Kersmis
The Soul's Invitation to the Manger
The soul seeks to find lodging with the Christ child, sanctifying human thoughts through the mystery of the Incarnation.
Even if the inn is full, and even though God's Son lies in the hay, my soul can enter there and wants to spend the night with him.✦ Come, you fleshly human being; fleshly thoughts have merit today.✦1
The Poverty of the King
The humble straw of the manger is contrasted with worldly finery, revealing the source of our true hope and consolation.
Something is crying there in this straw—something that wants to cry for us; beside that, all the empty finery of a queen's childbed is to be counted as straw.2 In this crib lies the One who will, in the fullness of time, fulfill our faithful waiting and scatter all our sorrow.✦3
The Silence of Adoration
The mind contemplates the profound mystery of the Word made flesh, ultimately yielding to humble silence.
God lies there in our flesh; God, fatherless on earth; God, motherless with God; the co-creating Word; God, father of the Virgin who received him and bore him—and now he lies at her feet.✦4 Here it lies, and goes no further. My soul, put an end to these incongruous rhymes; our best speech would be to faint away in humility.5
Read the original Latin
Al is de herbergh voll, al light Gods Soon in 't hoy, Mijn' Ziele mach 'er in, en wilt 'er by vernachten. Kom, vleeschelicke mensch, de vleeschige gedachten Zijn heden van verdienst. Daer schreidt wat in dit stroy, Dat voor ons schreyen will: daer all het ydel moy Van Koninginnen kraem voor stroy is by te achten. Daer licht in dese kribb, dat ons geloovigh wachten Voll-tijdelijk vervull' en all ons leed verstroy. God licht'er in ons vleesch; God, vaderloos op aerde, God, moeder-loos by God; het mede-scheppend woord; God, vader van de Maeght die hem ontfing en baerde, En nu te voete light. Hier light en gaet niet voort, Mijn Ziele, maekt een end van d'ongerijmde Rijmen; Ons beste seggen waer oodmoedelijck beswijmen.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Luke.2.7 — And she gave birth to her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
- ↩John.1.14 — And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only-begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
- ↩Gal.4.4 — But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law,
- ↩John.1.1-John.1.3;Luke.1.31-Luke.1.35 — In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. John.1.2 — He was in the beginning with God. John.1.3 — All things came into being through him, and apart from him not even one thing came into being that has come into being. Luke.1.31 — And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. Luke.1.32 — He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David. Luke.1.33 — And he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end. Luke.1.34 — But Mary said to the angel, "How will this be, since I have not known a man?" Luke.1.35 — And the angel answered her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore also the one to be born will be called Son of God."
Notes
- 1 ↩Paradox of Christmas: because God has taken flesh, thoughts about the flesh (the Incarnation) are meritorious 'today' (on this feast), not worldly or base.
- 2 ↩schreidt is read as schreit (cries/weeps), confirmed by the following schreyen will; not as schrijdt (strides).
- 3 ↩Voll-tijdelijk is rendered as 'in the fullness of time' (biblical echo of the fullness of the times); it can also mean 'fully and in due time.'
- 4 ↩Stacked Incarnation paradoxes: no human father on earth; eternally without a mother as Son of God; Creator of the Virgin who is his mother in time; the infant now lies at her feet.
- 5 ↩ongerijmde Rijmen = rhymes that do not 'rhyme' with reason—the poem's own paradoxes; also a meta-poetic stop: speech fails before the mystery.
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