“The Invisible Seen”

When our dull wits had so declined
as to set us mid the squalor of the merely
sensible creation, the Very God consented
to become a body of His own, that He
as one among us might gather our dim senses
to Himself, and manifest through such
incommensurate occasion that He
is not simply man, but also God,
the Word and Wisdom of the One.
Thereafter, He remained His body, and thus
allowed Himself to be observed.
his becoming joined to us performed
two appalling works in our behalf:
He banished death from these
our tender frames, and made of them
something new and (take note here) renewing.

—St. Athanasios (c. 298-373, trans by Scott Cairns)

Painting by James Jean

Tags:deathIncarnationInvisibleJames JeanlifemysticismpoemSt- Athanasioswisdom