Key And Scepter, Conquering Lion

The O Antiphon "O Key of David" in the end leads me away from its imagery. David is a character I could never love who worships a God I could never serve. I spent a long time writing about this trying to find my way to the heart of this antiphon. In the Gospels, even Jesus seems disinterested in his connection to David, a connection that might not even be real. Jesus ism ore concerned with the Christ as Son of Man and Son of God. When I continued to listen to the antiphon what struck me was the other term of royalty, a term deeper than the name of David, Lion of Judah. The Lion of Judah is the righteous king who resists all tyranny, frees prisoners, and sets rights wrong. To the Ethiopians, Christian and otherwise, that legacy was in their homeland, and to Jews, Christians and Rastafarians, the Lion of Judah is present wherever and whenever he is needed and people are willing to let him into their actions and lives.  

O Clavis David, et sceptrum domus Israel;

qui aperis, et nemo claudit;

claudis, et nemo aperit:

veni, et educ vinctum de domo carceris,

sedentem in tenebris, et umbra mortis.

English:

O Key of David and sceptre of the House of Israel;

you open and no one can shut;

you shut and no one can open:

Come and lead the prisoners from the prison house,

those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death.

Judah is the beloved people of God, the holy promised land. And, of course, all people are the people of God when they acknowledge themselves to be. All lands are holy when this holiness is remembered. Of all the antiphons this gave me the most trouble. I wondered what it meant to be a key. Of course keys open and of course the Lion of Judah is releasing prisoners, bounding and unbounding, but I looked up the word clavis, surprised it was actually still in use and not just an old Latin term. The definition gave me something like insight, and something like insight is what Christ as Clavis is supposed to provide.

cla·​vis | \ ˈklāvə̇s, -äv- \

plural claves\ -​ˌvēz \ or clavises

Definition of clavis

: a key or glossary serving as an aid to interpretation

On this night when we are waiting for heat and waiting for snow

When the light on the tree is not yet the light of reason

The monks are singing

Oh key of david, or key…

The sound is sweet, but david means nothing to me

And I am not done with churches

Clavis like clavicle, like the key shaped bone I traced

over your chest, locking your heart in the heat of a night

long ago, when snow did fall.

Clavis, a word used two thousand years ago,

that I don’t know the sense of then, but do now

I don’t understand, I don’t understand…

Why you left

Why you’re still here

And long I must wait

I don’t understand

Anything

To know, and then to love, and to love when we don’t know

Teach us to understand,

Interpret on this cold night for me

The breastbone of eternity