Advent, AIDS & Hope

Greetings,

Advent:  To Come. 

Awaiting the coming.  The coming of the future.  The coming of the Eternal Christ in Victory. 

The coming of Life.  The coming of Death. 

The coming of my life.  The coming of my death.  The coming, please God, of my eternal life. 

Following some conversations about AIDS, I am still thinking of those I sat with as they died of AIDS.  I am thinking of the life and death that faces all of us.  Advent.  Awaiting the inevitable changes of life.  Many years ago Christina Rossetti (1830-1894), who wrote so many wonderful poems, including In the Bleak Midwinter and Love Came Down at Christmas, wrote this, which I consider to be a wonderful Advent poem.

Passing away, saith the World, passing away:

Chances, beauty and youth, sapped day by day:

Thy life never continueth in one stay.

Is the eye waxen dim, is the dark hair changing to grey

That hath won neither laurel nor bay?

I shall clothe myself in Spring and bud in May:

Thou, root-stricken, shalt not rebuild thy decay

On my bosom for aye.

Then I answered: Yea.

Passing away, saith my Soul, passing away:

With its burden of fear and hope, of labour and play,

Hearken what the past doeth witness and say:

Rust in thy gold, a moth is in thine array,

A canker is in thy bud, thy leaf must decay.

At midnight, at cockcrow, at morning, one certain day

Lo the Bridegroom shall come and shall not delay,

Watch thou and pray.

Then I answered: Yea.

Passing away, saith my God, passing away:

Winter passeth after the long delay:

New grapes on the vine, new figs on the tender spray,

Turtle calleth turtle in Heaven’s May.

Though I tarry, wait for Me, trust Me, watch and pray:

Arise, come away, night is past and lo it is day.

My love, My sister, My spouse, thou shalt hear Me say.

Then I answered: Yea.

Yours & His,

DED