Sunday, September 20, 2009

Between Two Comings

"Thou hast smitten me with yearning, O Christ, and by Thy divine love hast Thou changed me. But with Thine immaterial fire, consume my sins and count me worthy to be filled with delight in Thee, that leaping for joy, O Good One, I may magnify Thy two comings."

(A hymn before communion)

Doors open for us today. Through those doors come cups, vessels which give contour to the Blood of God, which carry the Bread of Life. On one side of that portal is an image of She whose "Yes" untied the ancient "No" of Eve, and the "Ear of Wheat which knew no husbandry" which came out of the good land of her sealed, silent soul and chaste body.

On the other we see the glory of the one God and Father, shining in a human face, coming with the eastern clouds, armed both with an imminent blessing for the refinement of His Creation and a New Law which will pierce all hearts, at last lancing the long-festering hatreds within.

(Lord, have mercy)


We who stand between these two images see them not as on a timeline but as arching up together into timelessness with us, for they are happy reflections (chronology be damned) which converge at the Crisis which lifts us up, as well, and upon which He was lifted up. It is in that split Body and spilt Blood that we know Him; the One who came is the Coming One.

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