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Month: April 2009

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Poetry

April 22 – A selection from: The Debate Between Three Persons – the Squire, the Bailiff and the Priest by Mikołaj Rej

So the fences crack and break
When they crowd festive for their soul’s sake.
The priest in church shouts and shrieks,
The churchyard barrel crackles and leaks.
Someone shakes a wicker basket;
Another a drum, a pipe or a casket;
While the third cranes his neck up
To shout to the cantor or drain his cup.
And they count eggs-the hens shriek
On the altar-the pigs squeak.
And truly indulgences came our way
After we’d squeaked our brains away.
And yet King David did the same
When, on his harp, he praised God’s name.
They go away believing twice
That they have gained by sacrifice.
And certainly their throats are filled.
If that’s reward they should be thrilled.
Few of them remain alive
Till hours for evening prayers arrive.
By vesper time there’s many a neck
Ploughs the ground on a long trek.
They carry him to the fence by the head.
“Indulgences were too much,” it is said.

Translated by Jerzy Peterkiewicz and Burns Singer

indulgences

Bo się już więc tam łomi chrust,
Kiedy się zejdą na odpust.
Ksiądz w kościele woła, wrzeszczy,
Na cmyntarzu beczka trzeszczy;
Jeden potrząsa kobiałką,
Drugi bębnem a piszczałką,
Trzeci, wyciągając szyję,
Woła: “Do kantora piję!”;
Kury wrzeszczą, świnie kwiczą,
Na ołtarzu jajca liczą.
Wieręśmy odpust zyskali,
Iżechmy się napiskali.
Inak też tak Dawid czynił,
Zawżdy z arfą Boga chwalił.
Także idą precz z tą wiarą,
Iż wygrali tą ofiarą.
Razem też odpłatę znają:
Pełną szyję nalewają.
A rzadki z onej odpłaty,
Aby doczekał komplaty.
Bo więc drugi na nieszporze
Dawno ziemię szyją porze.
Wloką go za łeb do chrustu:
Nie mógł przechować odpustu.

Poetry

April 21 – Song VIII by Mikołaj Sęp Szarzyński

Gold’s tried by a touchstone – man, by gold;
But owning it or not, with virtue hath naught ado.
Vainly the gentle metal they praise and rebuke;
E’er free of it’s he whom Lord God gave reason.

He’s spurned greed unsated, he’s spurned odious fear;
Owning not, he yearns not; in profusion, he pales not.
He lends not on account, nor vainly squanders;
Gold he prizes in measure, both greatly and little.

Still by word and deed did thy grandchild, Jesse,
Freely declare excess wealth excess poison.
To whom He giveth not, God’s more kind than
To him with surfeit; who’d judge right, knows.

In woe, man so wishing, shall obtain solace;
‘Tis easy tho, all faring well, one’s mean to lose;
A sweetly ulcer from this sad indolence ariseth,
For what healthy seems, doth work greatest harm.

No longing have I for fame in both fortunes;
Yet him I know truly content who solace in Thee
Alone, O Lord, doth take, who of other cares is empty,
And who for thy sake, thoughts of self hath scorned.

Translated by Richard Sokoloski

Złoto znać na strzechstenie, człowieka na złocie;
Mieć abo nie mieć złota – nic przez się ku cnocie.
Próżno chwalą i ganią ten kruszec łagodny:
Komu Pan Bóg dał rozum, zawżdy jest swobodny.

Wygnał chciwość niesytą, wygnał strach szkarady,
Więc nie wzdycha nie mając, w dostatku nie blady.
Nie pożycza u skrzynie, darmo nie szafuje,
Z baczeniem złoto drogo i tanie szacuje.

Ale jawnie oświadczył słowy i przykładem
Twój wnuk, Jesse, iż zbytnie skarby zbytnym jadem.
I z tym, komu ich nie da, Bóg barziej łaskawie,
Niż z tym, co ich ma nazbyt; zna, kto sądzi prawie.

