Atlantic District Publications

Letters from the President - Of the Father’s Love Begotten

December 2, 2008 at 9:19 AM

Around 1600 years ago in Northern Spain, an aging convert to Christianity took up poetry as a way to witness his faith in Christ.  Aurelius Prudentius Clemens penned what has become one of our most long-standing hymns of the incarnation of the Son of God:

“Of the Father’s love begotten, ere the worlds began to be

He is Alpha and Omega, He the source (fons), the ending He.

Of the things that are, that have been, and that future years shall see,

Evermore and evermore.”

Seven hundred years later, chant tones were applied, and the poem became an instant hit!  Imagine that process, from poem to hymn to our contemporary use of this majestic theme in these mixed-up times alongside “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer.”  Imagine with Prudentius the Poet God’s love and love alone bringing forth the One we call Alpha and Omega, and the night  “the babe, the world’s Redeemer, first revealed His sacred face” in a manger in Palestine.

In that imagination we join the Mother of God, Mary “full of grace” as Prudentius puts it, in pondering our individual and human destiny among the spinning worlds.  And is this not a great year to be putting things in proper perspective, dear sisters and brothers in the Atlantic District?  Our worlds of influence, the Metropolitan New York world, our State Capitol region world, are in full shakedown mode.  Things are happening that haven’t happened in twenty-five, or seventy-five, years.  Market shares and mutual funds crumble overnight.  Jobs that seemed secure are deemed in jeopardy.  Freezes and cutbacks loom.  Retirement funds are light by thirty, forty, fifty per cent.  Man, it feels dire out there.  We are in dire straits.

And yet – on the horizon, and in our midst, and in our hearts – there is Hope.  There we feel it, know it, read it, intuit it, share it, understand it more clearly than ever.  Our Alpha and Omega, the One who was and is and is to come, is on the way to meet us where we are in our tumble-down economy bearing and indeed BEING nothing more and nothing less than the Father’s Love made flesh, and our Hope for “future years” to see.  That’s enough for me to begin the day, the year, and the season of Advent with expectation.  And I pray it for you.  Thanks, Aurelius Prudentius Clemens, for being a sixteen hundred year old poet for our times!  The Rich Blessing of the Christ-child to each and all of you, your families of faith and your families this Advent and Christmas-tide.