avails himself of the rich treasure trove of Argentine dances and songs.
Performers:
Asociacion Coral Lagun Onak, Chango Farias Gomez, Chango Spasiuk, Jaime Torres and Mercedes Sosa
Asociacion Coral Lagun Onak is a choir that was founded under the direction of Father Luis de Mallea in 1939 by a group of Basques living in Argentina who were dedicated to the repertoire of Basque and Argentine songs. It has been directed by some of the most prestigious national batons such as Pedro I. Calderón, Ferrucio Calusio, Juán J. Castro and Juan C. Zorzi, among many others.
http://www.lagunonak.com.ar/historia.html
https://www.discogs.com/artist/3814357-Asociaci%C3%B3n-Coral-Lagun-Onak
Chango Farias Gomez (1937-2011) was a musician, composer, and singer of the folk music of Argentina. In 2003 he released his first solo album. He has been characterized by his avant-garde and innovative spirit in interpreting folkloric music. He is renowned especially for being one of the musicians who introduced polyphony to Argentine and Latin American music. In the political realm, he was national Director of Music (1989-1992) and a legislator of the city of Buenos Aires from 2003-2007.
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chango_Far%C3%ADas_G%C3%B3mez
Chango Spasiuk (b. 1968) is an Argentine chamamé musician and accordion player. He received his first accordion at age 12, which he played at parties, weddings and other events with his father and uncle. A musical-talent TV show that travelled around small towns opened the door for Spasiuk to perform at provincial festivals. In 1989, El Chango was invited to play in Cosquín, perhaps the most important folkloric music festival in Argentina. Spasiuk gained some popularity, not only among folk and world music audiences but, given his modern style, also with rock and pop fans. Since 2000 he has toured around the world with the Chango Spasiuk Orchestra. Spasiuk has been championed in Europe by world music journalists, for many of whom chamamé was a previously unknown form of music.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chango_Spasiuk
Jaime Torres (1938-2018) was an Argentine musician, son of Bolivian immigrants, and a world-renowned interpreter of charango (an Andean lute). He was a disciple of Mauro Núñez, a Bolivian musician and luthier that built his first musical instruments. In 1988 Torres composed the music for the film "La Deuda Interna,” which was nominated for an Oscar. In 1964 he participated in the recording of the Misa Criolla with Ariel Ramírez, and in 1965 he made his first European tour.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaime_Torres_(musician)
Mercedes Sosa (1935-2009) was an Argentine singer who was popular throughout Latin America. With her roots in Argentine folk music and the nueva canción movement, Sosa’s music caused people to hail her as the "voice of the voiceless ones.” Sosa performed in venues such as the Lincoln Center in New York City; the Théatre Mogador in Paris; the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City; New York's Carnegie Hall; and the Roman Colosseum. Her career spanned four decades and she was the recipient of six Latin Grammy Awards, including a Latin Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004 and two posthumous Latin Grammy Awards for Best Folk Album in 2009 and 2011. She also served as an ambassador for UNICEF.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercedes_Sosa
Composer:
Ariel Ramirez (b. 1921) is one of Argentina’s most loved choral composers. As a young man, Ramírez traveled all over rural South America studying and collecting folk music. After studying in Buenos Aires, he went to Europe where he studied first at the Institute of Hispanic Culture in Madrid, Spain, and then at the Academy of Music in Vienna where he concentrated on Central European folk music. In 1954 he returned to Argentina and completed his musical training in Buenos Aires. His politically inspired popular songs soon earned him fame as a leader of the Nueva Canción Movement, which began in the 1950’s and early 1960’s as a movement contesting the political dictatorships of the time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ariel_Ram%C3%ADrez
Lyricist:
Felix Cesar Luna (1925-2009) was an Argentine writer, lyricist, and historian. He enrolled at the University of Buenos Aires and earned a law degree in 1951. He was first published in 1954 with his biographical work Yrigoyen. Luna collaborated with pianist and composer Ariel Ramírez as a lyricist for the Misa Criolla (Creole Mass) in 1964. Ramírez and Luna were joined by traditional folklore vocalist Mercedes Sosa for Cantata Sudamericana, a 1972 album which made the latter an iconic figure in the music of Argentina. Luna has been honored with numerous Konex Awards, the highest distinctions in the Argentine cultural realm. He was Secretary of Culture for the city of Buenos Aires from 1986 to 1989.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F%C3%A9lix_Luna
Music #2:
Messiah, HWV 56, Pt. 1: 17. And Suddenly There Was with the Angel
Lyrics:
And suddenly there was with the angel
a multitude of the heavenly host,
praising God, and saying:
Music #3:
Messiah, HWV 56, Pt. 1: 18. Glory to God
Lyrics:
“Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace,
good will toward men.”
