A Poem for Easter.

[elisi]

Seven Stanzas at Easter
John Updike

Make no mistake: if He rose at all

it was as His body;

if the cells’ dissolution did not reverse, the molecules

reknit, the amino acids rekindle,

the Church will fall

It was not as the flowers,

each soft Spring recurrent;

it was not as His Spirit in the mouths and fuddled

eyes of the eleven apostles;

it was as His flesh: ours.

The same hinged thumbs and toes,

the same valved heart

that–pierced–died, withered, paused, and then

regathered out of enduring Might

new strength to enclose.

Let us not mock God with metaphor,

analogy, sidestepping transcendence;

making of the event a parable, a sign painted in the

faded credulity of earlier ages:

let us walk through the door.

The stone is rolled back, not papier-mâché,

not a stone in a story,

but the vast rock of materiality that in the slow

grinding of time will eclipse for each of us

the wide light of day.

And if we will have an angel at the tomb,

make it a real angel,

weighty with Max Planck’s quanta, vivid with hair,

opaque in the dawn light, robed in real linen

spun on a definite loom.
Let us not seek to make it less monstrous,

for our own convenience, our own sense of beauty,

lest, awakened in one unthinkable hour, we are

embarrassed by the miracle,

and crushed by remonstrance.

Comments

[zanthinegirl.livejournal.com]

I like that a lot. Hadn't seen it before; but wow! Talk about powerful!

[elisi]

I got it from Andrew Sullivan, and it was just really struck a chord.

[ladyelleth.livejournal.com]

I'm wavering somewhere between agnosticism and atheism (or agnostic atheism), but found this very powerful all the same. Thank you for sharing.

[elisi]

My pleasure. I read it, and needed to share... Am glad it also resonates with people of no faith (as it were - am too tired to formulate stuff properly.)

[adoxerella.livejournal.com]

I liked that a lot, especially the use of the imagery of science to evoke the feeling of awe and power. Thanks for sharing this with us.

[elisi]

I couldn't not share... Especially because it marries faith and science, shows that you can't disregard the latter.

[jennylayne.livejournal.com]

This is really beautiful, thank you.

[elisi]

My pleasure. :)

[gamiila.livejournal.com]

And for the first time ever I find myself wishing there were a Like-button on LJ...

[elisi]

:)

(Your icon works just fine! As the equivalent of a like button, I mean.)