Merry Christmas!!! The Carol:
On the fifth day of Christmas my true love sent to me:
Five Gold Rings
Four Calling Birds
Three French Hens
Two Turtle Doves, and
A Partridge in a Pear tree
Today is the 5th celebratory day of the Octave* of Christmas and the Feast of Saint Thomas Becket, bishop and martyr for Christ.
He became Lord Chancellor of England under King Henry II in 1155, and in 1162 Archbishop of Canterbury, and he used his episcopal office to campaign for the freedom of the Church; which resulted in his imprisonment, exile, and finally martyrdom for treason to his sovereign (December 29, 1170).
The website of the United States' White House has this to say, today, on the 850th anniversary of his death (excerpts):
Proclamation on 850th Anniversary of the Martyrdom of Saint Thomas Becket | The White House
Today is the 850th anniversary of the martyrdom of Saint Thomas Becket on December 29, 1170. Thomas Becket was a statesman, a scholar, a chancellor, a priest, an archbishop, and a lion of religious liberty.
Before the Magna Carta was drafted, before the right to free exercise of religion was enshrined as America’s first freedom in our glorious Constitution, Thomas gave his life so that, as he said, “the Church will attain liberty and peace.”
The son of a London sheriff and once described as “a low‑born clerk” by the King who had him killed, Thomas Becket rose to become the leader of the church in England. When the crown attempted to encroach upon the affairs of the house of God through the Constitutions of Clarendon, Thomas refused to sign the offending document. When the furious King Henry II threatened to hold him in contempt of royal authority and questioned why this “poor and humble” priest would dare defy him, Archbishop Becket responded “God is the supreme ruler, above Kings” and “we ought to obey God rather than men.”
Thomas Becket’s martyrdom changed the course of history. It eventually brought about numerous constitutional limitations on the power of the state over the Church across the West. In England, Becket’s murder led to the Magna Carta’s declaration 45 years later that: “[T]he English church shall be free, and shall have its rights undiminished and its liberties unimpaired.”
When the Archbishop refused to allow the King to interfere in the affairs of the Church, Thomas Becket stood at the intersection of church and state. That stand, after centuries of state-sponsored religious oppression and religious wars throughout Europe, eventually led to the establishment of religious liberty in the New World. It is because of great men like Thomas Becket that the first American President George Washington could proclaim more than 600 years later that, in the United States, “All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship” and that “it is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people, that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights.”
On this day, we celebrate and revere Thomas Becket’s courageous stand for religious liberty and we reaffirm our call to end religious persecution worldwide.
Before the Magna Carta was drafted, before the right to free exercise of religion was enshrined as America’s first freedom in our glorious Constitution, Thomas gave his life so that, as he said, “the Church will attain liberty and peace.”
The son of a London sheriff and once described as “a low‑born clerk” by the King who had him killed, Thomas Becket rose to become the leader of the church in England. When the crown attempted to encroach upon the affairs of the house of God through the Constitutions of Clarendon, Thomas refused to sign the offending document. When the furious King Henry II threatened to hold him in contempt of royal authority and questioned why this “poor and humble” priest would dare defy him, Archbishop Becket responded “God is the supreme ruler, above Kings” and “we ought to obey God rather than men.”
Thomas Becket’s martyrdom changed the course of history. It eventually brought about numerous constitutional limitations on the power of the state over the Church across the West. In England, Becket’s murder led to the Magna Carta’s declaration 45 years later that: “[T]he English church shall be free, and shall have its rights undiminished and its liberties unimpaired.”
When the Archbishop refused to allow the King to interfere in the affairs of the Church, Thomas Becket stood at the intersection of church and state. That stand, after centuries of state-sponsored religious oppression and religious wars throughout Europe, eventually led to the establishment of religious liberty in the New World. It is because of great men like Thomas Becket that the first American President George Washington could proclaim more than 600 years later that, in the United States, “All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship” and that “it is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people, that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights.”
On this day, we celebrate and revere Thomas Becket’s courageous stand for religious liberty and we reaffirm our call to end religious persecution worldwide.
The season of Christmastide as a whole - in most ecclesiastical traditions - lasts until Twelfth Night (5th January) on the feast of the Epiphany, when decorations and tree are traditionally taken down.
(*An Octave is a period of eight days wherein a feast of the Church is celebrated for that whole period as though it were all the same day. e.g. some of the prayers and antiphons this morning at Mass say, “Today is born our saviour, Christ the Lord.”
Jesus, like all Jewish boys, was circumcised by his parents eight days after his birth according to the Torah and he rose from the dead on the eighth day of the week, Sunday. Hence the 'Octave' of eight feasting days of Christmas and also the reason why baptismal fonts are octagonal!
The Octave Day of the Feast of Christmas is January 1st, New Years Day)
Jesus, like all Jewish boys, was circumcised by his parents eight days after his birth according to the Torah and he rose from the dead on the eighth day of the week, Sunday. Hence the 'Octave' of eight feasting days of Christmas and also the reason why baptismal fonts are octagonal!
The Octave Day of the Feast of Christmas is January 1st, New Years Day)
Prayer in honour of St. Thomas Becket
Lord God,
who gave grace to your servant Thomas Becket
to put aside all earthly fear
and be faithful even to death:
grant that we, disregarding worldly esteem,
may fight all wrong, uphold your rule,
and serve you to our life's end;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.
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