Tuesday's Trust "How It Was" / "The Death of Death" ~Scott Cairns

Tuesday's Trust

"How It Was" / "The Death of Death"

How It Was

~by Scott Cairns

The earth trembled; its foundations

shook like silt; the sun, chagrined,

fled the scene, and every mundane

element scattered in retreat. The day

became the night: for light could not endure

the image of the Master hanging on a tree.

All creation was astonished, perplexed

and stammering, What new mystery is this?

The Judge is judged, and yet He holds his peace;

the Invisible One is utterly exposed, and yet

is not ashamed; the Incomprehensible is grasped,

and will not turn indignant; the Immensity

is circumscribed, and acquiesces; the absolutely

Unattainable suffers, and yet does not avenge;

the Immortal dies, and utters not a word;

the Celestial is pressed into the earthen grave,

and He endures! What new mystery is this?

The whole creation, I say, was astonished;

but, when our Lord stood up in Hades--

trampling death underfoot, subduing

the strong one, setting every captive free--

then all creation saw clearly that for its sake

the Judge was condemned, et cetera.

For our Lord, even when He deigned

to be born, was condemned in order

that He might show mercy, was bound

that He might loose, was seized

that He might release, suffered

that He might show compassion, died

that He might give life, was laid in the grave

that He might rise, might raise.

******

The Death of Death

~by Scott Cairns

Put fear aside. Now

that He has entered

into death on our behalf,

all who live

no longer die

as men once died.

That ephemeral occasion

has met its utter end.

As seeds cast to the earth, we

will not perish,

but like those seeds

shall rise again—the shroud

of death itself having been

burst to tatters

by love’s immensity.

Poems from

Love's Immensity: Mystics on the Endless Life by Scott Cairns, 2007

"How It Was" pages 9-10.

"The Death of Death" page 14.