Docents of Glory: Gerard Manley Hopkins (7)

I would have lost heart,unless I had believed
That I would see the goodness of the LORD
In the land of the living.
Wait on the LORD;
Be of good courage,
And He shall strengthen your heart;
Wait, I say, on the LORD!  Psalm 27.13, 14

 And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. Galatians 6.9

The glory gap
We began this series by noting what we referred to as “the glory gap” – the lacuna which exists between the glory God is everywhere revealing and the knowledge of that glory on the part of many, if not most people. God has chosen us to fill that glory gap by serving as docents of glory, discerning the ways God has hidden His glory throughout the world, and showing, by words and deeds, the reality of God’s presence through all the things He has made.

God has chosen to fill the glory gap through believers like you and me. Through us, but not with us: God is filling the world with Jesus, with His sweet, strong, illuminating, and transforming presence; by His Word and Spirit; in the lives and culture and moments of life where we engage the dark world with the living presence of the eternal God (Eph. 1.22, 23; 4.10).

We’ve followed the lead of Gerard Manley Hopkins in trying to learn how to observe the grandeur of God as it shakes and oozes out through all kinds of created things and people. And we’ve seen that, for the most part, bringing people to the knowledge of God’s glory is accomplished in the little things, everyday things, unheralded and uncelebrated things of life. God intends to be glorified in the daily details of life, not the evening headlines.

And He has sent us to work at this daunting task, relentlessly, and without despairing.

Never give up!
Winston Churchill is famous for the phrase, “Never give up!” That simple phrase inspired a nation, and continues to inspire many people yet today.

But Churchill’s exhortation was preceded by nearly a century in Gerard Manley Hopkins’ poem, “(Carrion Comfort)” (the parentheses are his). Here’s the poem:

Not, I’ll not, carrion comfort, Despair, not feast on thee:
Not untwist – slack they may be – these last strands of man
In me or, most weary, cry I can no more. I can;
Can something, hope, wish day come, not choose not to be.
But ah, but O thou terrible, why wouldst thou rude on me
Thy wring-world right foot rock? lay a lionlimb against me? scan
With darksome devouring eyes my bruised bones? and fan,
O in turns of tempest, me heaped there; me frantic to avoid thee and flee?

Why? That my chaff might fly; my grain lie, sheer and clear.
Nay in all that toil, that coil, since (seems) I kissed the rod,
Hand rather, my heart lo! lapped strength, stole joy, would laugh, cheer.
Cheer whom though? the hero whose heaven-handling flung me, foot trod
Me? or me that fought him? O which one? is it each one? That night, that year
Of now done darkness I wretch lay wrestling with (my God!) my God.

Hopkins fought despair all his adult life. He languished in his calling as a priest (“kissed the rod/Hand rather”), which had seen him become estranged from his Anglican family and friends, never to feel quite at home among his Jesuit surroundings. He struggled with poor health, dismal working conditions, and the frustration of longing to be a poet, yet without any outlets or encouragement.

But he would not give up, would not give in to Despair, though it hounded him, swung against him like a lion’s paw, and caused him to stumble as though over a rock. Deep inside he understood that all this flaying and chafing was intended to bring out the best in him, and he would not allow Despair to cause him to sink into paralysis of soul or body.

Wrestling with God
Hopkins had a calling from God, with whom he had wrestled since a young man, and, difficult as it may have been, he would not fail to stay the course of daily duties, though often with a heavy heart. God had wrestled Hopkins down and set him on a course of service, and, as he had always managed to lap strength, steal joy, and find some laughter on his way through every difficulty and trial, he would continue to do so, for the honor and glory of God, to “Love, O my God, to call Thee Love and Love”, as he put it in his poem, “Let me be to Thee as the circling bird.”

Just so we must not despair or grow weary of doing good and standing in the glory gap for Christ to flow His life through us. We will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living if every day, in every situation, we will say with Hopkins, “I can/Can something…” and take the next step of following Jesus into showing and telling His love to others.

For reflection
1.  What opportunities do you regularly encounter for filling the “glory gap”? How have you done at this calling thus far?

2.  What do you need to do in order to be better prepared to fill the glory gap?

3.  Meditate on the two Scriptures introducing this article. How do these apply to your calling as a docent of glory?

Next steps: Download the PDF of this study. Make copies for a few friends, then invite them to join you in working through it, to improve your work as docents of glory.

T. M. Moore

We’re pleased to bring ReVision to you daily, and ReVision studies each week in PDF at no charge. Please visit our website, www.ailbe.org to learn about the many study topics available. This week’s study, Docents of Glory: Gerard Manley Hopkins, is available by clicking here. You might find T. M.’s book, Consider the Lilies: A Plea for Creational Theology, a helpful resource in working through this series. It’s available at our online bookstore by clicking here.

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.