FROM THE ARCHIVES: NOR DOTH HE SLEEP:

Miracle on Red Square (Andrew E. Busch, December 2002, Ashbrook Center)

Amid The World's Favorite Christmas Carols are some old standards. A powerful chorus sings "The First Noel," "Oh Come All Ye Faithful," and "Joy to the World," including Isaac Watts' moving stanza "He rules the world with truth and grace/ And makes the nations prove/ The glories of His righteousness/ And wonders of His love." I listen in amazement.

Another choir begins with "Silent Night" and moves on. "God rest ye merry gentlemen," exclaims the baritone soloist with ever so slight an accent, "let nothing you dismay. Remember Christ our Saviour was born on Christmas Day." The chorus launches a beautiful, haunting, minor harmony. I get a lump in my throat.

The baritone continues. "'Fear not then' said the Angel, 'Let nothing you affright; This day is born a Saviour Of a pure virgin bright; To free all those that trust in Him from Satan's power and might.'" My eyes moisten.

"O tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy; o tidings of comfort and joy." I close my eyes. I fear not.

The performers? The latter, the Moscow Boys Choir, the former, the Red Army Chorus. That is to say, the chorus of the army whose purpose for three-quarters of a century was to spread communism, who threatened the free nations of the earth on nearly every continent, whose dearest wish was to put an end to Christmas for all people everywhere. The chorus of an army that for seven decades served a regime that destroyed thousands of churches, murdered tens of thousands of priests, sent millions of believers to the camps. The chorus of an army that, to speak much within compass, was the very representation in military form of "Satan's power and might."

At the end of the road, that power and might crumbled into nothingness. Christmas lived. The Party died; the church survived. Like cathedrals deliberately built over the ruins of pagan temples, the Red Army Chorus sings Christmas carols, and Marx, Lenin, and Stalin rotate in their tombs. God rest ye merry gentlemen.

Makes one downright Whiggish... [originally posted: 2002-12-15]
Posted by oj at December 24, 2011 12:00 AM
Tweet   

Follow @brothersjudd