Ode to Joy for a Modern Age
Ode to Joy Lyrics
Verse 1
Joyful, joyful, we adore You,
God of glory, Lord of love;
Hearts unfold like flow’rs before You,
Op’ning to the sun above.
Melt the clouds of sin and sadness;
Drive the dark of doubt away;
Giver of immortal gladness,
Fill us with the light of day!
Verse 3
Always giving and forgiving,
Ever blessing, ever blest,
Well-spring of the joy of living,
Ocean-depth of happy rest!
Loving Father, Christ our Brother,
Let Your light upon us shine;
Teach us how to love each other,
Lift us to the joy divine.
Verse 4
Mortals, join the mighty chorus,
Which the morning stars began;
God’s own love is reigning o’er us,
Joining people hand in hand.
Ever singing, march we onward,
Victors in the midst of strife;
Joyful music leads us sunward
In the triumph song of life
There is a song that has become relevant to our present political miasma. It’s a very old traditional song entitled “Ode to Joy.” The one that is listed above is the traditional hymn that has been sung for centuries in Christian churches.
Beethoven has also written an “Ode to Joy.’ He was the brilliant composer who became deaf and couldn’t hear his own beautiful music later in his life…..Yet he wrote an “Ode to Joy.” The irony is always there.
We find the concept of joy to be one where there are pictures of happiness and well-springs of delight abound. Yet joy can come from the depths of despair. I remember never crying more than when I knew my brother was going to recover after a difficult hospital stay. Tears of gladness spontaneously burst from me.
Once, when I was younger, a friend surprised me with a spontaneous birthday party! Tears of joy just welled into my eyes unexpectedly, because it was such a very nice and unexpected thing to do. And there are times when joy just wells up from within. We have moments where we are moved by something another person says to us. Or a play or film can move us to tears. We weep spontaneously when we are moved by joy.
The “Ode to Joy’ is at times paradoxical. When we feel strongly and deeply in someone or something, we may become emotional and our feelings of joy and despair are often intertwined. Such is the case of the past decade-the era of Trumpism in America.
We at times feel great despair and often feel an abundance of joy. It may be a feeling of camaraderie with those who feel as we do. Both sides of the issue can experience the emotions of joyful exhilaration or become mired in the depths of despair.
Which is why “Joy’ as an emotion to campaign upon is a most unusual one. And yet, it seems appropriate in this climate that has been created and has festered for so long.
In the Ode to Joy which I am most familiar with, which is a standard tune sung in Protestant Christian churches, particularly at Christmas and Easter, there is a theme of light that runs throughout the verses. We are told that our joyful adoration can ‘melt the clouds of sin and sadness,’ and to go as far as to ‘drive the dark of doubt away.’
And there is much talk in this era of lightness vs darkness. We heard recently of “Dark MAGA” as opposed to the “Dark Brandon’ theme which was established also on the other side of the spectrum as a playful rejoinder to the darkness of hate and fear.
Yet, there is only one giver of immortal gladness in this song. It is the antidote for all the hatred and darkness we witness on almost a daily basis. It is a God who can fill us with a spiritual core of lightness and faith and love. In another part of the hymn, light continues to play its role-asking Christ to let his light shine down upon us and exhorting him to “Teach us how to love each other.’ And in doing so, it will lift us up, and we will be spiritually enlightened.
And then, in the final song of life, we hear that joyful music is an antidote. With God’s love reigning, we can march forward together hand in hand, even in the midst of strife. And we will go ever onward together, victorious in the song of life. That is the final message of the “Ode to Joy.”
For those of us who feel we have been left hanging and slowly twisting without any clear messaging from either political party or any type of movement or following that has called to us, there is still a light to be found at the end of this dark tunnel of an era in our history. The Ode to Joy can teach us how to pull together.
It’s not an ideal that needs to be colored with rose-tinted glasses. It needs to be a sustainable mindset that acknowledges our past sorrows, gives voice to the present pain, but most of all, paves a way into the future. It should be a future where there is a voice of reason and a world of light that helps to surround and nourish our future generations.
An Ode to Joy is one of the lessons we need to learn. Both sides-ism has no place in our politics. But a Joyful Spirit of co-operation has every place in our future lives as adults and citizens and spiritual beings who must learn to not simply co-exist, but truly to live together.