Performers:
Kathleen Battle, Toronto Mendelssohn Chorus & Elmer Iseler Singers, and Toronto Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Andrew Davis
Kathleen Battle (b.1948) is an African-American operatic soprano known for her distinctive vocal range and tone. Battle initially became known for her work through performances with major orchestras during the early and mid-1970s. She made her operatic debut in 1975. Battle expanded her repertoire into lyric soprano and coloratura soprano roles during the 1980s and early 1990s, until her dismissal from the Metropolitan Opera in 1994. After a 22-year absence from the Met, Battle performed a concert of spirituals at the Metropolitan Opera House in 2016. Battle's concert and recital repertoire encompasses a wide array of music including classical, jazz, and crossover works. Her jazz and crossover repertoire includes the compositions of Duke Ellington, George Gershwin, Leonard Bernstein, André Previn, Rodgers and Hammerstein, and Stevie Wonder among others.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathleen_Battle
Toronto Mendelssohn Chorus (TMC), founded by Augustus Vogt, is a Grammy-nominated choir that has brought outstanding choral music to Toronto for more than 125 years. Grand symphonic sound has been the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir’s trademark. Performing both sacred and secular repertoire, TMC choristers are committed to offering audiences authentic interpretation, clarity of expression, and a profound emotional experience of some of the most important music ever composed. The TMC includes a core of 20 professional singers and 100+ auditioned and experienced volunteer choristers. The TMC organization also includes the Mendelssohn Singers, a 70-voice ensemble formed from the ranks of the TMC, giving them more flexibility in both performing venue and repertoire.
https://www.tmchoir.org/who-we-are/
The Elmer Iseler Singers (EIS) is a 20 voice professional choral ensemble founded by the late Dr. Elmer Iseler in 1979. They have built an enviable reputation throughout Canada, the United States, and internationally through concerts and recordings and by performing repertoire that spans 500 years, with a focus on Canadian composers. Annually, EIS sponsors choral workshops through their GET MUSIC! Educational Outreach Initiative for secondary school conductors and choirs, which concludes with a joint public performance. They also work to mentor young conductors with the help of university students, who also join in the joint public performance.
https://www.elmeriselersingers.com/about/
The Toronto Symphony Orchestra (TSO) is a Canadian orchestra based in Toronto, Ontario. Founded in 1922, the TSO gave regular concerts at Massey Hall until 1982 and has performed at Roy Thomson Hall since then. The TSO also manages the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra (TSYO). The TSO's music director from 2004 to 2018 was Peter Oundjian. Sir Andrew Davis, conductor laureate of the TSO, has most recently served as the orchestra's interim artistic director. Gustavo Gimeno is music director-designate of the TSO, scheduled to assume the TSO music directorship in the 2020–2021 season.
https://www.tso.ca/
Sir Andrew Davis, CBE, (b. 1944) is an English conductor and currently is the music director and principal conductor of Lyric Opera of Chicago. Maestro Davis's career spans over forty years, during which he has been the artistic leader at several of the world's most distinguished operatic and symphonic institutions, including the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra where he serves as Interim Artistic Director through 2020. Sir Andrew has led performances at many of the world's most important opera houses, among them the Metropolitan Opera, Teatro alla Scala, Royal Opera House at Covent Garden, and the major companies of Munich, Paris, San Francisco, and Santa Fe. Maestro Davis studied at King's College, Cambridge, where he was an organ scholar before taking up conducting. His diverse repertoire ranges from Baroque to contemporary, and spans the symphonic, operatic, and choral worlds.
http://sirandrewdavis.com/biography/
About the Poet:
Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) was a renowned and prolific English novelist and poet. A Victorian realist, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism. He was highly critical of much in Victorian society, especially regarding the declining status of rural people in Britain. While Hardy regarded himself primarily as a poet, he initially gained fame as the author of novels such as Far from the Madding Crowd, The Mayor of Casterbridge, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, and Jude the Obscure. Innovative in his use of stanza and voice, Hardy’s poems pay attention to the transcendent possibilities of sound, line, and breath—the musical aspects of language. Hardy wrote in a great variety of poetic forms, including lyrics, ballads, satire, dramatic monologues, and dialogue.
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/thomas-hardy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Hardy#cite_note-45
About the Devotion Author:
Laurie Wilson
Assistant Professor
Torrey Honors College
Biola University
Laurie Wilson, an Assistant Professor in the Torrey Honors College at Biola, received her master’s degree in Greek and Latin and her doctoral degree in classics from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland where she was an H.B. Earhart Foundation Fellow and a Postgraduate Fellow in the James Wilson Programme for Constitutional Studies. This background reflects her passion for classical reception studies and interdisciplinary research, which has focused on Augustine, Cicero, and writings from the American founders.