"Let him Easter in us,
Be a Dayspring to the dimness of us,
Be a crimson-cresseted East [in us]!"
From "Wreck of the Deutschland" by Gerard Manley Hopkins, SJ
Hopkins, a totally incarnational Catholic, writes these lines in the final verses of the poem that "celebrates" (yes) the death of five Franciscan nuns who were first exiled and then drowned in a tragic boating accident in 1875. What world vision would allow a man to see life, meaning, and even "happy memory" as he calls it, in this sad and senseless event?
Quite simply because Hopkins knew by faith and by experience the inner and transformative presence of the Cosmic and Risen Christ! The Resurrection was not a historical event, but a present Presence, an operative energy, a living power, a Life larger than life—and death—that could be accessed and enjoyed even now.
Celebrate this high, holy day! It really did rearrange the world, declare its certain end point, and offer an eternal dayspring, a "crimson-cresseted East" to every human and historical tragedy. It cannot get better than that!
Richard Rohr
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