A RESURRECTION - OUR GREAT HOPE

One of Gerard Manley Hopkins' most magnificent poems captures the thought of the resurrection as our great hope.

That Nature is a Heraclitean Fire and of the Comfort of the Resurrection

In a flash, at a trumpet crash,
I am all at once what Christ is, since he was what I am, and
This Jack, joke, poor potsherd, patch, matchwood, immortal
diamond, is immortal diamond.

These are only the final four lines of this 300-plus word poem. But what lines these are. The world is not junk to be discarded at some future time. It has been redeemed and visited by the incarnate Christ. And I am to be, indeed I am, an immortal diamond. Rarely have I found language that so encourages me to know I am loved and redeemed. I am a joke but I am also an “immortal diamond.”

Source: Adapted from http://johnharmstrong.typepad.com/john_h_armstrong_/2009/12/gerald-manley-hopkins-and-the-new-heavens-and-new-earth.html 

Photo credit: Intellimon Ltd.