APPOINTMENT
In the last days of Jesus’ ministry he “sets his face towards Jerusalem.” He has a God-given appointment with a Cross. To contrast this self-chosen appointment with death I have used the poem by Thomas Hardy, entitled “The Convergence of the Twain” (Lines on the loss of the “Titanic.”) After describing the wreck on the bottom of the ocean, now made more powerful with the discovery of the wreckage this past year, the poem asks “What does this vaingloriousness down here?” In a solitude of the sea
Deep from human vanity
And the Pride of Life that planned her, stilly couches she.
Steel chambers, late the pyres
Of her salamandrine fires,
Cold currents thrid, and turn to rhythmic tidal lyres.
Over the mirrors meant
To glass the opulent
The sea-worm crawls — grotesque, slimed, dumb, indifferent.
Jewels in joy designed
To ravish the sensuous mind
Lie lightless, all their sparkles bleared and…
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