Chants of the Vatican Graduale - MusicaSacra

46 Christmas Day—Midnight Mass
and mute in His rude manger, is the one great Word spoken by the
heavenly Father before all time, begotten of His own essence. This
Child is equal in greatness, holiness, sublimity, and beauty to the Father
Himself. Dominus dixit ad me—the Lord spoke to Me who now lie
in this manger in the form of man: "Thou art my Son," my Image,
whom I embrace with fatherly affection. Today, on this glorious morn of
eternity, have I begotten Thee. Today My father's love presents Thee
to the world to be its Redeemer and King. That is truly a gaze into
eternity, into the essence of the divinity, into the heart of the heavenly
Father; a view so sublime and exalted that the soul, overcome with wonderment,
bows down in silent adoration. Enraptured it contemplates
the mysterious mutual relationship in the life of the divinity, its eternal
bestowing and receiving, its eternal being and begetting. And this glorious
light of the eternal divine life of joy breaks forth in the dark night
of this world, is made manifest in the weak form of an Infant and shines
from the mild, gentle eyes of the newborn Child as the aurora which
heralds a sun still hidden in a fleecy veil of clouds.
Could such sublime thoughts be sung more worthily, and at the
same time more simply, than is done in this Introit? Just as the eternal
sonship is necessary, just as it is something perfectly evident to God
Himself, so is there likewise an obvious something in this fragrantly
tender song that melts away every last vestige of doubt. An effect is
thus produced which, in the field of the liturgy, would be quite unattainable
by any elaborate tonal effort. (N. Sch. 225 I).
The antiphon consists of two phrases similar in structure and with
the same range of a fifth. They begin with the same motive (Dominus =
ego) and close with the same serene rhythm: d e d c\ c = g f e f\ d. Both
linger on /, and thereby make the song more meditative. The cadence
over meus es tu is frequently found in Introits of the second mode.
The psalm-verse gives us the world's view of this Word of God.
There are men who oppose it, fight against it, persecute it. The child in
the manger can already see the persecution that awaits Him, from that
of Herod to the fateful morning in the court at Jerusalem and up to
Golgotha. But the same verse tells us also: meditdti sunt indnia. All this
raging and fury, all this mad behavior, is futile, like the breaking of a
mighty wave that falls back upon itself. He who sits upon the heavenly
throne derides them. He has set up His Son as King, and gives Him all
the nations of the earth for His inheritance.
At the Gloria in excelsis Deo we shall, with heartfelt joy at the
blessed fact of the Saviour's coming, sing the song which the angels first
intoned during the Holy Night on the fields of Bethlehem.
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