SPREADING FIRE

 

I came to bring fire to the Earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! (Luke 12:49)

Fire You came to cast upon the earth
fire, You Yourself, a raining white light.
Fire tongues upon Your apostles
descended—You in glory—tongues
of the Word made Man in the dome
of the heavens;
of the luminous body
that sustains itself on fish—offspring of water—
silent and cold fish of the abyss
that makes its nest far beneath raging gales.

You are fire, which ever rises toward heaven
seeking the sun, its father, its home forever,
fire which sets ablaze our blood and burns
the flesh of sin, the pulp of the fruit
of the tree of knowledge, for Your blood
is fire on the cross, Seraph of Sorrow;
yes truly You are the Seraph, glowing ember
of love, rose of the tree of the cross.

Two black wings envelop Your head,
a pair hovered about Your feet
on the heights of Tabor and of Calvary,
and You fly to Your Father, with Your arms,
wings of fire, splitting the darkness.
And the joints of Your cross shudder
at the mystical rumbling of Your flight.

            Miguel de Unamuno (d. 1936)  - Spain