O come, O come, Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel that mourns in lonely exile here, until the Son of God appear.

As with all things, familiarity breads contempt — and so too with our own Good News!

How often have we sung this familiar tune with images in our head of someone else’s problems — someone else’s exile — in a different time and different place? And how often have we sung it imagining a smiling infant Jesus showing up to warm our hearts and tell us ‘everything will be okay’? Either way, the song’s Good News is either too foreign or too domestic — too far or too near to one’s own heart.