Lecture V

   "Christ has risen." Whoever believes that
   Should not behave as we do,
   Who have lost the up, the down, the right, the left, heavens,
   abysses,
   And try somehow to muddle on, in cars, in beds,
   Men clutching at women, women clutching at men,
   Falling, rising, putting coffee on the table,
   Buttering bread, for here's another day.

   And another year. Time to exchange presents.
   Christmas trees aglow, music,
   All of us, Presbyterians, Lutherans, Catholics,
   Like to sit in the pew, sing with others,
   Give thanks for being here together still,
   For the gift of echoing the Word, now and in all ages.

   We rejoice at having been spared the misfortune
   Of countries where, as we read, the enslaved
   Kneel before the idol of the State, live and die with its name
   On their lips, not knowing they're enslaved.
   However that may be, The Book is always with us,
   And in it, miraculous signs, counsels, orders.
   Unhygienic, it's true, and contrary to common sense,
   But they exist and that's enough on the mute earth.
   It's as if a fire warmed us in a cave
   While outside the golden rain of stars is motionless.
   Theologians are silent. And philosophers
   Don't even dare ask: "What is truth?"
   And so, after the great wars, undecided,
   With almost good will but not quite,
   We plod on with hope. And now let everyone
   Confess to himself. "Has he risen?" "I don't know."

"Lecture V" from The Collected Poewls, 1931-1987 by Czeslaw Milosz and translated by Robert Hass.

[c] 1988 by Czeslaw Milosz Royalties, Inc. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers Inc.

CZESLAW MILOSZ, the Nobel Prize-winning poet, is a prophet who reflects a life in polities: for him, human motivation is never pure, and the human imagination, including the Christian imagination, is filled with contradiction and must acknowledge its limitations. Milosz boldly links faith and doubt, questions and certainty. Here, of course, is where the cross always is--at the intersection of belief and unbelief, in the midst of division, in the center of turmoil, running the risk of trivialization. His hopeful voice inspires us to reach beyond ourselves--and he awakens in us the awareness that because of the horrors of our times and the vaporization of meaning, the human heart hungers for something that pushes us beyond both the horrible and the trivial.

--Jill Pelaez Baumgaertner, poetry editor and dean of humanities and theological studies at Wheaton College in Illinois.

COPYRIGHT 2002 The Christian Century Foundation
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