‘Let Him Easter In Us’

The Jesuit poet Gerard Manley Hopkins in his poem “The Wreck of the Deutschland” uses the word EASTER as a verb, “Let him easter in us.” The poem refers to a tragic event, a shipwreck in 1875 in which five Franciscan nuns on their way from Germany to New York were drowned with others in freezing waters off the English coast.

A verb expresses a state of being. I was taught that a verb is an action word. Hopkins in the poem uses the noun Easter both as an action word, something that happens, and to refer to a state of being, Easter as happening to us and Easter as something that is “in us.”

Of course, Easter is about Jesus Christ rising from the dead. Easter proclaims His victory, the victory of God, over sin. Easter celebrates the Lord bursting out of the tomb three days after having died on the Cross and after having been buried in the tomb.

The intriguing words of the poem, “let him easter in us,” capture another aspect of Easter, which is that we share in its mystery and victory. We are not spectators at the death and resurrection of Christ. Easter is not for Christ alone but also for us. Easter is shared with us. To have Him “easter in us” is to know that there is more to death than the conclusion of human life and there is more to life than just human life. There is life after death and there is Risen life. To have Him “easter in us” is to be free of sin and its terrible consequences. It is to live for God.

The Apostle St. Paul in the letter to the Romans puts it this way: “Just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so too we might walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4). St. Paul is talking about Baptism as union with the death and Resurrection of Christ. In the water of Baptism we are joined to the Easter action of God, dying to sin and rising out of the water to life in Christ.

Easter is God’s activity in us through the Holy Spirit. By it we participate in the power and victory of God over death and life. That power offers us new life and a way out of the darkness of self and the darkness outside of self that is around us. Let the Easter action of God touch your life and show its power in you.

The poet got it right. Easter is a verb. It is a state of being for us who are in Christ. It affects how we understand ourselves and what happens to us and even to the world. For example, sickness, troubles, stress, the loss of loved ones, unemployment and the mess of the world are not death dealing for those who are in Christ. His Easter victory is in them. The Church celebrates Easter for 50 Days as if they are one day, the day of Resurrection. To paraphrase the poet, let Him Easter in you. Easter Blessings to you.