On the Mystery of the Incarnation
Posted by Chris Rice on December 31, 2011
On this final day of 2011, a poem is on my mind as we continue in the time of Christmas. It concerns God’s compassion in the Word made flesh, given “as guest, as brother” to a world where we “shudder to know … the worst our kind can do” (2011 includes the Penn state scandal, shooting of a U.S. Congresswoman, dictator violence in resistance to the Arab spring). I hope the poem is a gift to you as well.
On the Mystery of the Incarnation
It’s when we face for a moment
the worst our kind can do, and shudder to know
the taint in our own selves, that awe
cracks the mind’s shell and enters the heart:
not to a flower, not to a dolphin,
to no innocent form
but to this creature vainly sure
it and no other is god-like, God
(out of compassion for our ugly
failure to evolve) entrusts,
as guest, as brother,
the Word.
~ Denise Levertov
