Easter
Most glorious Lord of Lyfe! that, on this day,
Didst make Thy triumph over death and sin;
And, having harrowd hell, didst bring away
Captivity thence captive, us to win:
This joyous day, deare Lord, with joy begin;
And grant that we, for whom thou diddest dye,
Being with Thy deare blood clene washt from sin,
May live for ever in felicity!
And that Thy love we weighing worthily,
May likewise love Thee for the same againe;
And for Thy sake, that all lyke deare didst buy,
With love may one another entertayne!
So let us love, deare Love, lyke as we ought,
--Love is the lesson which the Lord us taught.
by Edmund Spenser (1552 - 1599)
[Image:
The Resurrection of Christ by Meister von Hohenfurth, dated c. 1350; Czech National Gallery, Prague; this image is in the public domain; source:
Wikimedia Commons]
7 comments:
In this years Easter homely, Pope Benedict said thus: “Life would make no sense if humanity was just a random product of evolution. It was wrong to think that a species capable of rational thought had evolved by chance in a tiny corner of the Universe”.
Does the Pope mean that rational thought could not have originated in Africa and therefore he finds it more plausible to believe the story of couple of random people created in another corner of the Universe? The evidence is overwhelming that humans evolved, and further that their ancestry is traced to Africa.
Alelluia!He is risen indeed!!
A very happy Easter, RS, and my goodness, I'm looking forward to your report of that Blogmeet in Rome!
@ Dorothy and diddleymaz
Thank you!
He is risen! Alleluia!
@ Anonymous
No, it does not mean what you have wrongly interpreted it to mean.
The tiny corner of the Universe is Earth, not just Africa (even if, as some would suggest, man first came from that continent). He also meant that rational thought evolved not as some random act, but did so for a purpose, an eternal purpose - and was therefore willed into being by Reason itself. Man is created in the image of God, and therefore has reason and intelligence, through which we can respond to Him and know Him. He willed our reason, so that we may be like Him.
The Church finds nothing contradictory in her teaching and the theory of evolution. Though sees the process not as random, but as guided. Not for nothing, but for a purpose.
Wishing you Easter Greetings of an Allelulia without end.
@ Anne
Alleluia!
THank you, Anne. May you be filled to overflowing with Easter joy!
Alleluia!
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