W nędzy człowiek dostanie, gdy chce, pocieszenia,
Trudno, gdy wszytko k myśli, nie stracić baczenia.
Skąd z letargu smutnego wrzód smaczny przychodzi,
Bo się to zdrowo widzi, co nabarziej szkodzi.

Nie pożądam znacznym być w nieszczęście oboje,
Lecz znam prawie szczęśliwym, kto pociechy swoje
W tobie samym ma, Panie, próżen inszych rzeczy,
I dla ciebie sam siebie wzgardził mieć na pieczy.

Poetry,

April 20 – The Father and His Son by Kazimierz Brodziński

My son, give me my spade and plow —
To labor is our lot,
And though a lonely being now,
I’ll guard our little cot.

Within the valley of thy birth
Lies armor we will raise;
‘Tis hid within our native earth,
Awaiting better days.

And when I see thee draw once more
Thy father’s conquering sword,
I’ll dream our night of slavery is o’er,
And freedom is restored.

And oh, my son, weep not for me;
These aged hands can toil
For our support–but ’tis for thee
To guard our native soil.

My hope on God and thee depends,
And God will me reward;
My corn will grow to feed the friends
Whose swords our freedom guard.

See where yon trees their branches wave,
And shroud the church in gloom,
There, sooner than become a slave,
Thy sire will find a tomb.

And if returned from foes o’ercome,
To me be tear-drops given;
If not, thy arms must share my tomb,
And seek thy sire in heaven.

From —Poets and Poetry of Poland A Collection of Polish Verse, Including a Short Account of the History of Polish Poetry, with Sixty Biographical Sketches of Poland’s Poets and Specimens of Their Composition— by Paul Soboleski.

Father and son by Glory Fraulein Wolfe

Poetry,

April 19 – Sacred Love of Our Cherished Homeland by Ignacy Krasicki

O sacred love of our cherished homeland,
Only noble minds can be moved by you!
Baneful poisons taste good at your command,
No disgrace to bonds and chains will accrue.

You grace with honored scars the cripples’ hand,
You plant in the mind the delights most true,
So long as one can help you and stand by,
We don’t mind misery, don’t mind to die.

Translated by Michal J. Mikos

Święta miłości kochanej ojczyzny,
Czują cię tylko umysły poczciwe!
Dla ciebie zjadłe smakują trucizny
Dla ciebie więzy, pęta niezelżywe.

Kształcisz kalectwo przez chwalebne blizny
Gnieździsz w umyśle rozkosze prawdziwe,
Byle cię można wspomóc, byle wspierać,
Nie żal żyć w nędzy, nie żal i umierać.

Homilies

Second Sunday of Easter (Low Sunday) – B

First reading: Acts 4:32-35
Psalm: Ps 118:2-4,13-15,22-24
Epistle: 1 John 5:1-6
Gospel: John 20:19-31

But these are written that you may come to believe
that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God,
and that through this belief you may have life in his name.

Christ is risen! Alleluia!
He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Things are written so you may come to believe, but who can?

We wonder.

In this week after Easter we may feel a little like the disciples, with a sense of wonderment. That wonderment is mitigated by the long history, the things that have passed since Jesus’ resurrection. We try to understand things in light of what Jesus said, did, and accomplished. Chief among these are His sacrificial death and His resurrection on the third day. Yet we still wonder. We still have a hard time understanding this resurrection thing.

How can this be?

Imagine sitting in your living room and suddenly a beloved relative, who has died, is standing before you. Imagine too that you know that you are sober and sane. Would you be able to wrap your mind and emotions around that experience? Would you know what to make of it, or how to react?

I think that I would be much like the Apostles. I’d be running around in circles, like a dog chasing its tail, not knowing what to do. Imagine what it was like for the Apostles. At first sullen, then things unexplained, and then WOW! I would hope that my relative would say —peace be with you.— Maybe that would calm me down.

