John Donne

Bring us, O Lord God, at our last awakening
into the house and gate of heaven,
to enter into that gate and dwell in that house,
where there shall be no darkness nor dazzling,
but one equal light;
no noise nor silence, but one equal music;
no fears nor hopes, but one equal possession;
no ends nor beginnings, but one equal eternity;
in the habitations of thy glory and dominion                                                                           world without end.   —  John Donne

This may be my favorite poem.  I read it often in sermons at funerals as it gets at something intangible that touches me deeply.  Donne puts his inspired finger square on the point and that point is at the beginning.  Since the day of disobedience and the eviction of our for-bearers  from the Garden of Bliss,  we ride, caught on the horns of a dilemma of opposites.

If evil and good were not enough to learn, all the opposites imaginable caught us like wires, a nest, no a web of wires pulling in contradiction: up/down – in/out – come/go – black/white – friend/foe – hate and love and endless pullings such that we scream for release.

Through the maze, thicket of consternation and briars of expediency God longs for us; His Son came for us and The Holy Ghost schemes for that through union with God all contradictions, all opposites meet that we may be one, even as the Father and the Son are One!

It is here that Donne speaks the eternal truth:

no noise nor silence, but one equal music;
no fears nor hopes, but one equal possession;
no ends nor beginnings, but one equal eternity.

We shall be One and beloved it will be enough.

The Summer House on the River Wey, near the Village of Ripley. Here John Donne, Dean of Saint Paul’s, lived from 1600 – 1604