Mystery of the Ages
Posted by Chris Yokel
Advent is here again, which for myself is the call to once again attempt to wrap my head around the mystery of the Incarnation. It seems that every year, that is the increasing focus of my spiritual energies during this season, to press deeper into the heart of the Magnum Mysterium. I can’t say my progress has been very great, but allure of the journey is always and ever there.
My deepest struggles with such things are usually best expressed in poetry. The following is some verse that I wrote several years ago already, but I find it rings as true as ever. I put it to music sometime later, so here is the text and then the song:
Flesh of her flesh
Bone of her bone
Yet wholly other
The supernatural
In earthly thread spun
Galaxy strider
Now warmly imprisoned
Within the womb of Eve
He who cast the sun about Him
Royal splendor
Now the prince of paupers
In the beginning was the Word
Into the darkness light tumbles down
Now the Word cries with child’s voice
Now the Light tumbles into darkness
Underneath the stars that He birthed
He Himself is born
The strong, invisible hand
Whose might upholds this earth of rock and stone
Now small, enclosed within His mother’s grasp
Those fingers, which in creation past
Traced out all man’s noble lines
Will one day reach to touch his putrid flesh
Sin-cursed
And set His work aright
Will one day reach out
Sin-cursed
His noble flesh torn
To set His work aright
For unto us a child is come
Unto us a son is descended
From Abraham and heaven both
That heaven and earth may both be joined in one
Through One in whom both heaven and earth are joined
That all may be
From Him, through Him, to Him
Forever and amen
Mystery of the ages
Immanuel
