Oh, blessed be the time
A joyful Christmas to all my readers.
I’ve noted before that one of my favourite carols is Adam lay y-bounden.At the risk of increasing some Protestants’ blood-pressure, here are the words in full:
Adam lay ybounden,
Bounden in a bond;
Four thousand winter
Thought he not too long.
And all was for an apple,
An apple that he took,
As clerkës finden written
In their book.Nor had one apple taken been,
The apple taken been,
Then had never Our Lady
A-been heaven’s queen.
Blessed be the time
That apple taken was.
Therefore we may singen
Deo gratias!
This carol is the Christmas equivalent of the Exsultet’s felix culpa – “O happy fault, O necessary sin of Adam, that gained for us so great a Redeemer.” The primal sin of the Genesis narrative leads to a redemption that goes beyond restoring what was lost.
There are, I believe, various theological speculations from the early mediaeval period on that develop this line of thought quite daringly. The reason that Satan rebelled, according to this way of thinking, is that he saw God lifting up physical bodily humankind above the pure spiritual beings of the angels. Heaven’s royal line would embrace human beings through adoption, and the angels would gain a human Queen. This mariological image should be read as a type for redeemed humanity, rather than an exclusively Marian idea. It typifies in one individual the destiny of humanity in Christ as a royal line and priesthood.
The Christmas story should stretch our theological imaginations. Too often, the way we talk about God’s future for the world and for humanity is simply not ambitious or daring enough. It is too ready to stay at the level of a return to Eden, or to moral perfection. It is too quick to dispose of the material world in favour of some vaguely spiritual destiny. The bold imagination of this carol takes us way beyond that, even for those who dislike its Marian focus. God’s grace to heal and redeem far outweighs human capacity to sin. God’s gift in Christ is about more than God’s gift in creation. At Christmas we do not simply sing about creation restored, but creation transcended.
Oh blessed be the time that apple taken was.
Happy Christmas.
December 24th, 2007 at 8:26 pm
One of my favorites also - the setting by Matthew Larkin (now at the Cathedral in Ottawa) is superb - a modern plainchant. You might hear it in the UK at Selwyn College where my daughter is music director. You are right on with your critique of the too quick responses. I was wrestling with this yesterday and realize that without shame myself I could not know the reality of the shame that our Lord bears with us and us with him. The positive counterfoil is too lovely for words. To fill the frame of the beloved disciple or to know the power of a restored sense such as is implied in all the healing stories and in the resurrection miracles are I think positive analogues and definite removal of those disembodied spiritualites (I like that accidental misspelling - I think I will let it stand) that abound in the cerebral world. Incarnation is full - it is a fire of presence that encompasses all our being. If there is any purity, is is not achieved by our moral sense - important though that is, but by such prevenient grace as inhabits our whole body - individual and assembly altogether.
December 24th, 2007 at 8:47 pm
Thanks for this Doug. Being a mere Baptist, I was unaware of this carol till I heard it on a Mediaeval Baebes (sp?) album. I must admit I’ve always been torn in my view of it. The Marian focus does stretch me in areas I don’t particularly want to be stretched, but the whole ‘felix culpa’ idea is fascinating and has often set me wondering while on a journey plugged into my MP3 player. Thanks for writing here and giving some shape to my rather aimless mental meanderings.
September 17th, 2008 at 6:47 pm
We did this song for our church Medieval banquet that we had on our weekend retreat. Amazing song!