One of my favorite Christmas Carols is “Good King Wenceslaus.”
The good king looked out his window on the feast of Stephen, that is, on the day after Christmas. The moon shone brightly; a clear sky means a very cold night. The king saw a man gathering fuel to heat his home and inquired who the man was. The king’s page answers that the peasant lives “a good league hence.” A league is somewhere between two and a half and four and a half miles, a long way to go to forage for firewood.
The king responds by having his page gather meat and wine and firewood. He doesn’t sent them out to the man but tells his page that they will take them to the man’s house.
When the page says he can go no further because of the wind and cold, the king tells him to follow behind him, using the king as shelter.
The carol concludes: “Ye who now will bless the poor, shall yourselves find blessing.” Not just at Christmas, but especially when Christmas has passed.
No comments:
Post a Comment