Behold, the Offering in Love’s Undying Flame
consumed!
Christ is risen!
Isaac, wide-eyed, looking on,
remembers well the day he was bound fast
and laid upon the altar
by his father’s trembling and tender hand.
He remembers the flash of the blade above his head
and, out of heaven, the voice:
“Abraham! Abraham! Y have not withheld your son,
ou
your only-begotten son from me!” (cf. Gen 22: 11-12).
“Oh, Father, now I see!
It is as you said:
‘God Himself will provide the Lamb, my son,’
for Christ is risen!”
M
oses,
wakened from his sleep,
shuffles out to see the sight,
brooding, grumbling as he goes.
“After forty years of leading them,
the stiff-necked, fickle, dull-witted lot,
could they not at least let a man retired take his rest!
And why that ringing of bells and tambourines?
Would not a slap of the clapper do?”
Not for a minute, my Lord Moses,
for Christ is risen!
“Could they not have called on Joshua
to see whatever this marvel may be?
I, after all, have seen it all:
the plagues and the parting of the sea,
the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire,
the rush of the waters, the fright of the steeds,
chariots sinking in the mud and Egyptians dead
upon the shore!”
(He does not yet know that —
Christ is risen!)
Then he sees Him whom once he knew,
the Friend with whom he spoke face to Face (cf. Ex
33:11),
the Glory whose trail of splendour
he spied from the cleft of the rock (cf. Ex 33:22),
the Beloved Son who woke him briefly not so long ago
to converse with Him and with Elijah
of another exodus, His! (cf. Lk 28:31).
Christ is risen!
Behold Him now, more beautiful than on the
heights of Thabor!
Then, “His face shone like the sun,
and his garments became white as light” (Mt 17:2),
but now, there are no words to describe him,
for Christ is risen!
H
e comes,
the Lover back from combat,
with shining shards of ruby brightness
slashing through his hands and feet!
“His head is the finest gold;
his locks are wavy, black as a raven” (Ct 5:11),
and across his forehead
a ring of cut diamonds, an incision of stars!
Christ is risen!
“Your Maker is your Husband,
the Lord of Hosts is His Name!”
Christ is risen!
“Fear not, for you will not be ashamed” (Is 54:4),
for Christ is risen!
“I hid my Face from you” (Is 54:8), it is true,
shroud and veil covered me,
a stone, the seal upon my tomb,
but now my Face unveiled would be your feast,
your tabernacle, your paradise.
Christ is risen!
There is but a lattice of hope between us,
or the membrane of a living faith stretched taut
and wholly penetrable to love.
Christ is risen!
I
f you are parched,
come to the waters!
If you have no money, come all the same!
Tonight is the festival of the destitute,
the homecoming of the wanderer,
the hospitality of the heavens thrown open to the
earth!
For Christ is risen!
Tonight there is water in abundance,
for feet and hands and face and head!
A cascade of jewels for the Bride of Christ,
Splashing wetness on the pavement,
bringing a thrill to every thirsting heart,
For Chr