Today is the second Sunday of Advent, invariably my favorite Sunday every year. This Sunday represents the perfect balance between being squarely in the holiday season while having plenty of time to still enjoy it. More importantly, the theme of the Second Sunday of Advent readings, comfort and hope, resonates with me more than any other theme of the year.
For many years I was cantor at my parish church and on the Second Sunday of Advent, we always sang a good Protestant hymn, “Comfort, Comfort Ye My People.” Here is the first verse
Comfort, comfort ye my people,
Speak ye peace, thus saith our God;
Comfort those who sit in darkness,
Mourning ‘neath their sorrows’ load.
Speak ye to Jerusalem
Of the peace that waits for them;
Tell her that her sins I cover,
And her warfare now is over.
These powerful, dramatic words, coupled with an equally majestic tune spoke to me at a depth that few if any Christmas carols could. As someone who has dedicated most of his professional career to envisioning a different future, the hope for something better coming (every valley shall be exalted) resonates deeply in me, but this isn’t the key reason I love this hymn.
The intitial assurance of comfort; what more could anyone want? Despite our many wants and needs as struggling human beings, at some level we all mainly want to be told, “It’s going to be ok.” This year this message is particularly poignant to us as a people and personally. Collectively we live in a world where we daily see outrages that would seem to be leading to nothing but destruction, and personally (at least for me) we manage lives that often teeter between pretended competency and chaotic panic. We never truly give up the child part of us, wanting to call out to a parent in the night for some assurance that there are not monsters under the bed (though I fear that is no longer true), that despite darkness we are safe, that morning will come. This Sunday and this hymn always have been that voice to me.
Sadly, when I moved to a different parish, they didn’t sing this hymn, and in my subsequent moves I have discovered that we were probably the only Catholic parish in the area that used it. I don’t know if I will ever sing it in church again. So on the Second Sunday of Advent (and frankly other times as well) I sing it by myself.
Maybe we should all sing it.
As always, I welcome your comments .
If you want to hear the melody https://youtu.be/nPJUtHnw0u8
Image: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/57/35/14/573514083deccac8454bb166d1031b3d.jpg
