Originally published at The Catholic Thing
Year in and year out, the weeks of Advent and Christmas are a time for carols. In our home, they begin the day after Thanksgiving. They continue, more or less constantly, through the Baptism of the Lord. We never tire of them. We’re Christmas addicts. Over the past few years though, one particular carol – “God rest ye merry, gentlemen” – has caused an escalating itch in my Santa suit. Kindly note the comma in the carol’s title. Why the comma, and why place it exactly there in the wording? The carol is God rest ye merry, gentlemen. Not God rest ye, merry gentlemen.
Serious questions arise therefrom. Aren’t we “merry” every December already? The retail industry certainly tells us we are, and if not, how to get there. And what does “merry” even mean? After all, this is the carol that claims to offer us “tidings of comfort and joy.” But doesn’t that smack, just a bit, of fraudulent marketing?
Based on empirical data, those two words – comfort and joy – don’t even belong in the same sentence. We live in the most materially advanced culture in history. Even our poor are well-off by half the world’s standards.
