An Iowa priest used the Christmas Eve service to debut a song he says he wrote for this Christmas season in 2020. It was about — you guessed it — the COVID vaccine.
He opened his homily by saying that a “great hope has arisen in our midst, a great light in our darkness.” He was inspired to write a short song in honor of the occasion.
Here are the lyrics to his remix of “Oh, Holy Night.”
“Oh, happy night.
The year is almost over.
It is the night of our dear Savior’s birth.
For months lay the world in Coronavirus pining.
Til vaccine appeared and we all felt (inaudible).
The thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices.
For soon will break a new and glorious day.
Roll up your sleeve, make bare your upper arm.
Oh day, sublime, oh day when COVID ends.
Oh day, sublime, oh day, oh day when COVID ends.”
The priest said the Coronavirus has and continues to preoccupy us.
“We gather tonight in its shadow,” he said. “But with the development of vaccine comes a hope that it’ll end in not many more months.”
He says the virus and the development of a vaccine to fight it is a “fitting image” for Christmas.
“For the nativity of the Lord, the birth of Christ in human flesh is the arrival of a vaccine that will free us from a virus — the virus of sin and death that afflicts all humanity,” he said.
Later, he notes that we hope the COVID vaccine is “one and done.”
“One shot, or two shots, depending on the vaccine, and that’s sufficient,” he said. “The vaccine of Christ is not.”
Instead, people must make Christ “the vaccine” a part of their everyday life.
You can watch the full homily here.
It begins at the 21:50 mark.
