29 Dec Legacy of Light, a Poem on Christian Marriage
By the horns of the altar,
As the throne of the Christ stands
Flanked by twin cherubs,
Before the eyes of the Lord,
Before the eyes of His Church,
In the gaze of each brother and sister,
Brother and sister in Christ,
The pledge of ages, older than time,
Finds purchase in the soul
When spoke aloud
In the witness of all,
For fidelity and certainty.
The fires of a marriage indeed
Wrap communities in its warmth,
For no greater bond than this shall stand
As the cord of all living men and women
Bound together in its proper ends;
Who but God has written its laws,
For it reflects the perfections of our God
As the author of genuine matrimony.
Hear, O children of men:
The God of the Trinity blesses us
And regards our low estate,
Presenting us gifts of mercy
And holy treasures of grace
To become righteous ourselves,
Induct children into the Church,
Perfect their communities, and
Love without end;
Christ dwells within us,
Purifying us within,
Granting us new strengths
To carry our cross in nobility;
Sealed by the Holy Spirit
Who guides us over the abyss
And rains eternal blessings,
Precious fruits distinct in flavor,
Upon those who ask of Him;
The Father in Heaven sees
The covenant forged in His name,
Seeing that it is good, very good,
Ratifies it in the blood of His Son,
Which burns as a crucible
In which He delivers what is two
And bonds into the one;
The trumpets of angels
Herald this in one hope,
Yes, one profession of faith,
One desire, one discipline,
One,
No, not dissimilar in kind
From the One God of Israel!
Shine this light upon your children,
For as the winter blossoms
Pave the way for spring,
And the cedars of the north
Keep safe the birds
In the heights of their branches,
So the unbroken bond of marriage
Fills new life with faith
As that which overflows,
The rivers fill the seas
With their ever-flowing waters;
Teach this to your new generation,
To love the Lord
And love each other;
Heed the Word of God,
Witness the Sacrifice of Mass,
Pray in solemnity without ceasing,
Become a vessel for everlasting charity,
Exercise just cause,
Open their petals in resplendent spirit,
Reconcile with the Lord,
Sin not,
Receive with all eagerness the grace of God,
And to teach these things,
As you have to them.
Might this beauty delicate
Touching the very heavens
Be desired by which darkness seeps
In the universe, in ourselves,
Dripping, dripping, dripping
Stains of red on the white canvas
Should the face of God fade
From this glory-great portrait
Designed by His hands.
I, made for you;
You, made for me;
Fragments of purpose
Drifting in sunset seas;
Equals before God,
United in body
As a braided cord made strong,
As soft winds changing seasons,
As cosmic powers
Longing for the lights of the other,
Made for each other
In a splendid dance
To the divine orchestra.
The smoke of Hell covets it,
As man forms a bridge between
Spirit and body,
So binds two together
To form a greater whole,
And such as ordained
Drafts envy in the enemy,
Falling embers which ignite
Deeper pyres for vain glories
Cobbled in false favor
By the enemy
Who sought once to destroy man
And together,
Inflicted us with our curse.
This the dominating heart,
The power-longing tongue,
The eyes darkened in envy,
Surety of a stranger,
Hatreds black-burning,
Cleave into pieces its union,
Victims of that regime despotic,
Sin and its kindred.
Fruitless toils for scraps of bread,
Fruitfulness descends with pain above pain,
Lust lays its grasping tendrils upon us,
Struggling to drag us underneath.
Though discord dwells in man and woman,
Shall none see the union hold fast,
Lest the face of God appear in glory
In moments dark and hopeless,
That even the tainted perfections
Should be made perfect in His sight?
O mercies upon mercies,
Like treasures precious held
In vaults quite impregnable
And of foreign gems and stones
And golden lights like leaves
Moving in autumn-dancing flocks
Over fields of roses the Lord has tended
And intends for us in every way,
That we witness in our love
And giving of self till death
To feed that flame of longsuffering
Yes, that longsuffering love
Which no waters could ever quench,
And no storms shall ever extinguish.
This His commandment
Before all days and all nights
To rule the earth as ambassadors of spirit
To the lowliness of creatures therein
As its stewards, kings, and priests,
These highest of responsibilities
Encrusted on the crown’s fading cast
These words of inexorable joy:
“Be fruitful, and multiply.”
Like every grain of sand in the hourglass,
Like the sands of the wilderness,
Like every covenant of God,
Two simple hearts join in union before the Almighty One,
Showering good upon these,
A doorway for life and spirit to enter the earth.
This act of exclusivity,
Consummate in perpetuity,
Enriches the grains of life
Flowering full and plenty;
Only when its proper end
Through its creative means
Opens its petals to fruitfulness
Not merely its pleasures,
That only in the bond of marriage,
For this act of self-giving,
Not in purpose perverse,
Devoid of its fecundity,
Robbed of its richness in love,
For some end besides the other,
None of these shall be found
In the eyes of the Lord our God;
Never to shut the gates themselves
To the life-giving act,
In hopeful fidelity,
In strength and grace
This union persists;
Only extant in these
Should these heavenly promises
Fall as mere graces
Upon these He loves.
