Conclusion
of the Jordan Year --Sermon
Love Through the Ages
I’m in this happy
position at the moment of thoroughly enjoying work, as I’m
preparing a new course, called ‘Love through the Ages’, for my
English Year 13 group (Upper Six in old money). As part of this
course we’ll be exploring love poems from the rough and tumble of
Chaucer, through the sophisticated metaphysics of John Donne, to the
acerbic wit of our present poet laureate, Carol Anne Duffy.
A few things have
struck me as I’ve been ruminating on the literature of love. Love
isn’t always positive – a recent encounter in class with the
destructive passion of Heathcliff is proof of that. Some types of
human love can be difficult or uncomfortable. Love can also seem
elusive or impossible. But whatever else it may be, love seems to
open up new dimensions, a whole set of possibilities which inform
and enrich our lives.
So on this feast of
Corpus Christi, when we celebrate the symbol of Christ’s love for
us, which exceeds all human loves in perfection, let us pray for our
Confirmation candidates, that in embracing the challenges of the
church, their lives be enriched with delight, wisdom and joy.
And finally a love poem by
Shakespeare, who else, showing us the transforming power of love.
When, in disgrace with Fortune and
men's eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,
Desiring this man's art, and that man's scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least,
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate
For thy sweet love remembered such
wealth brings,
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.
S Fagan
