The O Antiphons

With the exception of the Advent wreath with its violet and rose candles, perhaps nothing marks the Advent season more than the first ten notes of the hymn, “O come, O come, Emmanuel.” In Catholic churches around the globe, these notes ring out as the priest processes into the sanctuary during the Mass of the First Sunday of Advent. Most parishes could not imagine Advent without these customary notes resonating from the organ and the lips of the people gathered to worship their God.
 
However, as with many traditional prayers and hymns in our liturgical repertoire, “O come, O come, Emmanuel” contains deep historical and theological realities for us to ponder. What is the history of this ancient hymn? What does it teach us about Christ and his coming? Why do we sing this particular hymn during the season of Advent? “O come, O come, Emmanuel” is an ancient hymn, based on the antiphons of Vespers (Evening Prayer) dating from the latter half of the 4th century. These O Antiphons (or Great Antiphons) introduced the praying of the Magnificat, the great spiritual hymn of Mary from the Gospel of Luke (1:46-55) in which she praises God for his wonderful works, especially the salvation of the world which would come through the child she bore within her – Jesus Christ. Each of these antiphons serve to remind us of Old Testament prophecies in which a title is given to the one whom God would send to save the world from sin and death. The titles are full of theological import: Sapientia (Wisdom), Adonai (Lord), Radix (Root), Clavis (Key), Oriens (Dawn), Rex (King), Emmanuel (God with Us). Originally these antiphons were not sung as a hymn, but individually, bracketing the Magnificat, from December 17 (Sapientia) to December 23 (Emmanuel) as a gradual build up to the great Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord. This practice remains in our current practice of the Liturgy of the Hours.
 
December 17 - Sapientia
December 18 - Adonai
December 19 - Radix
December 20 - Clavis
December 21 - Oriens
December 22 - Rex
December 23 - Emmanuel
 
Interestingly, when one takes the first letters of each of these titles, looking at them in reverse order, as they would move further from the feast day of Christmas itself, a Latin phrase appears – ERO CRAS. This phrase, which translated means, “I will be tomorrow,” informs us of the great truth of the Incarnation. Jesus “will be tomorrow” as we celebrate his birth at the Vigil Mass on December 24In later centuries, these antiphons were compiled into a Latin poem or hymn, which would be translated into English in the 19th century by the Anglican John Mason Neale. It is this hymn which Christians continue to proclaim today in the liturgies of the Advent Season.
 
O Sapientia/Wisdom
Wisdom is a divine attribute which has existed before creation (Proverbs 8:22). It is this Wisdom of God, spoken of often in the Old Testament, the Logos (John1:1), his Word, which was made incarnate in Jesus Christ.
 
O Adonai/Lord
Numerous prophecies and covenants are established between God and his chosen people in the Old Testament. Often, in the people’s prayers, they refer to God as Adonai, Lord. It is the same Lord who appears to us in the person of Jesus Christ, who is born of the Virgin Mary, and who offers us salvation by his birth, death and resurrection.
 
O Radix/Root of Jesse
“There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord” (Isaiah 11:1-3). Jesus fulfills this prophecy of the coming Messiah who would bring peace to the nations. He would send the Spirit after him to continue to guide his Church until the end of time.
 
O Clavis/Key
The keys to the kingdom of David were an important theme in the Old Testament, for he who held these keys had power over the temple to open and shut, to bind and loose: “And I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David; he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open. And I will fasten him like a peg in a sure place, and he will become a throne of honor to his father’s house” (Is. 22:22-23). Jesus takes to himself these “keys” as he is the new temple, the new focus of worship, and gives them to Peter and the Church (Mt. 16:19) to continue his mission of opening the path of heaven to all believers.
 
O Oriens/Dawn
The rising of the sun has always been a sign of hope, of new life, of a new creation. It was a sign of putting aside the darkness of sin and death, of corruption and war, and beginning again. This can be seen in the prophecy of Malachi as he speaks of the Day of the Lord: “For behold, the day comes, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble; the day that comes shall burn them up, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. But for you who fear my name the sun of righteousness shall rise, with healing in its wings. You shall go forth leaping like calves from the stall. And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act, says the Lord of hosts (Mal. 4:1-3). Jesus is this new dawn, which brings with it a new creation, as can be seen in the prophecy of Zechariah, known as the Benedictus, prayed every morning in the Divine Office: “In the tender compassion of our God, the dawn from on high shall break upon us, to shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death, and to guide our feet into the way of peace (Lk. 1:78-79). Interestingly, Christmas falls around the winter solstice, the time when the daylight begins to overcome the darkness, as the days grow longer and the night shorter. The light of Christ and his conquering of sin and death is even recognized in nature!
 
O Rex/King
The chosen people sought an earthly king to rule over them. God listened and established kings over them – Saul, David, Solomon, etc. However, this kingship was imperfect for two reasons. Firstly, God desired to be their king just as he had been since the time of the Exodus (1Sam. 8). The people, however, desired to have an earthly king to rule over them to be more like other nations. Secondly, a true king would not reign simply over the chosen people but over all nations, as God himself does: “All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord; and all the families of the nations shall worship before him. For dominion belongs to the Lord, and he rules over the nations” (Ps. 22:27-8). In Jesus Christ, both aspects of true kingship come to fruition. He is God who will rule over his people, but he will also rule over all the nations. His death on the cross makes this clear, as he references his kingship in his use of Psalm 22:1: “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me.” The Jewish people surrounding him knew this psalm by heart. They understood it to be a reference to the Messiah who would come to save them by establishing a new kingdom for all nations under the rule of the One God.
 
O Emmanuel/God with us
“Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Emmanuel” (Is. 7:14). This great prophecy of the coming of the Messiah, the Savior of the nations, given by the prophet Isaiah, reaches its fulfilment in Jesus Christ:
 
This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Emmanuel” (which means “God with us”). When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus. (Mt. 1:18-24)
 
The Prologue of the Gospel of John makes this point even clearer: “In the beginning was the Word … and the Word was God … and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth” (Jn. 1:1-14). Jesus Christ, the Word of God, is born of the Virgin Mary to save us from sin and death. This is the great celebration of the Nativity, of Christmas.
 
This ancient hymn prepares us for this day! For he truly is Emmanuel, and Rex, and Oriens, and Clavis, and Radix, and Adonai, and Sapientia. And he will truly be with us tomorrow and every day of our lives.
 
Fr. Nile C. Gross, S.T.L.