Communion of forms blend
Through the consummate act,
Higher than creatures of earth;
Not a dance of dust
Nor parade of lusts,
Rather to invoke as prayer
Safety and mercy through God;
As the man was given his helper,
His support, his joy,
Man receives again his helper,
His support, his joy,
His kin in sincerity,
Where lust cannot pass
And chastity reigns supreme
That they might grow wise,
Growing in age and love,
Till death do they part,
Alive in mercy,
Such that gratitude abounds
Enriched in mirth,
Forever and ever.
See this as the fruit of marriage:
Fruitfulness;
The gift of children as a gift,
Not as a right,
Not as a burden,
Not as a necessity,
Merely the ends of which these means
Secure its purpose through God.
How else should man create,
Only to share in this continuing work
For all of Creation,
Enriched in the soul
For these appropriate whims
Aligned in will by the Great Surveyor,
Who allots yet never divides.
The New Covenant,
As the cup of divine mercy,
Pours itself into these
Ancient of matrimonies,
Folding into Heaven itself
This proper exercise of love,
Sexuality, fecundity,
Into something beyond flesh,
Yes, in spirit, in soul,
Willed to perfection
By the sacrifice on the cross
Thus these baptisms afford
To the mortal man and woman
The sacrifice to eternity,
The grace of the Almighty
Through His promised blessings.
As the Lamb weds His Church
And all of her clergy, her parish
Who lift their hands over the earth
Beulah, the nuptial bands threaded
Beulah, the nuptial bands threaded
And weaved from the rack
Spun in the blood of covenant
That man offered God
And God offered man
Each Himself and himself
For the everlasting everlasting,
O bond of binding.
In the forming of two rays of sunbeams
Gently swimming together
As twin rivers sourced by twin golden suns
The perfection of matrimony sways not in eternity
For indeed, God forged it with His own hands.
The Lamb opens the seven seals
And after the trumpets blow
And salvation has been delivered,
He sits at His own wedding-feast
In His glory and power,
As was in the beginning
With the casting of man from dust
And woman from his own flesh,
In the complement of whims
And in the depths of a stirring spirit.
Indeed, Christ has no other Church
And His Church no other Bridegroom,
Awash in the waters of the nuptial bath
As a coursing river floods our souls
And we bury ourselves for Christ
And raised pristine
For the Lord has prepared Himself
To love us as dearly we may;
We share the wedding-feast,
The Body and Blood of Christ,
And rejoice in the Spirit
For our Betrothed has no equal,
The One divine, the One we love.
At the wedding-feast Himself
The Lord approves indeed
What transpired at Cana,
For He crafted from threads of nothing
Perfection, perfection, perfection,
A sign of the love for oneself
In the giving of self for self
And cleansing the way for man
To be authentic and true in all,
The call of the Lamb
As a trumpet
Bleats out its song of redemption
For the man, his weakness,
For the man, his weakness,
For the woman, her disobedience,
In eternal banquet
Each becomes:
The man, her rock,
The woman, his joy,
Both for each other
And neither for no one;
Now the flesh that God
Has blended, smoothed over,
In spirit and lowly dust,
None have the power to rip apart,
Never a man to find a tear,
Lest the Lord had not put it together.
A mystery sealed in parchment-parcel,
Unfurled in the golden-great lights of the Son
Whose death unfurls the perfection of His grace
Upon a history of all men and women,
Adorned in diadems of the New Covenant
That rule over a domain their own
Made righteous by the Lord God.
No laws etched on stone or penned to paper
Compare to the Lord in His infinite majesty
Inscribing the laws of marriage into our very hearts
With the inks of our own emotions and intellect;
Its permanence as binding to us
As our God to His all-eternities.
Before ever passing through the gate
Between Never-Was and Is-For-Now
We are seized for our greatest occupation
This vocation of fragile dignity
And subtle godliness,
This which bears the face of God
And His handiwork speaks to us
Its dimensions refracts our lights
Spinning as stars in lovely circuits
And radiates, unfailing,
Unflinching, unfurling
The great good touching the breadth of God.
What profit for man and woman
Should eternity entail,
That they fear the lifelong,
The always, the never-ends,
For they fear the Lord and too
Love Him so dearly,
And the yoke of matrimony
Guides us to greenest pastures
And stillest waters,
Cool and nourishing
To the bones and spirit,
And all our life
Has been borne as fruit —
Indeed, the fruit of the cross —
For the sole purpose
We love one another
In grace, in retrospect,
In circumstance abound,
In prudent preparation
For all life as a fool for Christ.
We become one flesh
My love, one flesh,
Spotless. reconciled,
And together joined in Christ
Through His Body and Blood
One person, one body,
Distinct in spirit but wills aligned,
I the foundations in the eye,
You its ever-glistening light,
And together we see the glory,
Yes, every glory of the Father,
And by the one in His place
He bears witness to us,
Sealed with the Spirit,
Forever and ever.