After time passed, and our shock subsided, we might find context for the experience. At least we have knowledge of Christ’s rising. We have context based on the testimony of the witnesses, and our faith, that Jesus conquered death. Jesus is our context for life after death.

We know death.

The Apostles had no context. The Jews who lived during Jesus’ time on earth saw death as finality. Of the Jewish groups, only the Pharisees believed in the resurrection. The Sadducees believed that the soul died with the body. Jewish sacred texts and literature have little to say about what happens after death. The Torah and other Jewish writings on death indicate that the soul goes to Sheol, where the soul continues to exist in some way, but not consciously. The Apostles likely thought that Jesus went to Sheol, to the place of the ancestors, or simply was no more.

We all know death and loss. Death is ever real for us as well. We are saddened by death, depressed by death, and hurt by the death of our loved ones. Death is real because we can see it; we have personal knowledge of its implications, its pain.

We do not know death anymore.

There is Jesus! Imagine the wild scene when Thomas returned.

Thomas! Thomas! Guess what! Wow! You missed it! Jesus! Oh man! You shoulda been here…

Once he cut through the ruckus, and got everyone calmed down enough to understand what they were saying, Thomas would probably have said: Jesus what?

The others were trying to explain the thing we look at so calmly: Jesus lives, He has been raised, death is no more. The Gospel tells us that the Apostles said those things, but we read it in the context of history, and a recitation of words. The Apostles didn’t know the words, they didn’t have the history, and nothing in history could have prepared them for this.

History is the problem.

Jesus has been looked at, disected, examined, philosophized over, theologized on, and has been run through the gauntlet of human examination from the moment he was conceived in the womb of our Blessed Mother, Mary. In biblical studies, a field caled hermeneutics, there are at least six major approaches to understanding the Bible, and the whole point of the Bible, Jesus’ ministry. There’s a Lexical-syntactical method dealing with the words of the bible; a Historical-cultural method; a Contextual method; a Theological method; various Literary methods studying the genres found in Scripture: narratives, histories, prophecies, apocalyptic writings, poetry, psalms and letters; and the Historico-grammatical method.

Each of these approaches to God, to Jesus, depends on our knowledge, on our study. We approach Jesus, much like the Apostles, based on our experience and knowledge. The problem is -—“ we cannot know, not from our experience, not from our limited knowledge, not from all the other stuff that has occurred in history.

Jesus is history and beyond history.

Jesus is God. He is history and is beyond history. He is everything and beyond everything. We cannot put a context, based on our experience, around Jesus and His resurrection. We cannot grasp resurrection based on what we know, based on our study, based on any other historical event. That makes it easy for man to do his all to disprove, to impeach every source, every word on the resurrection. We cannot even match up the accounts from the scriptures. How many women went to the tomb? How many Apostles ran to the tomb? Were Peter and John running to the tomb while Jesus walked with the other disciples on the road to Emmaus? Was Jesus standing by the tomb in the guise of a gardener? The Sea of Tiberias and the fish fry? Was Thomas there, when Jesus walked into the locked room, or not? Nothing agrees, and some assume that the conflicting histories disprove the event.

Remember what I said about the deceased relative showing up and how I would be like a dog chasing its tail, not knowing what to do? So it was with these accounts. Was Jesus raised? Surely as I stand here. Can we analyze it and understand it? Can we get it? Not so easy!

We know.

St. John tells us:

for whoever is begotten by God conquers the world.
And the victory that conquers the world is our faith.

My friends, we are a people born of faith, a people begotten by God. Conquering the world has nothing to do with argument, with armed conflict, with disproving the naysayers and the analysts. Conquering the world has nothing to do with history and a historical analysis of what happened 2,000 years ago. They are not bad things to do, but we can only conquer when we say that we know based on faith. When we come to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, when we are regenerated, we win. In that we have life…eternal life.

These are written so you may come to believe. Holy Scripture helps to get us there; it helps us in coming to believe. Faith brings it home. Scripture and faith allow us to give our testimony, to tell all the reason for our hope: Christ has risen! Alleluia!

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