Hints and Guesses
My favorite thought is the Incarnation.
My favorite poet (after Dylan) is T.S. Eliot.
Here is a snippet of T.S. Eliot poetry that touches on Incarnation.
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Men’s curiosity searches past and future
And clings to that dimension. But to apprehend
The point of intersection of the timeless
With time, is an occupation for the saint—
No occupation either, but something given
And taken, in a lifetime’s death in love,
Ardour and selflessness and self-surrender.
For most of us, there is only the unattended
Moment, the moment in and out of time,
The distraction fit, lost in a shaft of sunlight,
The wild thyme unseen, or the winter lightning
Or the waterfall, or music heard so deeply
That it is not heard at all, but you are the music
While the music lasts. These are only hints and guesses,
Hints followed by guesses; and the rest
Is prayer, observance, discipline, thought and action.
The hint half guessed, the gift half understood, is Incarnation.
—T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets, The Dry Salvages (from stanza V)
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How do we grapple with the Incarnation?—
Such an elusive idea. (God become human!)
How do we contemplate the Incarnation?—
In a way that has meaning for our lives?
Hints and guesses.
But mostly by prayer, observance, discipline, thought and action.
Amen.
BZ
(The artwork is “Blue (Moby Dick)” by Jason Pollock. Suggest soundtrack is Bon Iver.)
