Sunday, April 05, 2015

In the Bigending

"No one is witness to the birth of a world. No one knows how the night of that Saturday's hell was transformed into the light of the Easter dawn. Asleep it was that we were all carried on wings over the abyss, and asleep did we receive the grace of Easter....

"And today is your Last Day (your youngest day), the newest, most childlike of days. No other day will ever be as young for you as this today, when Eternal Life has called you by name....

"This Now when our two names have met is my birthday in eternity, and no time shall ever be this Now. Here is where the starting point has been set. Here is creation and a new beginning....

"Through my death this has been spared you, and no one will ever experience what it really means to die: This was my victory. While I was falling and did nothing but fall, the New World was emerging....

"My descent, my vertiginous collapse, my going under (under myself) into everything that was foreign and contrary to God -- down to the underworld: this was the ascent of this world into me, into God. My victory....

"Here the old man is replaced by the new. Here the world dies and another world rises. Here the two eons intersect. Here every ending becomes a beginning....

"But just as the earth rounds itself off into a ball, so, too, do the veins make a return to the Heart and love goes out and comes back eternally. Slowly you will master the rhythm.... the departure and the return are one and the same. Nothing any longer exists outside of this one and only flowing life....

"And so in the end you remain alone, all in you. You are one with yourself, and without losing yourself you pour yourself out into the many. By remaining in the multiplicity of the members, you bring them all home into the unity of the Body..."

(Hans urs von Balthasar, Heart of the World)

11 comments:

USS Ben USN (Ret) said...

Amen. Thanks be to God!

julie said...

I was just reading Heart of the World; seemed just the thing this weekend. We participated in our first Easter Vigil last night. Kids & husband baptized, and I'm officially confirmed.

Life is funny. And very, very good.

Happy Easter, brothers & sisters.

ted said...

Happy Easter everyone!

Leslie Godwin said...

Beautiful!

Julie, congratulations to you and your family! That must have been an amazing night. That is wonderful that your husband was also baptized. And you are confirmed.

happy Easter!
Mrs. G

julie said...

Thanks, Leslie! We were fortunate to have a really great RCIA instructor. She pulled a few ears to make sure we could all enter in as a family instead of having to do three or four separate ceremonies. She and her husband also stepped in to be our kids' godparents. It really was amazing :)

USS Ben USN (Ret) said...

Congratulations Julie!
That is good news indeed. :)

Joan of Argghh! said...

I obviously need to read this book. Right after I finish "Poetic Knowledge" which I just got for my birthday.

Happy Resurrection Day to the best Raccoon Lodge anywhere!

mushroom said...

Good news, Julie. Life is good.

Tony said...

Wonderful news, Julie! May every Easter be as happy for all of you as this one.

katzxy said...

What a joyous moment!
Congratulations Julie.

Joan of Argghh! said...

Congrats, Julie! You're the third person I know of who made that journey on Easter weekend.

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