Kretzmann, O.P.

English

ValpoScholar

Valparaiso University
ValpoScholar
O.P. Kretzmann Collection University Archives & Special Collections
12-22-1940
Radio Address: From Heaven Above (Church of
the Air), 1940
O.P. Kretzmann
Valparaiso University
Follow this and additional works at: https://scholar.valpo.edu/kretzmann_collection
Part of the Christianity Commons
This Collection Record is brought to you for free and open access by the University Archives & Special Collections at ValpoScholar. It has been
accepted for inclusion in O.P. Kretzmann Collection by an authorized administrator of ValpoScholar. For more information, please contact a
ValpoScholar staff member at scholar@valpo.edu.
Recommended Citation
Kretzmann, O.P., "Radio Address: From Heaven Above (Church of the Air), 1940" (1940). O.P. Kretzmann Collection. 2.
https://scholar.valpo.edu/kretzmann_collection/2
FROM HEAVM ABOVE
ADDRESS ON THE "CiHURCH OF THE AIR"
Sunday, December 22, 1940
To the Members of Valparaiso University, who heard many
of these thoughts in a series of Chapel Addresses during
the Season of Advent 1940, this Address is affectionately
dedicated,
0, P, Kretzmann
Undoubtedly there are few men and women in the Christian v/orld this
morning who are not aware of the deep tragedy and profound irony of Christmas
in the Year of our 'Lord 1940. As the song of the angels, "Peace on Earth",
rings out once more, there are members of the human family who can find momen
tary peace only in bombshelters under the earth. Perhaps never in the long
and wayward story of man has the day of the Nativity of our Lord dawned upon
a world which needed it more bitterly and more desperately. It is 1900 years
now since the last act in the world's great drama of redemption was ushered
in by the trumpets of heaven and the massed choir of angels. The manger be
came the cradle of all the fair hopes that the hearts of men had ever known
and a messenger of eternity closed all the yesterdays and opened all the to
morrows with the shining words: "Glory to God in the highest: and on earth
peace, good will toward men," This morning we are once more standing near
that silent and holy night in which the frail hands of a baby divided the his
tory of the world, finally and forever, into before and after. Certainly for
us who walk so far down the ways of time there is immediate and desperate need
to return to the Manger, to tear away the blurred bitterness of the years, and
to find once more_an old faith and a new joy. Much has happened these 1900
years since the first Christmas, Sin has followed sin, woe has been added to
woe,^and ages of cruelty and unbelief lie between us and the Manger-cradle under
singing skies4 Today the story is more forgotten than ever - forgotten by the
men who believe in the philosophy of power - forgotten by those who find for-
ptfulness in the lust for gold and the cult of the gutter - forgotten by count
ess men and women who have lost the faith of Christmas in the mad winds of
the world's confusion and pain. Surely it is time for us to pause for a moment
in the treadmill of living to sea again what the angels saw and to hear again
what the shepherds^heard more than 1900 years ago. By the providence of God
we may still hear itj by the mercy of God we may perhaps alsfi' believe it,
TOiat after all is the meaning of Christmas for life in 1940? Is the
story of Christmas only a fairy tale, woven of the hearts of men and spun bv
their broken dreams? Is it merely the story of a Baby, tender and beautiful,
iragrant with old memories and surrounded by the wonder of childhood? Or is
It the gray legend of the birth of a dreamhaunted wanderer far from the ways
of men who gave to the world a set of ideals and of moral challenges which ithas never been able to touph? If this were all the meaning of Christmas, we
- 2 -
might today just as well he preparing for the celahration of the birth of Buddha,
Confucius, or Abraham Lincoln, The meaning of Christmas for life and living
in 1940 and in all the years before us is far deeper and higher than that.
It sounds in the first blessed note of the voice of the angel, "Unto you is
born this day a Savior which is Christ the Lord", echoes in the words of the
Child in the manger grovn to manhood, "For God so loved the vrorld that He gave"
His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish but
have everlasting life", and rises at last through envy and hate and fear and
all the ten thousand sins which have drawn the heartblood of the world - rises
at last to the vision of the King of men on the throne of the Cross pouring
out His blood as a ransom for many. You cannot believe in the Manger and re
fuse to believe in the Cross, If Christmas does not mean the birth of a Savior
' frcan sin - then in the name of God let us at least be consistentl Let the
world and the Church make a party for the Christchild, inviting Puck and Peter
Pan and Tiny Tim and dear old Santa Claus, and blending all into a weird and
blasted hamony with the song of angels long ago. Christmas means more than
that. It is a glimpse of heaven on earth, of the haunting pity of God for the
lost children of men, Chris'bmas is a fact - the fact of God's love for every
Yirandering soul that has lost the way home, Christmas is a faith - the faith
of every rede'emed human soul that has seen the shadow of the Cross fall on the
