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A more silent night
Can we muster the spirit of Austria’s Joseph Mohr and Franz Xaver Grubber, who succeeded in transforming a disastrous Christmas mass in 1818 into the birth of one of the world’s most famous Christmas songs?
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Shoppers, some wearing face masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19, walk past stalls at a Christmas market in central London on Dec. 18. The United Kingdom reported 93,045 new coronavirus cases on Friday, a third consecutive record daily tally, as the Omicron variant fueled a surge in infections across the country. (AFP/Tolga Akmen)
T
his Christmas Eve, whatever your beliefs, perhaps we can take some inspiration from the story behind the enduring Christmas carol “Silent Night” amid the global terror of the Omicron variant. Tonight will be a holy night for many, but it may also be an anxious night as COVID-19 continues to haunt us.
Silent night, holy night,
All is calm, all is bright,
Round yon virgin mother and Child,
Holy Infant so tender and mild,
Sleep in heavenly peace,
Sleep in heavenly peace.
Can we muster the spirit of Austria’s Joseph Mohr and Franz Xaver Grubber, who succeeded in transforming a disastrous Christmas mass in 1818 into the birth of one of the world’s most famous Christmas songs?
Young priest Mohr asked organist Grubber to compose a new carol based on his “Silent Night” lyrics after the church organ was damaged by flooding. He believed debuting the song would be a perfect replacement for the faulty organ.
Can we, individually or collectively, find the blessing in disguise in the COVID-19 crisis, as the two great Austrians did with their conundrum 203 years ago?
The Omicron variant has dashed hopes that the world would be able to enjoy Christmas as normal this year, one year after Christians were forced by an earlier surge of the pandemic to stay at home over the holiday. The new variant has forced many countries to impose tight restrictions and lockdowns amid a fresh global panic.
Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus Christ, had decked its halls to welcome the return of thousands of pilgrims, whose spending was much awaited by cash-strapped hotels, transportation operators and souvenir shop owners. The state of Israel, which controls all the borders of the occupied West Bank, which includes Bethlehem, decided to close its doors to the outside world, meaning that no pilgrims will be able to celebrate Christmas this year in the Holy Land. Tonight will be a trying night for Bethlehem.
Indonesia has been classified as a low-risk country for COVID-19 transmission since November, after suffering a massive wave of the virus in July. There was a sense of euphoria among people who felt the government had been able to overcome the crisis in a relatively short time. The government even began planning to administer booster shots in January, especially in the heavily populated islands of Java and Bali.
Many Indonesian Christians, a minority in the predominantly Muslim nation, began to plan to be home for Christmas, with many feeling optimistic that the virus would be under control. Hotels, malls and restaurants were busy offering “merry Christmas celebrations”.
Alongside these preparations was the perennial debate over whether Muslims should be allowed to wish their Christian friends “Merry Christmas”. Some Muslims fear that by saying the two words, they could be implicitly recognizing Jesus as God, a heresy in Islam. There is no end to this debate as it involves differences of interpretation of scripture.
Jesus repeatedly told his followers never to be afraid, because “I am with you always, even unto the end of the world”. But millions of people across the globe are, indeed, afraid of the very real threat of the coronavirus. But we can all hold out hope that the world will be able to overcome the pandemic soon so that we can live a much more peaceful life next year and in the ones to follow.
Merry Christmas!
