St. Ephraim the Syrian (306-373 A.D.) is a Father of the
Church and since 1920, has been honoured as a Doctor of the Church. He is well
known for having composed numerous hymns, poems and sermons in verse. Among his
hymns are those on the Nativity of Christ. The following is an excerpt from the
first of Ephraim’s Nativity hymns, which I have modified from Rev. J. B. Morris’
English translation by putting it in an AA-BB rhyming scheme.[1]
The following excerpt from “Hymn I” of “Hymns on the
Nativity” is fitting for this time of Advent, as it explicates the longing and
desire that preceded Christ’s First Coming as an infant in "swaddling clothes". From this perspective
we can interpret the entire period of Salvation History before Christ’s
Incarnation and birth, as the original and centuries-long Advent. A period in
which the holy ones of God longed to see the day of Christ’s emergence from the
heavens and from the womb.
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| Triunfo del Cristianismo, Gustave Dore, 1866. |
Even today, this season of Advent, which is nearing it’s
close, remains a season of desire. A season of longing. A season of hope. Yet
not of a kind of wishful hope – hoping for something that might come.
But a sure and firm hope, built on Certitude Itself – Jesus Christ. Thus in
this preparatory period preceding Christmas Day – the Nativity of Christ – we are
being called as the prophets and holy ones of old were called: to rekindle the
flame of our desire, and the thirst of our longing, for the coming of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Who in His First Coming has come to us in the flesh already. Who in
His Third and Intermediary Coming, as St. Bernard so speaks, comes to us today,
through the heart that prays, and through the Eucharist in Mass and Adoration.
And who in His Second and Final Coming will come to us tomorrow – exactly when,
we do not know; when He comes in glory on the clouds with all the angels and
saints, to separate the sheep from the goats, and to raise the bodies of all –
the just to everlasting life, and the wicked to everlasting fire.
In view of our Lord’s Second Coming our whole life is
thus an Advent season. An Advent in which we are called to wait and yearn with
hearts filled with desire and blazing with love, like ready brides whose lamps
are filled and lit, for the Coming that was, is, and shall be. A Coming – Adventus
– which in all its facets we may participate through our faith here and now. Even
as did those of old who through their longing to see Jesus the Messiah, tasted
the good Presence of Him for whom they pined.
From Hymn I of Hymns On the Nativity
From thy
treasure-house put forth, Lord, from the coffers of Thy Writing,
names of righteous men of old,
who looked to see Thy coming!
Seth who was
in Abel’s stead shadowed out the Son as slain,
by Whose death was dulled the
envy brought into the world by Cain.
Noah saw the
sons of God, saints that sudden waxed quite godless,
and the Holy Son he sought, whom
turned men's lewdness into holiness.
The
brothers twain, that covered Noah, saw He who came to hide –
the Son of God – the nakedness
of Adam, who was drunk with pride.
Shem and
Japhet, being gracious, looked for the gracious Son,
Who to set free Canaan from the
servitude of sin should come.
Melchizedek
expected Him; as vicegerent, looked that he might see
the Priesthood’s Lord whose
hyssop cleans the world in purity.
Lot beheld
the Sodomites how they perverted nature:
for nature’s Lord he looked who
gave His grace through human vesture.
Him Aaron
looked for, for he saw that if his rod ate serpents up,
His cross would devour the
Serpent that had eaten Adam and Eve as sup.
Moses saw the
uplifted serpent that the bite of asps had cured,
And so he looked to see Him
who’d heal the wound that ancient fangs on Adam’s hand secured.
Moses saw
that he himself alone from God retained the illumining,
and he looked for Him who came
and multiplied gods by His teaching.
Caleb the spy
bore the cluster on the staff, and came and longed to see the Cluster,
Whose wine would restore the
world with all the comfort He could muster.
Him did Jesus
son of Nun so long, that he might conceive the force of his own surname:
for if by His name he waxed so
mighty, how much more would He surpass such fame?
This Jesus
that gathered and carried, and brought with him the fruit in store,
was longing for the Tree of Life
to taste the Fruit that quickens all.
For Him Rahab
too was looking; for when the scarlet thread from window hung,
which in type redeemed her from
wrath, the Truth in type she tasted on her tongue.