face of the Baby in the manger and heard beneath the song of the angels the
triumphant cry of the redeemed of God,
I am dominated by the conviction that only this moaning of Christmas
can bring it into more than a temporary and sentimental relation with life in
1940, Today vre knor/, as we have not knoYJn before, that all our talk about good
v/ill toward men, if it is not a reflection of the Christmas love which came
from heaven, results only as it did on Christmas Day in the fields of France
in 1917 - in a momentary comradeship in the no-man's land of hatred and fear,
Christmas should bring nevr life to the sorrowing heart of the viforld - life,
full, free, abundant and brave. One v/hose eyes opened in Bethlehem and closed
on Calvary saw life that way and gave us the power to see it too. Years of
shadow and night may lie between you and that meaning of Christmas, but today
I should like more than anything else to set it in the lonely places of your
soul. The story of Christmas is the final wisdom of God "vdiich alone can give
your life meaning and holiness and purpose and peace. In a vrorld torn by war -
in a world in vdiich so many hearts are broken and alone, we must know again
that for the life that has once v/orshipped at the manger in the faith of the
shepherds no hope is too higih, no dream is too holy to bo fulfilled - not even
the ancient hope and dream of "peace on earth, good will toward men."
Ours is a dark and dying world. This morning men are more bewildered
than they have been for many a year. But perhaps it is just the wistful rest
lessness of the modern soul, so fearfully astray in its own life, which makes
a return to the divine meaning of Christmas the most desperate need of our dark
time. We may not always be able to put it into words, but we knov/ it in our
hearts as wo knov/ nothing else. By the bitter logic of time and circumstance
we have learned that no lavY, no diplomacy, and no device invented by the wit
of man, can free us from the law of the jungle, hoal our broken lives, and
bring them into harmony once more with the melodies of God's ovm eternal
Christmas, How in 1940 there must be some voice from Heaven Above to toll
3 -
us that our brief, brokon, mortal life has immortal meaning - some song to stir
the old forgotten memories of the soul - someone to toll us hov/ to live, hov;
to die, and how to bo happy despite the tramp of all the heavy years. And that
voice comes today as it has come for nineteen centuries of bitter hate and fear
ful malice from Heaven Above, dovm from the great halls of eternity, ^ through
the mist and tears of time; "I am come that they might have life and have it
more abundantly," This is the abundant life which men seek with such passionate
quest today - even though they may not knovif it, A life of faith in the Christ
of the manger and the Cross - life, rich, overflowing and unending'. This is
the life that moves like an army overriding death. This is the life v/hich was
brought back into the world on Christmas morning 1900 years ago. This is the
life that comes from Heaven and returns to Heaven,
Can Christmas in the Year of our Lord 1940 really mean that for you
and for mo? I truly believe that it can. Few generations in the history of
humanity have sought life and its last meaning with more passionate earnest
ness, We have found small, broken fragments of it in the laboratory. We have
tasted its ashes in the wine of pleasure. We have seen its shell in the con
quest of nature. But for many of our generation the last groat discovery still
remains - the discovery that, by the pov^or of the Spirit of the Living God,
life can be more than man have made of it - more than an unceasing round of
toil, and labor - moro than a strange interlude betvraon nowhere and nothing.
If Christmas comes to you this year as our Lord wants it to come, I can promise
you that it will make you a master of life and time and death - a victorious
conquering soul for whom the Child in the manger has become the Everlasting
Arm and the Great Companion, the Captain of your destiny, and the Master of
your soul. This is what Christmas can mean for you even today. Its songs
come from the heart of otei-nity with healing for your weary life, heartsick
and homesick for the Christmas of God, Give the Child of Bothlehem time and
room - and you will know at long last the glory of a life which is its own
pledge and prophecy of eternity,
A few days ago I hoard a child say a Christmas prayer. It is a sim
ple prayer - simple with the simplicity of God and of faith. Is it not time
for us this morning to tear away our masks of indifforonce and sophistication
now so ragged and so torn, and join the little children of the world - thoso
who are still nearest to the Kingdom of Heaven - in a prayer which I am very
sure, will givo you a continuing and a holy Christmas:
Ahl doarost Jesus, holy Child,
Make Thee a bod, soft, undefiled.
Within my heart, that it may bo
A quiet chamber - kept for Theo,
Supplication for Peace
0 God from whom all holy desires, all good counsels, and
all just works do proceed; Give unto Thy servants that
peace which the world cannot give; that our hearts may
bo set to obey Thy commandments, and also that by Theo,
we being defended froiTi the fear of our enemies, may pass
our time in rest and quietness; through the merits of
Jesus Christ our Saviour,"


