O Come, All Ye Faithful (Adeste Fidelis), likely written in the mid-eighteenth century, is a triumphal carol that urges us to gather close to Christ for the sole purpose of adoring Him. We are urged to come first to Bethlehem, Christ’s birthplace, where the angels sing in exultation on the happy (Christmas) morning.
Besides the familiar refrains in our hymnals, O Come, All Ye Faithful also includes four verses in Latin that are less well-known. As expected, the shepherds, magi, and angels are each afforded individual verses, but baby Jesus is the focus of two others. The lyrics of each are the following:
We shall see the eternal splendor
Of the Eternal Father, veiled in flesh,
The infant God wrapped in cloths.
May we warm Him, needy and lying on hay,
With our pious embraces:
Who does not love Him who loves us thus?
The last line comes from 1 John 4:10 that says, “This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”
God is love. Because of that, we are loved beyond measure and cared for by a benevolent God who offered His Son in our place. This Christmas season, let us adore Him, and let the love God has lavished upon us spill out of us to others. Let our love become infectious and fill the world with happiness and light.
— Angela Bell
