December 6: Jesus Christ: The Apple Tree
♫ Music:
Day 6 - Friday, December 06
Title: Jesus Christ: The Apple Tree
Scripture: Song of Songs 2:3 (NKJV)
Like an apple tree among the trees of the woods, so is my beloved among the sons.
I sat down in his shade with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste.
Poetry:
from “The Hound of Heaven”
by Francis Thompson
Now of that long pursuit
Comes on at hand the bruit;
That Voice is round me like a bursting sea:
‘And is thy earth so marred,
Shattered in shard on shard?
Lo, all things fly thee, for thou fliest Me!
Strange, piteous, futile thing!
Wherefore should any set thee love apart?
Seeing none but I makes much of naught’ (He said),
‘And human love needs human meriting:
How hast thou merited—
Of all man’s clotted clay the dingiest clot?
Alack, thou knowest not
How little worthy of any love thou art!
Whom wilt thou find to love ignoble thee,
Save Me, save only Me?
All which I took from thee I did but take,
Not for thy harms,
But just that thou might’st seek it in My arms.
All which thy child’s mistake
Fancies as lost, I have stored for thee at home:
Rise, clasp My hand, and come!’
Halts by me that footfall:
Is my gloom, after all,
Shade of His hand, outstretched caressingly?
‘Ah, fondest, blindest, weakest,
I am He Whom thou seekest!
Thou dravest love from thee, who dravest Me.’
WAITING FOR THE BRIDEGROOM’S GIFT OF LOVE
Advent is above all a time of waiting, like a bride awaiting her bridegroom. It should really be a time of breathless anticipation, as we yearn for the great joy of Christmas. Song of Songs 2:3 contains a passionate declaration of desire: “Like an apple tree among the trees of the woods, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down in his shade with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste.” This verse has been read, allegorically, in reference to the Church receiving protection and nurture from Christ, the apple tree. The metaphorical image of God as a tree providing shade and protection from the sun also occurs in the Psalms, but, here, in the Song of Songs, the tree provides delight, as well as shade. Those who have bit into freshly picked apples in autumn can understand the evocation of a refreshing and sweet taste. In the Songs of Songs, the act of sitting underneath an apple tree and enjoying its fruit provides a vivid image of intimate union with a beloved. And in the hymn “Jesus Christ the Apple Tree,” as in traditional patristic and medieval commentary on the Song of Songs, this beloved is Christ Himself.
How is Christ pursuing you, as a Bridegroom pursues his Bride, with desire and love this Advent? Where do you see His hand at work in your life, sheltering you from the fray, and reminding you of the promise of the delectable spiritual fruits to be enjoyed over the twelve days of Christmas? In “The Hound of Heaven” the Roman Catholic Victorian poet Francis Thompson recalls God’s pursuit, His persistent hounding, as Thompson fled from divine love, only to be eventually captured. Thompson also alludes to a Bridegroom’s protective, enfolding desire for his Bride when his poem’s speaker takes on the voice of God, encouraging us, as readers, to “seek” true love “in My arms.” Thompson implies God wants us to drop false preoccupations and distorted goals, which distract us from divine love, so we can receive what God has “stored” for us “at home” with Him. At Advent, the Lord reaches out to us, beckoning us with His love, declaring, “Rise, clasp My hand, and come!”
Prayer:
Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful.
And kindle in them the fire of your love.
(St. Hildegard of Bingen)
Dr. Natasha Duquette
Academic Dean
Professor of Literature
Our Lady Seat of Wisdom College
Barry’s Bay, Ontario, Canada
For more information about the artwork, music, and poetry selected for this day, we have provided resources under the “About” tab located next to the “Devotional” tab.
About the Artwork:
Virgin and Child Under an Apple Tree
Lucas Cranach, the Elder
Oil on canvas
1525–30
87 x 59 cm
The Hermitage
St. Petersburg, Russia
Public domain
The symbolism of this painting is associated with the doctrine of falling from grace and the salvation of the human race. Cranach paints the infant Christ holding in his hands an apple and a piece of bread—symbolic of atonement for man's original sin at the cost of Christ’s own earthly life. The apple is symbolic of the original sin and the bread (the body of Christ) of the redemption of mankind. Here the Virgin is presented as a second Eve providing redemption for the sin of the first Eve. The magnificent landscape with the smooth surface of the lake and the range of blue mountains on the horizon shows Cranach to be one of the founders of the landscape genre in Western European art.
