A Disputation Between Christ And The Human Form

For The Feast of the Nativity

Words: Laurence Housman (1865-1959)
Vocal Recordings: MP3 / OGG

Comest Thou peaceably, O Lord?	
  ‘Yea, I am Peace!	
Be not so fearful to afford	
Thy Maker room! for I am the Reward	
  To which all generations of increase
  Looking did never cease.

‘Down from amid dark wings of storm	
  I set My Feet	
To earth. Will not My earth grow warm	
To feel her Maker take the form
  He made, when now, Creation’s purpose meet,	
  Man’s body is to be God’s Mercy-seat?’

Lord, I am foul: there is no whole	
  Fair part in me	
  Where Thou canst deign to be!
This form is not Thy making, since it stole	
  Fruit from the bitter Tree.	
‘Yet still thou hast the griefs to give in toll	
That I may test the sickness of man’s soul.’

O Lord, my work is without worth!
  I am afraid,	
Lest I should man the blissful Birth.	
Quoth Christ, ‘Ere seas had shores, or earth	
  Foundations laid,	
  My Cross was made!’

‘Naught canst thou do that was not willed	
  By Love to be,	
  To bring the Work to pass through Me.	
  No knee	
  Stiffens, or bends before My Sov’reignty,
But from the world’s beginning hath fulfilled	
Its choice betwixt the valleyed and the hilled.	
  For both, at one decree,	
My Blood was spilled.’

Yet canst Thou use these sin-stained hands?
  ‘These hands,’ quoth Christ,	
  ‘Of them I make My need:	
Since they sufficed to forge the bands	
  Wherein I hunger, they shall sow the seed!	
  And with bread daily they shall feed
My Flesh till, bought and bound, It stands	
  A Sacrifice to bleed.’

Lord, let this house be swept and garnished first!	
  For fear lest sin	
  Do there look in,
Let me shut fast the windows: lest Thou thirst,	
Make some pure inner well of waters burst:	
  For no sweet water can man’s delving win—	
Earth is so curst.	
Also bar up the door: Thou wilt do well
To dwell, whilst with us, anchorite in Thy cell.	

Christ said ‘Let be: leave wide	
  All ports to grief!	
Here when I knock I will not be denied	
The common lot of all that here abide;
  Were I so blinded, I were blind in chief:	
  How should I see to bring the blind relief?

Wilt Thou so make Thy dwelling? Then I fear	
Man, after this, shall dread to enter here:	
For all the inner courts will be so bright,
He shall be dazzled with excess of light,	
  And turn, and flee!	
‘But from his birth I will array him right,	
And lay the temple open for his sight,	
  And say to help him, as I bid him see:
  “This is for thee!” ’

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