The sacred is hidden and obvious in our age of superstitions (atheism, scientism, materialism, mechanistic universe) and relativism in truth and morality. The idea of a sacred dimension of reality much seem preposterous and grossly absurd to the “brights” and devotes of de facto nihilism. But epiphanies are everywhere in the life of humanity and in the lives of individuals.
The sacred is manifested in some of the many obvious miracles or wonders of God, such as existence and being itself, space & time, matter & energy, a intelligible cosmos where order emerges from chaos, life of any kind, human beings, reason and consciousness, faith, hope, love (most especially relational love). And for Christians, the whole story of existence centers upon the life, teachings, actions, death, and resurrection of a 1st century AD Jewish man, Yeshua (Jesus the Christ) where and when God became humanly present among us to express that He loves each one of us with an unrestricted, unlimited, infinite love. What divine madness for the God of All to be crazy in love with you and me beyond our being able to imagine. From God’s perspective, we are sacred because we are permeated with God’s love.
Poetry of the sacred is one of the deeply human ways to wrestle with and contemplate such a God who is humble enough to be literally among and with us in the life of Jesus then and in Jesus’ presence no less with us now.
As linguistic incense,
sacred poetry
gives faithful rise
to soulful hope
spiraling heartward
through dark nights
towards an eventual,
inevitable, irreducible
gracious dawning
of divine delight.
The sacred is preposterous and absurdly holy, but in a way that delights God and draws us to Him through all the sufferings, doubts, sins, evil, good, beauty, and love through which we learn that the heart of the matter is not our quest for God, but God’s quest for us. Sacred poetry can be both contemplative and mystical in helping us stop running in the darkness and be still, to wait for our relentless and steadfast God to find us in spite of our ego-drama.
Next time you experience an epiphany or have a deep sense of the sacred, write a poem that combines words, vision, and plenty of silence.