What “Silent Night” Teaches Us About Responding To Crisis

Two hundred years ago, the carol “Silent Night” premiered as part of a Christmas Eve service in Oberndorf bei Salzburg, a small town in Austria. The lyrics were from a poem written by Joseph Mohr, and the tune was composed by Franz Xaver Gruber. We might never have this famous carol, were it not that during 1818 Christmas season, the town’s St. Nicholas church suffered a small calamity: its organ was not working.

Some actors, who were performing in various town throughout the Austrian Alps, were supposed to re-enact the Bethlehem story from Matthew and Luke at St. Nicholas, but ended up in a private home on December 23, 1818. The assistant pastor Josef Mohr walked home from the performance, and looking out upon the snow-covered vista, he recalled a poem he’d written a few year prior about the angels announcing the birth of Christ to shepherds on a hillside. The next day, Christmas Eve, he found the church organist, Franz Xaver Gruber, and asked him to set the verse to music so that the congregation could sing a new carol that evening. In a matter of a few hours, Gruber composed a simple tune he would play on his guitar. With the organ still out of commission, Gruber played his guitar, and the congregation sang Silent Night for the first time.

Silent night! holy night!
All is calm, all is bright,
‘Round yon virgin mother and Child!
Holy Infant, so tender and mild,
Sleep in heavenly peace,
Sleep in heavenly peace.

Several weeks later, Karl Mauracher came to fix the St. Nicholas organ. Gruber played Silent Night to test the instrument. Mauracher so enjoyed the carol, that he took copies of the song back to his village of Kapfing, where two different singing groups, the Strasser sisters and the Rainers incorporated the song into their repertoires. The Strasser sisters performed across northern Europe. Eventually, King Frederick William IV of Prussia ordered his cathedral choir to sing it every Christmas eve. The Rainers brought the song to the United States, where it was song in German, and in 1863, translated into English. Today, we sing “Silent Night” in more than 300 different languages around the world.

The story of “Silent Night” brings to mind how crisis can often bring about the best outcomes, when you respond with creativity.  The absence of the organ presented a problem for the Christmas Eve service. Josef Mohr wanted something special for his congregation. He didn’t give up. Instead, he had an idea, and promptly sought out someone who could help him create a new song. The immediate outcome was a memorable Christmas Eve service. The lasting impact has been a beloved carol around the world.

Most of us face a crisis at more than one point in our life: a job change, foreclosure, illness, debt, caring for an ailing friend or family member. They are all, in their own way, unexpected and present immediate challenges. They all also offer an opportunity for us to meet them creatively, and to find partners who can help us with our new approach. We never know what the lasting impact of our response will be to large and small crises. We do know that how we live our life and values during times of adversity can deeply change us, those close to us, and even those we may never meet.

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

___________________________________________________________________

I recently learned that it was the 200^th anniversary of “Silent Night” thanks to my parents.  They participated in a “Silent Night Sing-In” at the Philadelphia Kimmel center of nearly 1,000 people, who were lead by John Conahan in the premier of his new arrangement of the well-known carol on December 17, 2018.  WRTI’s Gregg Whiteside hosted the event, and shared the story of the carol, which they then passed on to me.