Seven Stanzas at Easter <\/i><\/p>\n
By John Updike<\/i><\/p>\n
<\/i><\/p>\n
Make no mistake: if He rose at all<\/i><\/p>\n
It was as His body;<\/i><\/p>\n
If the cell\u2019s dissolution did not reverse, the molecules<\/i><\/p>\n
reknit, the amino acids rekindle,<\/i><\/p>\n
the Church will fall.<\/i><\/p>\n
<\/i><\/p>\n
It was not as the flowers,<\/i><\/p>\n
Each soft Spring recurrent;<\/i><\/p>\n
It was not as His Spirit in the mouths and fuddled<\/i><\/p>\n
eyes of the eleven apostles;<\/i><\/p>\n
It was as His flesh; ours.<\/i><\/p>\n
<\/i><\/p>\n
The same hinged thumbs and toes<\/i><\/p>\n
The same valved heart<\/i><\/p>\n
That-pierced-died, withered, paused, and then<\/i><\/p>\n
Regathered out of enduring Might<\/i><\/p>\n
New strength to enclose.<\/i><\/p>\n
<\/i><\/p>\n
Let us not mock God with metaphor,<\/i><\/p>\n
Analogy, sidestepping, transcendence;<\/i><\/p>\n
Making of the event a parable, a sign painted in the<\/i><\/p>\n
Faded credulity of earlier ages:<\/i><\/p>\n
Let us walk through the door.<\/i><\/p>\n
<\/i><\/p>\n
The stone is rolled back, not papier-mach\u00e9,<\/i><\/p>\n
Not a stone in a story,<\/i><\/p>\n
But the vast rock of materiality that in the slow<\/i><\/p>\n
grinding of time will eclipse for each of us<\/i><\/p>\n
The wide light of day.<\/i><\/p>\n
<\/i><\/p>\n
And if we have an angel at the tomb,<\/i><\/p>\n
Make it a real angel,<\/i><\/p>\n
Weighty with Max Planck\u2019s quanta, vivid with hair,<\/i><\/p>\n
Opaque in the dawn light, robed in real linen<\/i><\/p>\n
Spun on a definite loom.<\/i><\/p>\n
<\/i><\/p>\n
Let us not seek to make it less monstrous,<\/i><\/p>\n
For our own convenience, our own sense of beauty,<\/i><\/p>\n
Lest, awakened in one unthinkable hour, we are<\/i><\/p>\n
Embarrassed by the miracle,<\/i><\/p>\n
And crushed by remonstrance.<\/i><\/p>\n
<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Seven Stanzas at Easter By John Updike Make no mistake: if He rose at all It was as His body; If the cell\u2019s dissolution did not reverse, the molecules reknit, the amino acids rekindle, the Church will fall. It … Continue reading