The great dignity of the Holy Spirit has spoken through prophets,
And hovers over the waters of baptism of the wed;
They lay down their life for one another,
And have died,
And been renewed for the resurrection,
Fulfilling each other at their coming together in flesh,
The flow of their blood
Marks the covenant
In every tear and every kiss,
Like fire raining down from heaven,
Reciprocal passion in unbroken days
Come like bolts of lightning
And winds made fierce by its intensity,
Yes, intensity of love,
Perfect by sapphire-cold graces
For those who love only,
Only for the sake of the other.
The mystery of light perseveres
When the man takes his wife
Professing his love in death to his desires,
Confessing his burning dreams
Locked in his mind
That they never depart from the other
Holding above all earthly things
This love, this love under the heavens
Which broaches it underneath
For what afflictions could pursue him
Than to cleave his mind from hers,
Than to lose his joy, his love,
His maiden, his matron,
His master, his bride?
Lovely chains constrict
But never too much
Hearts bound to the other,
Moving together always,
Never impeded nor slowed
By bindings of foreign order,
For to love is to liberate
And never restrict,
For no tender tethers hold
Lacking the will
As the will unites first
Then the spirit,
Then the flesh,
All into perfection,
All into reality.
Softened from stone to flesh,
Each heart receives
Instruction by the one who stands
In the place of Christ,
Who serves as His vicar,
To deliver the grace of wisdom,
All ageless understanding,
For the discretion necessary
To secure the bonds of faith
And unite intellect and will
To form a union of spirit
And brand the soul forever
With the mark of prudence
As was given Solomon
As a gift in ancient days.
The practice of marriage
Indeed, the exercise of love,
The routine of passing light
Oscillating,
Without shadow,
Without spot,
As domestic chastity
Permeates the light,
Filtering not its blades
But perfecting them
As stained glass
Illuminates the image
Of some holy spectacle.
Of some holy spectacle.
Shared salvation
In the body of the Church
For fidelity of Christ
And fidelity to one another
Breathes true confession,
Witness to sanctity,
Where no sundered spirit
Shall remain extant,
Shall survive the tempest
That besets the nations
Lest consecration comes
By the waves of cleansing
In the open heart of Christ
As thorns pierce Him
And flows out to unbelief
Making white the red
And taking away the scales
Which cover the eyes
And still the tongues
Yet to profess
So the blossoms of faith
In bountiful gardens
Arranged roses and lilies
Awaiting the Lord,
Yes, they all await the Lord.
As one loves the living God,
In perpetuity,
In exclusivity,
One loves only their one
Forever;
Emboldened,
Consecrated,
Sanctified,
Pacified,
Galvanized,
Encouraged,
Fulfilled,
Glorified
For this blessed sacrament.
As God becomes witness,
What He speaks is everlasting,
Surety for matrimony
And sealed by His grace
Such that never a rain
Washes away its mark,
Nor time, nor iniquity,
Nor new commandment
Dissolves the holy,
Holy breath of union;
None, even the Lord,
Will loose these bonds
For the Lord has spoken.
As light freely gives itself
In the glory of the powers of heaven
Without reservation,
Having no restraint,
This exudes the love in marriage,
Freely giving, mutual giving,
Always giving.
Definitive love,
Unconditional,
Reassured infinitely,
For the sake of the covenant,
For the sake of their seed
Requires in totality
All of oneself
For all of one’s life,
In totality,
In utter completeness,
For the sake of the covenant,
For the sake of their seed.
What soil dissolves in summer,
What days shall the sun never shine,
What flowers refuse to blossom,
What clouds shall not bring rain,
What direction carries no wind,
What year shall the moon not renew,
What skies forbid their stars,
What waves shall not break on the shore,
What marriage shall not last for a lifetime?
Let not the sulfur of Hell
Boil away matrimony,
Neither the finger of evil
Part the seas of union
As infidelity to the covenant
Requires blood,
And eternal judgment
As witness to transgressions
In unrepentant deliverance,
That neither reconciliation
Nor truth, this greatest love
Pains the flesh and spirit
For the soul torments both
In the violation of the will
As the Temple of God
Cannot be created new,
Only rebuilt.
This church of family
Opens its doors to all,
Hospitality and sacrifice
Mark the home of Christ,
So all who live in charity
Or poverty in spirit
Come in their need
To those families blessed
Ready to give
As readily given to each other
Laden with graces,
For all ages,
For every dominion.
This the legacy of light,
An order above in truth,
The wayward stars align
And calamity of waves subside,
The bride walks toward her husband
Obedient and chaste,
Her husband waits before the Lord,
Strong and faithful,
No tragedy for the Christian marriage
For a perfect union as one
Embodies the final mystery
That the Trinity conveys,
These persons as one,
For all of time,
An image of our God
Who blesses us with this gift
As a covenant of mercy
Forever, indeed,
Forever and ever.