Let him Easter in us
In this Holy Week lockdown, the closing lines (in the image above) from Gerard Manley Hopkins’ magnificent poem The Wreck of the Deutschland have been with me. We are all experiencing a Lent like no other, and we are experiencing some of the fear and anxiety that the disciples felt after Jesus’ crucifixion, wondering what sort of hope it is possible to grasp for.
Hopkins wrote of a horrible shipwreck off the coast of England in 1875 which claimed the lives of many, including five Franciscan nuns bound for the United States. In these closing lines, he prays that God may “easter” (a verb) in us, that God may be, as it were, a kind of daybreak in our darkened souls.
I don’t know about you, but the image of experiencing a darkening in my soul feels just about right under our present circumstances. Hopkins prays that God may be a “crimson-cresseted east,” a brazier that burns crimson-hot amidst our cold. That too is my prayer.
I do not know what will unfold in the coming days and weeks. I am afraid both for the people I love and for the many I know to be truly desperate in these days. I do not believe that an easy answer is in sight.
But I do know the pattern that I have celebrated in Holy week for many years now. The night is darkest before daybreak. And I pray with Hopkins that indeed God will easter in us.
