George Frideric Handel’s Messiah
“Why do the nations so furiously rage together, why do the people
imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth rise up, and the rulers take
counsel together against the Lord and against His anointed”
This world-known verse from the Old Testament’s Book of Psalms 2:1-2
was and is one of music’s most enduring masterpieces from the pen of
George Frideric Handel’s oratorio, Messiah, first performed on April 13,
1742 in Dublin’s New Music Hall on Fishamble Street, Ireland.
And who was this Handel? He was the son of a barber-surgeon who
opposed music and forbade his son to study music. So, Handel pursued
a career in law, but after the death of his father, he immersed himself
in music.
Handel was a poor struggling musician, yet he is today remembered
universally because of his gift of music to the world. He was no priest or
pope, he was no bishop or archbishop, but his music,
particularly Messiah, his operas, his dramatic oratorios, cantatas,
church music, chamber and orchestral works are today all top of the
Classical Pop Chart.
Handel tells of the coming of the Counsellor, the Prince of Peace, the
Lord of Hosts, the One foretold by the tongues of the Prophets
thousands of years before Baha’u’llah’s footsteps touched the shores of
‘Akka.
Messiah remains a musical staple, like American apple pie, like
Bermuda’s cassava pie, like our codfish and potatoes. Messiah, or
excerpts from it, is always performed on those grand festive occasions
such as Christmas and Easter.
Clearly, Handel’s musical creations remain indelibly in our memories,
on our minds.
On December 10, the world observed the United Nations Day of Human
Rights. It has been 76 years since the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights was penned in 1948 and 79 years since the founding of the UN
— not to mention its predecessor, the League of Nations, and the
scores of other regional, continental and international peace
organisations — yet conflicts of all kind are spreading throughout our
world, even here in the Americas.
The Baha’í teachings remind us that any act that discriminates or
otherwise restricts the human rights of any person demeans the dignity
of the individuals involved and is contrary to the teachings of God. We
must all come to the recognition that human rights are God-given rights
and that the realisation that humanity comprises one family under one
God brings with it the responsibility to respect and to help each other in
every way.
And so, the Psalmists ask: Why do the nations so furiously rage
together?
A cursory view of our five continents — the Americas, Europe, Africa,
Asia and Australasian — our television screens display, in real time,
devastating, horrific conflicts, conflagration, death and destruction
occurring almost on a daily basis.
In the words of Shoghi Effendi writing in March 1936: “Neither the force
which the framers and guarantors of the peace treaties have mustered,
nor the lofty ideals which originally animated the author of the
Covenant of the League of Nations have proved a sufficient bulwark
against the forces of internal disruption with which a structure so
laboriously contrived had been consistently assailed. Neither the
provisions of the so-called settlement which the victorious powers have
sought to impose, nor the machinery of an institution which America’s
illustrious and far-seeing president [Woodrow Wilson] had conceived,
have proved, either in co-operation or practice, adequate instruments to
ensure the integrity of the order they have striven to establish.”
The following words of Baha’u’llah, the prophet-founder of the Baha’í
Faith are indeed significant as we pause to reflect upon the present
state of a strangely disordered world: “How long will humanity persist
in its waywardness? How long will injustice continue? How long is chaos
and confusion to reign among men? How long will disorder agitate the
face of society? The winds of despair are, alas, blowing from every
direction, and the strife that divides and afflicts the human race is daily
increasing. The signs of impending convulsions and chaos can now be
discerned, inasmuch as the prevailing order appears to be lamentably
defective.”
Handel’s Messiah Part 1
Where and when did we stray from those lofty ideals of the 1945
Charter of the United Nations whose Article 1 states, the purpose of the
United Nations is:
1, To maintain international peace and security, and to that end: to
take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of
threats to the peace, and for the suppression of acts of aggression or
other breaches of the peace, and to bring about by peaceful means,
and in conformity with the principles of justice and international law,
adjustment or settlement of international disputes or situations which
might lead to a breach of the peace
2, To develop friendly relations among nations based on respect for the
principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples, and to take
other appropriate measures to strengthen universal peace
3, To achieve international co-operation in solving international
problems of an economic, social, cultural or humanitarian character,
and in promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for
fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex,
language or religion
4, To be a centre for harmonising actions of nations in the attainment
of these common ends
Three years after the UN Charter, in 1948 the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights came into being:
Article 29 reads:
“Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full
development of his personality is possible.”
5, In the exercise of his right and freedom, everyone shall be subject
only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose
of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of
others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order
and the general welfare in a democratic society
6, These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to
the purposes and principles of the United Nations
Some of the essence and spirit of the 1948 UN Charter of Universal
Declaration of Human Rights is captured in the Bermuda Human Rights
Act as well as in the Bermuda Constitution Order 1968, which came
about as a result of the Bermuda Constitutional Conference held on
November 22, 1966 in Marlborough House, London.
