No, this isn't another column about secularist attacks on Christmas, or why some atheists celebrate Christmas while others attack those atheists who do join in the festivities. Actually, "Christmas without Christ" is the title of a poem by John Henry Newman, written while he was still an Anglican. I hadn't read it or heard of it until today; it is quite timely and timeless despite being addressed to the situation of Newman's homeland in the 1830s:
How can I keep my Christmas feast
In its due festive show,
Reft of the sight of the High Priest
From whom its glories flow?
I hear the tuneful bells around,
The blessèd towers I see;
A stranger on a foreign ground,
They peal a fast for me.
O Britons! now so brave and high,
How will ye weep the day
When Christ in judgment passes by,
And calls the Bride away!
Your Christmas then will lose its mirth,
Your Easter lose its bloom:
Abroad, a scene of strife and dearth;
Within, a cheerless home!
Malta.
December 25, 1832.
Here is the Table of Contents, with links, for Newman's Verses on Various Occasions, which includes the poem above. For an excellent introduction to the prose of Newman, see The Heart of Newman (Ignatius Press; revised edition, 2010).
Comments