Monday, April 01, 2013

Christ is Risen! Alleluia!

Good News! Jesus rose from the dead.

Oh yes, I have heard that the original Greek was in the passive, but I rather expect it's a Deponent Verb. (I have no knowledge of such things in Greek; on this some other authority must be consulted.)

However, I will assert - under pain of torture, if need be - that JESUS CHRIST ROSE FROM THE DEAD... and in the most Active sense possible to a mere verb.

Indeed, since all Creation exults on this great day, the day of our human Eucatastrophe, I venture to state that all SUBcreation also exults, which includes such homely things as verbs, and endings, and their mechanical trappings.

Let all grammars and vocabularies bless the Lord!
Let all numbers and equations bless the Lord!
Milo and Humbug and Tock, Azaz and Mathemagician, Rhyme and Reason, bless the Lord!
Let every branch in the Tree of Virtues, let every existing thing in the Kingdom of Wisdom, bless the Lord!
Let all Subcreation bless the Lord! Give glory and eternal praise to Him!

The verb is no longer a merely human thing. God Himself used it: "Et verbum caro factum est." And that's not all! It is silly (and perhaps boringly academic) for someone to explain (with a ponderous grunt) that "the Father 'raised' Jesus" or whatever their explanation is. The Trinity acts as one... we heard all that in Gethsemani, "Not my will but thine be done" - yes, even to the point of accepting death, death on a Cross... as the Father acted, the Word-made-flesh acted, and the Spirit with them likewise.

Yes, Mr. Dickens, we have heard you say something like it before - but we can say it even better: "Christ was dead: to begin with. Or no good can come of the story I am about to tell you." We saw - our eye-witness saw - the Centurion's lance certified the death. He was as dead as a nail-of-crucifixion. "The Cross cannot be defeated, for it is Defeat." [GKC The Ball and the Cross]

And yet... I repeat (in the active voice)

JESUS CHRIST ROSE FROM THE DEAD.

For our God knows the way out of the grave.
[GKC The Everlasting Man CW2:382]
Alleluia, alleluia!

Yes! Run! Quickly! Tell each other this good news! For it really is news. Nobody else has any. [GKC The Everlasting Man CW2:401]

1 Comments:

At 03 April, 2013 23:22, Blogger Sheila said...

Off the top of my head, I think it's Middle. Which is *between* Active and Passive, and it works kind of like a reflexive. It's when you do something for your own benefit.

I suppose I ought to look it up before running my mouth, but I'm supposed to be in bed. If I remember I'll look it up later.

 

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