A
Simple Sermon for Easter
Based
on The Heart of Stone Beats Again
by Hans Urs von Balthasar
Adapted by Peter Sharpe
We
are men—
Modern men, at that.
Which means men meaninglessly stretched
By things that are meaningless.
Our
heads are empty and we are bombarded
By a constant stream of images
That leave our heads emptier than before.
What do even these feasts mean—
Good Friday, Easter—
When they race so quickly by?
All
this hurrying, this hustle and bustle,
Seems merely destined to end at the grave.
That thought begins to rob
Everything of meaning.
Even
Love is nibbled at:
Lovers will still say “Forever and ever.”
Death grins at that “Forever.”
But real love, even though confused
By emotion and the failings
Of the human heart, truly does intend
Eternity.
That is why every ancient people
Affirmed some sort of immortality.
They could not believe
Everything really ended at death.
So they made something up.
Today,
the only image
Of immortality
That still appeals to Modern Man
Is the tangible reality of a resurrection
From the dead.
To most, such an idea is just an image,
A fairy tale.
To
Christians
This is more than an image.
One Man has come back
From death, bringing with him
The certainty of eternal life for all.
Christ offers a life not totally foreign
(Else it wouldn’t be our life).
Nor a mere continuation
Of our current imperfect path
(Please, no more of that!)
No, Christ offers us both things at once:
This wonderful unique earthly life of ours
Completely purified.
He offers
A transition into Eternity
And the fulfillment of each and every
Inadequate attempt at meaning.
This
truth seems
Almost too good to be true:
That even now the stamp of eternity
Is being laid on this world
We labor to transform.
Hope suddenly awakens
As we come to understand
That this drudgery, this labor
Will itself someday be glorified
And will follow us into the eternal kingdom.
How
are we to live in this hope?
One way—by saying “No”.
The mortal weariness of today’s culture
Beats upon us,
Well disguised in pleasing forms
Of instant success and immediate comfort.
Our hope must continually negate these things,
Beat them down, switch them off.
Our hope is not in this world.
Why
doesn’t such a hope
Quickly wear out?
Because it was designed
For the day to day struggle against meaningless.
And as hope matures it is heartened,
For it sees that death
Cannot possibly be the end.
It is heartened, too, in little ways,
In small, irrefutable ways,
By the tiny sparks of love.
One
comes to recognize
The spark of genuine love.
Even in today’s cooled atmosphere
Of relationships
When someone spontaneously
Lifts the visor of his heart
Something suddenly
Leaps out and warms.
This spark of love reminds us
Of the Fire burning at the Heart of things.
All
men who have Hope
Combat meaninglessness.
They make networks
Of conspiracy to plot
Against the dark lord of this world.
Don’t you know Christianity
Is a dangerous revolution?
It doesn’t think Death
Has the final say.
It thinks Life has Meaning.
Hope
and Love start
Our hearts of stone
Beating again.
The
radio homily “The Future Has Already Come” on which
this Simple Sermon is based, is printed in You Crown the
Year with Your Goodness by Hans Urs von Balthasar. ©
1980 by Ignatius Press (http://www.ignatius.com).
Adapted with permission.
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