Poem for a Friday

in Lent. It is good to enter into the meaning of death a little--its scandal. It inspires thirst in our souls for the coming Holy Week. We realize how radically the death of Christ changed death's aspect. Here is death without Christ.

The Fall

The death of a man is like the fall of a mighty nation
That had valiant armies, captains, and prophets,
And wealthy ports and ships over all the seas,
But now it will not relieve any besieged city,
It will not enter into any alliance,
Because its cities are empty, its population dispersed,
Its land once bringing harvest is overgrown with thistles,
Its mission forgotten, its language lost,
The dialect of a village high upon inaccessible mountains.

~Czeslaw Milosz, 1981