Sunday, January 20, 2013

Christ II, part IX (finished)

Thus here on the ground the Eternal Child of God
jumps leaping across the lofty hillsides,
mindful over the mountains. So we humans must
leap our hearts in jumps through our thoughts—
from power to power, aspiring to glories—
so that we may climb up to the highest roof
with our holy works, where there is hope and bliss,
the notable throng of teeming servants.
There is a great need for us to seek our salvation
with our hearts, where we eagerly believe
with our spirits, that the Son of Health will rise upwards
with our body-home from here, the Living God. (744-55)

Therefore we must always renounce empty lusts,
the wounds of sin, and celebrate the better part.
We should keep the Father as our comfort,
almighty in the heavens. He dispatches his heralds
holy from the heights from there to here,
and they shield us against the showers of hideous arrows,
sent by scathers, lest the devils work our wounding
when the crime-bearer sends forth bitter missiles
into the people of God from his braided bow.
Therefore we must always hold watch fixedly
and warily against the devil’s distant shots,
lest the poisonous point should sink in
under the bone-locks, a bitter war-missile,
the sudden trap of our foes—
and that would be a perilous injury, a most ghastly wound. (756-71a)

Let us shelter ourselves then, so long as we keep
a home on this earth—let us entreat the Father
for peace, beg the Child of God and the Blissful Spirit
to shield us against the weapons of the harmers,
the hateful deceiving devices. He who gave us life,
limbs, body, and soul. Eternal praise be to him
all glory in heaven, world without end. (771b-78)

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