For Him
Elijah longed, and when on earth he saw Him not,
he, through faith most thoroughly
cleansed, mounted up in heaven to see the Sole-Begot.
Moses saw Him
and Elijah; the meek man from the depth ascended,
the zealous from on high
descended, and in the midst beheld the Son – the Splendid.
They figured
the mystery of His Advent: Moses a type of the dead,
and Elijah a type of the living,
that fly to meet Him at His coming as He hath said.
For the dead
that have tasted death, them He makes to be the first:
and the rest that are not buried,
are last caught up to meet Him in sacred mirth.
Who is there
that can count me up the just that looked for the Son,
whose number cannot be
determined by us weak creatures – this unknown sum?
Pray ye for
me, O beloved, that another time with strength endued,
I in another legend may so set
forth their foretaste, as I am able to.
Who is
adequate to the praising of the Son of the Truth that to us has risen?
For it was for Him the righteous
longed, that in their generation they might see Him.
Adam looked
for Him, for He's the Lord of the Cherub that guarded behind the flaming
knife,
Who could minister an entrance
and a residence hard by the branches of the Tree of Life.
Abel longed
after Him, that in his days He might come, the One foretold;
that instead of that lamb he
offered, the Lamb of God he might behold.
For Him Eve
also looked; for women’s nakedness was sore, and He capable to clothe them;
not with leaves, but with that
same glory that they had exchanged away in Eden.
The tower
that the many builded, in mystery looked for One,
Who coming down would build on
earth a tower reaching heaven’s sun.
Yea the ark
of living creatures looked in a type for our Lord dear;
for He should build the Holy
Church, wherein souls find a refuge free from fear.
In Peleg’s
days earth was divided into tongues, threescore and ten.
For Him Who by the tongues, to
His Apostles divided earth to them.
Earth which
the flood had swallowed up, in silence cried to her Lord.
He came down and opened Baptism,
and men were drawn on Ark aboard.
Surnamed as
sons of God were Seth and Enos, and also Cainan,
for the Son of God they looked,
that they by grace might be His brethren.
But little
short of a thousand years did Methuselah breathe:
He looked for the Son Who makes
heirs of life that never leaves!
Grace itself
in hidden mystery was beseeching on their behalf
that their Lord might come in
their age and fill up their empty flasks.
For the Holy
Spirit in them, in their stead, besought with meditation: up them stirred;
and in Him did they look on that
Redeemer, after whom they longed – the Word.
The souls of
just men perceive in the Son a Medicine of life; and so they felt desires
that He might come in their own
days, and quench with sweetness their ardent fires.
Enoch was
longing for Him, and since on earth the Son he did not see,
he was justified by great faith,
and mounted up in Heaven to Him to see.
Who is there
that will spurn at grace, when the Gift that they of old
gained not by so much labour, comes
to us now like freely given gold?
For Him
Lamech also looked who might come and lovingly give Him quiet rest
from his labour and the toiling
of his hands, and from the earth the Just One cursed unblest.
Lamech then
beheld his son, Noah – him, in whom were figured types relating to the Son.
In the stead of the Lord afar off,
the type at hand afforded quiet in patience done.
Yea Noah also
longed to see Him, the taste of whose assisting graces he had tasted.
For if the type of Him preserved
living things, how sure He was upon souls to bestow life elated!
Noah longed
for Him, by trial knowing Him, for through Him had the ark been established.
For if the type of Him thus
saved life, assuredly much more would He in person all life assist.
Abraham perceived
in Spirit that the Son’s birth was far away;
instead of Him in person he rejoiced
to see even His day.
To see Him
Isaac longed, as having tasted the taste of His redemption on the rock;
for if the sign of Him so gave
life, much more would He by the reality unlock.
Joyous were
today the Watchers, that the Wakeful came to wake us!
Who would pass this night in
slumber, in which all the world was watching thus?
[1]
For Morris’ original English translation of which this is a modified version,
see Ephraim Syrus, “Hymns on the Nativity,” in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second
Series, Phillip Schaff and Henry Wace, eds. (Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers
Marketing, 2012), 13:224-225.
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