Radio Address: From Heaven Above (Church of the Air), 1940

Valparaiso University

Valparaiso UniversityValpoScholarO.P. Kretzmann Collection University Archives & Special Collections12-22-1940Radio Address: From Heaven Above (Church ofthe Air), 1940O.P. KretzmannValparaiso UniversityFollow this and additional works at: https://scholar.valpo.edu/kretzmann_collectionPart of the Christianity CommonsThis Collection Record is brought to you for free and open access by the University Archives & Special Collections at ValpoScholar. It has beenaccepted for inclusion in O.P. Kretzmann Collection by an authorized administrator of ValpoScholar. For more information, please contact aValpoScholar staff member at scholar@valpo.edu.Recommended CitationKretzmann, O.P., "Radio Address: From Heaven Above (Church of the Air), 1940" (1940). O.P. Kretzmann Collection. 2.https://scholar.valpo.edu/kretzmann_collection/2FROM HEAVM ABOVEADDRESS ON THE "CiHURCH OF THE AIR"Sunday, December 22, 1940To the Members of Valparaiso University, who heard manyof these thoughts in a series of Chapel Addresses duringthe Season of Advent 1940, this Address is affectionatelydedicated,0, P, KretzmannUndoubtedly there are few men and women in the Christian v/orld thismorning who are not aware of the deep tragedy and profound irony of Christmasin the Year of our 'Lord 1940. As the song of the angels, "Peace on Earth",rings out once more, there are members of the human family who can find momentary peace only in bombshelters under the earth. Perhaps never in the longand wayward story of man has the day of the Nativity of our Lord dawned upona world which needed it more bitterly and more desperately. It is 1900 yearsnow since the last act in the world's great drama of redemption was usheredin by the trumpets of heaven and the massed choir of angels. The manger became the cradle of all the fair hopes that the hearts of men had ever knownand a messenger of eternity closed all the yesterdays and opened all the tomorrows with the shining words: "Glory to God in the highest: and on earthpeace, good will toward men," This morning we are once more standing nearthat silent and holy night in which the frail hands of a baby divided the history of the world, finally and forever, into before and after. Certainly forus who walk so far down the ways of time there is immediate and desperate needto return to the Manger, to tear away the blurred bitterness of the years, andto find once more_an old faith and a new joy. Much has happened these 1900years since the first Christmas, Sin has followed sin, woe has been added towoe,^and ages of cruelty and unbelief lie between us and the Manger-cradle undersinging skies4 Today the story is more forgotten than ever - forgotten by themen who believe in the philosophy of power - forgotten by those who find for-ptfulness in the lust for gold and the cult of the gutter - forgotten by countess men and women who have lost the faith of Christmas in the mad winds ofthe world's confusion and pain. Surely it is time for us to pause for a momentin the treadmill of living to sea again what the angels saw and to hear againwhat the shepherds^heard more than 1900 years ago. By the providence of Godwe may still hear itj by the mercy of God we may perhaps alsfi' believe it,TOiat after all is the meaning of Christmas for life in 1940? Is thestory of Christmas only a fairy tale, woven of the hearts of men and spun bvtheir broken dreams? Is it merely the story of a Baby, tender and beautiful,iragrant with old memories and surrounded by the wonder of childhood? Or isIt the gray legend of the birth of a dreamhaunted wanderer far from the waysof men who gave to the world a set of ideals and of moral challenges which ithas never been able to touph? If this were all the meaning of Christmas, we- 2 -might today just as well he preparing for the celahration of the birth of Buddha,Confucius, or Abraham Lincoln, The meaning of Christmas for life and livingin 1940 and in all the years before us is far deeper and higher than that.It sounds in the first blessed note of the voice of the angel, "Unto you isborn this day a Savior which is Christ the Lord", echoes in the words of theChild in the manger grovn to manhood, "For God so loved the vrorld that He gave"His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish buthave everlasting life", and rises at last through envy and hate and fear andall the ten thousand sins which have drawn the heartblood of the world - risesat last to the vision of the King of men on the throne of the Cross pouringout His blood as a ransom for many. You cannot believe in the Manger and refuse to believe in the Cross, If Christmas does not mean the birth of a Savior' frcan sin - then in the name of God let us at least be consistentl Let theworld and the Church make a party for the Christchild, inviting Puck and PeterPan and Tiny Tim and dear old Santa Claus, and blending all into a weird andblasted hamony with the song of angels long ago. Christmas means more thanthat. It is a glimpse of heaven on earth, of the haunting pity of God for thelost children of men, Chris'bmas is a fact - the fact of God's love for everyYirandering soul that has lost the way home, Christmas is a faith - the faithof every rede'emed human soul that has seen the shadow of the Cross fall on theface of the Baby in the manger and heard beneath the song of