Necessary Suffering
(see Falling Upward, chapter 6)

The tragic sense of life
(see Falling Upward, chapter 4)

A stable lamp is lighted *

A stable lamp is lighted whose glow shall wake the sky;
the stars shall bend their voices, and every stone shall cry.
And every stone shall cry, and straw like gold shall shine;
a barn shall harbor heaven, a stall become a shrine.

This child through David’s city shall ride in triumph by;
the palm shall strew its branches, and every stone shall cry.
And every stone shall cry, though heavy, dull and dumb,
and lie within the roadway to pave his kingdom come.

Yet he shall be forsaken, and yielded up to die;
the sky shall groan and darken, and every stone shall cry.
And every stone shall cry for gifts of love abused;
God’s blood upon the spearhead, God’s blood again refused.

But now, as at the ending, the low is lifted high;
the stars shall bend their voices, and every stone shall cry.
And every stone shall cry in praises of the child
by whose descent among us the worlds are reconciled.

Stumbling over the stumbling stone
(see Falling Upward, chapter 5)

* To hear the carol, “A stable lamp is lighted”
(Words by Richard Wilbur, music by David Hurd)
go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHuq5ungxUI