Le Rédempteur
A brise toute entrave:
La terre est libre et le ciel est ouvert.
Il voit un Frère ou n’était qu’un esclave,
L’amour unit ceux qu’enchainait le fer.
Qui Lui dira notre reconnaissance?
C’est pour nous tous qu’Il nait,
Qu’Il souffre et meurt.
Peuple debout, chante ta délivrance!
Noel! Noel! Chantons le Rédempteur!
Noel! Noel! Chantons le Rédempteur!
The Redeemer has broken every hindrance
The earth is free and the heavens are open
He sees a brother where there was just a slave
Love unites those whom iron enchained
Who will tell Him of our gratitude?
He was born for all of us, that he suffered and died:
People, stand up! Sing your deliverance!
Christmas! Christmas! Let’s sing of the Redeemer.
Christmas! Christmas! Let’s sing of the Redeemer.
Day 3… You may not recognise the words above, being more more familiar with the English words of this popular French Carol, Cantique de Noël (O Holy Night). In English, the third stanza is:
Truly He taught us to love one another;
His law is Love and His gospel is Peace;
Chains shall he break, for the slave is our brother,
And in his name all oppression shall cease,
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful Chorus raise we;
Let all within us praise his Holy name!
Christ is the Lord, then ever! ever praise we!
His pow’r and glory, evermore proclaim!
His pow’r and glory, evermore proclaim!
The third stanza of the original French poem, ‘Minuit, chrétiens’ (Midnight, Christians), is translated on the image above.
Both pack a punch. Which do you prefer?
Despite its recent fame, O Holy Night has quite the back story.
In summary: It was penned in 1847 by the French poet Placide Cappeauit, but was marked controversial shortly afterwards and banned (but expunged fully in 1956); Imported to Canada in 1858 by Ernest Gagnon, then banned in 1936; The American abolitionist, John Sullivan Dwight “translated” it into English in 1855 where it gained popularity (mainly in the North); And finally, on Christmas Eve 1906, Reginald Fessenden spoke into a microphone, transmitting the first wireless radio broadcast, reading the nativity from Luke’s gospel and playing a recital of O Holy Night on his violin.
Fessenden’s unexpected broadcast must have seemed like a miracle to those who heard it; a voice now proclaimed the Saviour’s birth where there was once only short and long beeps.
Melody broke into a world of static.
Ever since Mary, Zechariah, the angelic hosts, and Simeon first sang of this joyful news, the Saviour’s birth has been broadcast through our static world. Whether it’s been heard in the high places, such as cathedrals, or the low places, through the ship radios of 1906, its reception, like O Holy Night, has not always been welcome.
But, as Mary’s own song reminds us, this proclamation is one that upsets the apple cart, unsettling the status quo:
“He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty.” (Luke 1:52-53 NIV)
With the coming of the rightful King, a new song is being sung. For the lovers of the ‘old’, it’s noise. For those who receive its good tidings, it’s miraculous life.
TRISTAN SHERWIN 
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