the angels thetriumphant cry of the redeemed of God,I am dominated by the conviction that only this moaning of Christmascan bring it into more than a temporary and sentimental relation with life in1940, Today vre knor/, as we have not knoYJn before, that all our talk about goodv/ill toward men, if it is not a reflection of the Christmas love which camefrom heaven, results only as it did on Christmas Day in the fields of Francein 1917 - in a momentary comradeship in the no-man's land of hatred and fear,Christmas should bring nevr life to the sorrowing heart of the viforld - life,full, free, abundant and brave. One v/hose eyes opened in Bethlehem and closedon Calvary saw life that way and gave us the power to see it too. Years ofshadow and night may lie between you and that meaning of Christmas, but todayI should like more than anything else to set it in the lonely places of yoursoul. The story of Christmas is the final wisdom of God "vdiich alone can giveyour life meaning and holiness and purpose and peace. In a vrorld torn by war -in a world in vdiich so many hearts are broken and alone, we must know againthat for the life that has once v/orshipped at the manger in the faith of theshepherds no hope is too higih, no dream is too holy to bo fulfilled - not eventhe ancient hope and dream of "peace on earth, good will toward men."Ours is a dark and dying world. This morning men are more bewilderedthan they have been for many a year. But perhaps it is just the wistful restlessness of the modern soul, so fearfully astray in its own life, which makesa return to the divine meaning of Christmas the most desperate need of our darktime. We may not always be able to put it into words, but we knov/ it in ourhearts as wo knov/ nothing else. By the bitter logic of time and circumstancewe have learned that no lavY, no diplomacy, and no device invented by the witof man, can free us from the law of the jungle, hoal our broken lives, andbring them into harmony once more with the melodies of God's ovm eternalChristmas, How in 1940 there must be some voice from Heaven Above to toll3 -us that our brief, brokon, mortal life has immortal meaning - some song to stirthe old forgotten memories of the soul - someone to toll us hov/ to live, hov;to die, and how to bo happy despite the tramp of all the heavy years. And thatvoice comes today as it has come for nineteen centuries of bitter hate and fearful malice from Heaven Above, dovm from the great halls of eternity, ^ throughthe mist and tears of time; "I am come that they might have life and have itmore abundantly," This is the abundant life which men seek with such passionatequest today - even though they may not knovif it, A life of faith in the Christof the manger and the Cross - life, rich, overflowing and unending'. This isthe life that moves like an army overriding death. This is the life v/hich wasbrought back into the world on Christmas morning 1900 years ago. This is thelife that comes from Heaven and returns to Heaven,Can Christmas in the Year of our Lord 1940 really mean that for youand for mo? I truly believe that it can. Few generations in the history ofhumanity have sought life and its last meaning with more passionate earnestness, We have found small, broken fragments of it in the laboratory. We havetasted its ashes in the wine of pleasure. We have seen its shell in the conquest of nature. But for many of our generation the last groat discovery stillremains - the discovery that, by the pov^or of the Spirit of the Living God,life can be more than man have made of it - more than an unceasing round oftoil, and labor - moro than a strange interlude betvraon nowhere and nothing.If Christmas comes to you this year as our Lord wants it to come, I can promiseyou that it will make you a master of life and time and death - a victoriousconquering soul for whom the Child in the manger has become the EverlastingArm and the Great Companion, the Captain of your destiny, and the Master ofyour soul. This is what Christmas can mean for you even today. Its songscome from the heart of otei-nity with healing for your weary life, heartsickand homesick for the Christmas of God, Give the Child of Bothlehem time androom - and you will know at long last the glory of a life which is its ownpledge and prophecy of eternity,A few days ago I hoard a child say a Christmas prayer. It is a simple prayer - simple with the simplicity of God and of faith. Is it not timefor us this morning to tear away our masks of indifforonce and sophisticationnow so ragged and so torn, and join the little children of the world - thosowho are still nearest to the Kingdom of Heaven - in a prayer which I am verysure, will givo you a continuing and a holy Christmas:Ahl doarost Jesus, holy Child,Make Thee a bod, soft, undefiled.Within my heart, that it may boA quiet chamber - kept for Theo,Supplication for Peace0 God from whom all holy desires, all good counsels, andall just works do proceed; Give unto Thy servants thatpeace which the world cannot give; that our hearts maybo set to obey Thy commandments, and also that by Theo,we being defended froiTi the fear of our enemies, may passour time in rest and quietness; through the merits ofJesus Christ our Saviour,"

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Radio Address: From Heaven Above (Church of the Air), 1940

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