https://www.hermitagemuseum.org/wps/portal/hermitage/digital-collection/01.+Paintings/38776/
About the Artist:
Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472–1553) was a German Renaissance painter and printmaker in woodcut and engraving. He was court painter to the Electors of Saxony for most of his career and is known for his portraits, both of German princes and leaders of the Protestant Reformation. He was a close friend of Martin Luther. Cranach also painted religious subjects, first in the Catholic tradition, and later trying to find new ways of conveying Lutheran religious themes in his art. Cranach had a large workshop and many of his works exist in different versions. His son Lucas Cranach the Younger and others continued to create versions of Cranach the Elder’s works for decades after his death. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucas_Cranach_the_Elder
https://www.nga.gov/collection/artist-info.1179.html
About the Music:
“Jesus Christ the Apple Tree” from the album Christmastide
Lyrics:
The tree of life my soul hath seen,
Laden with fruit and always green: (x2)
The trees of nature fruitless be,
Compared with Christ the apple tree.
His beauty doth all things excel,
By faith I know, but ne’er can tell. (x2)l
The glory which I now can see,
In Jesus Christ, the apple tree.
[Bridge]
For happiness I long have sought,
And pleasures dearly I have bought: (x2)
I missed of all; but now I see
'Tis found in Christ the apple tree.
This fruit doth make my soul to thrive
It keeps my dying faith alive (x2)
Which makes my soul in haste to be
With Jesus Christ, the apple tree. (x3)
About the Composer: Eighteenth-Century Traditional English Carol
“Jesus Christ the Apple Tree” is a poem, presumably intended for use as a carol, written by an unknown poet in the eighteenth century. It has been set to music by a number of composers, including Jeremiah Ingalls (1764–1838) and Elizabeth Poston (1905–1987). The hymn's first known appearance in an American hymnal was in 1784 in Divine Hymns, compiled by Joshua Smith, a lay Baptist minister. The song may be an allusion to the apple tree in Song of Solomon 2:3, which has been interpreted as a metaphor representing Christ. Apple trees were commonly grown in early New England, and there was an old English tradition of wishing health to apple trees on Christmas Eve.
About the Performer:
Bob Bennett (b. 1955) is an American singer, guitarist, and songwriter from Downey, California. Bennett is known for his distinctive baritone voice, Christian lyrics, and folk-inspired guitar playing. He picked up his first guitar at age nine and formed a rock 'n' roll band in high school. He converted to Christianity in the late ’70s, and his songwriting began to reflect his newfound faith. His career was launched with the release of his 1979 folk-style debut recording First Things First. Three years later, Matters of the Heart—a recording CCM Magazine selected as 1982's "Album of the Year"—was released. Bennett has made a total of nine albums, including a Christmas album entitled Christmastide. Bennett’s songs detail not only his joys and victories, but also his disappointments, struggles, and failures. To Bennett, spiritual themes are everywhere—even in the least holy of circumstances. His music and ministry reflect his belief that all lives are intricately woven with the sacred and the human.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Bennett_(singer-songwriter)
https://bobbennett.com/
About the Poetry & Poet:
Francis Joseph Thompson (1859–1907) was an English poet and writer. Initially compelled by family pressure to pursue an education in medicine, by his mid twenties he left that career path to pursue writing. He supported his literary aspirations with day-labor work until his poetry came to the attention of Wilfred and Alice Meynell, who were themselves successful writers and publishers. Suffering with poor health, Thompson died of tuberculosis at the age of forty-seven, by which time he had published three volumes of poetry. Though his poetic career was short and troubled by misfortune, it was greeted with acclaim, attracting the praise of writers like G. K. Chesterton and, later, J.R.R. Tolkien. Thompson’s poem “The Hound of Heaven” was his most famous and was often memorized by children in Christian schools.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Francis-Thompson
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Thompson
About the Devotion Author:
Dr. Natasha Duquette
Academic Dean
Professor of Literature
Our Lady Seat of Wisdom College
Barry’s Bay, Ontario, Canada
Dr. Natasha Duquette is professor of literature at Our Lady Seat of Wisdom College. She serves as the editor-in-chief for The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Romantic-Era Women’s Writing and is the author of 30-Day Journey with Jane Austen (2020). Her monograph Contemplative Poetics in Women’s Writing of the Long Eighteenth Century is forthcoming with Cambridge University Press. She lives with her husband Frederick Duquette in the small village of Killaloe, Ontario, Canada.