Interestingly there were two minority reports tabled — one by Sir John
W. Cox and H.T. Watlington, and the other by the Progressive Labour
Party’s representatives comprising Walter N.H. Robinson, Lois M.
Browne-Evans and Dorothy F. Thompson. The PLP was formed in 1963
and is Bermuda’s oldest political party. At the time of the Constitutional
Conference, there were no other registered political parties in
Bermuda. The United Bermuda Party was formed after the conference
and before the next General Election pursuant to the new constitution.
Reverting to Handel’s Messiah: “Why do the nations so furiously rage
together?” Baha’u’llah offers the principle of collective security.
Shoghi Effendi’s writing in 1936 states that “a general pact on security
has been the central purpose towards which these efforts have, since
the League was born, tended to convert. The Treaty of Guarantee
which, in the initial stages of its development, its members had
considered and discussed; the debate of the Geneva Protocol, the
discussion of which, at a later period, aroused among the nations, both
within the League and outside it, such fierce controversy; the
subsequent proposal for a United States of Europe and for the
economic unification of that continent; and last but not least the policy
of sanctions initiated by its members, may be regarded as the most
significant landmarks in its chequered history.
“That no less than fifty nations of the world, all members of the League
of Nations, should have, after mature deliberation, recognised and
been led to pronounce their verdict against an act of aggression which
in their judgment has been deliberately committed by one of their
fellow members, one of the foremost powers of Europe; that they
should have, for the most part, agreed to impose collectively sanctions
on the condemned aggressor, and should have succeeded in carrying
out, to a very great measure, their decision, is no doubt an event
without parallel in human history.
“For the first time in the history of humanity, the system of collective
security, foreshadowed by Baha’u’llah and explained by His son,
‘Abdu’l-Bahá, has been seriously envisaged, discussed and tested. For
the first time in history it has been officially recognised and publicly
stated that for the system of collective security to be effectively
established, strength and elasticity are both essential — strength
involving the use of an adequate force to ensure the efficacy of the
proposed system, and elasticity to enable the machinery that has been
devised to meet the legitimate needs and aspirations of its aggrieved
upholders.
“The sovereigns of the world must conclude a binding treaty, and
establish a covenant, the provisions of which shall be sound, inviolable
and definite. They must proclaim it to all the world, and obtain for it the
sanction of all the human race. All the forces of humanity must be
mobilised to insure the stability and permanence of this Most Great
Covenant. The fundamental principle underlying this solemn pact
should be so fixed that if any government later violates any one of its
provision, all the governments on earth should arise to reduce it to
utter submission, nay the human race as a whole should resolve, with
every power at its disposal, to destroy that government.
“There can be no doubt whatever that what has already been
accomplished, significant and unexampled though it is in the history of
mankind, still immeasurably falls short of the essential requirement of
the system which these words foreshadow. The League of Nations, its
opponents will observe, still lacks the universality which is the
prerequisite of abiding success in the efficacious settlement of
international disputes.
“Alas, much suffering will still be required where the contending
nations, creeds, classes and races of mankind are fused in the crucible
of universal affliction, and are forged by the fires of a fierce ordeal into
one organic commonwealth — one vast, unified and harmoniously
functioning system. Adversities unimaginably appalling undreamed of
crises and upheavals, war, famine and pestilence might well combine to
engrave in the soul of an unheeding generation those truths and
principles which it has disdained to recognise and follow. A paralysis
more painful than any it has yet experienced must creep over and
further afflict the fabric of a broken society where it can be rebuilt and
regenerate.”
And in the words of the late Horace Holley, writing in 1955, he stated:
“The destiny of an era is determined by its reception of the Prophets.
When the Word of God is denied, resisted, and effort made to destroy
its potency, man places himself in opposition to God. From that
opposition flows the wars and revolutions which become the
instruments by which a non-believing generation inflicts dire
punishment upon itself.”
Written in the 18th century, inspired by the King James version of the
Bible, Messiah foretells of the coming of the Wonderful Counsellor, the
Prince of Peace, the Glory of God, the Lord of Hosts. “When
Baha’ullah’s footsteps touched the shore of ‘Akka, (August 1868) the
climactic chapter of His ministry began. The Lord of Hosts was
manifested in the Holy Land. His arrival had been presaged through the
tongues of the Prophets thousands of years before. The fulfilment of
that prophecy, however, was not of the result of His own volition but
compelled by His persecution at the hands of His avowed
enemies.” They endeavoured to snuff out the Baha’i Faith from the face
of the Earth.
So, as we began with an excerpt from Messiah, so we end accordingly:
“Blessing and honour and glory and power be unto Him that sitteth
upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.”— Revelation
5:13
• Leighton Rochester is a retired public officer of the Civil Service, having served as a Crown counsel in
the Attorney-General’s Chambers from 1995 to 2012
