THE DEAREST FRESHESS DEEP DOWN THINGS

He was cared for by a black American runaway slave when wounded in the struggle and employed him for the rest of his life. Returning to Ireland, his native country, Fitzgerald became involved in the rebellion of 1798 and was wounded, captured and left to die as the most convenient way of executing an aristocrat.

Approaching death, he asked for St John’s gospel and had it read to him. What was it in that particular gospel that drew him? There are several dramatic moments; the marriage at Cana, the woman at the well and (this Sunday’s reading) the feeding of the five thousand with its striking message; there is enough for everybody.

Each person present was astonished and reacted, ‘This really is the prophet who is to come into the world.’ The Jews had been looking forward to a new Moses for centuries and suddenly he is there before them, feeding them in the wilderness as Moses had done. But, Jesus insisted, what he was doing was only a sign. Hidden in the sign was a revelation of something that went beyond bread and fish.

He had come to bring new life, the fullness of life, to everybody and those with ears to hear and eyes to see would come to understand. It was hidden from them at first, as it was from the disciples after his resurrection. But they came to see that,

The world is charged with the grandeur of God.

It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;

Yet it remains hidden from many of our contemporaries in our world today who have tamed religion and made it serve their purposes. They use it when they need it and ignore it when they don’t. They miss the later line in Gerard Manley Hopkins’ poem,

And for all this, nature is never spent;

There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;

Instead of our faith humbling us and drawing us trembling forwards, we often use it in our celebrations asking God to bless what we have already decided and getting disappointed if he doesn’t.  We do not make room for God to surprise us. If we did, we might come to very different conclusions.

Lord Edward’s life ended ingloriously but his recourse to the gospel of John as he lay dying shows a man fully awake to the tremendous mystery which he was about to enjoy to the full.