ACC ~ Mark 5 v20

MELTING THE CALLOUS HEART

PRUDENTIUS:

Behold, a legion hurls headlong the swine

Of Gerasenes, and once enchained in tombs,

It loudly grunts with pain. From lips possessed

It had cried out: “O Jesus, Son of God,

Offspring of David’s royal line, we know

Who you are and why you have come, what power

Expels us, at your coming filled with dread.”[1]

Has not this voice, Judea, reached your ears?

True, but it has not pierced your darkened mind

And, driven back, has from the threshold fled.[2]

Now sets the evening sun, where he who beholds

The rosy dawn beholds the Lord’s advent.

The fervent gospel word

Has thawed the Scythian frosts and Hyrcanian snows,

So that Rhodopeian Hebrus, freed from ice,[3]

Flows from Caucasian cliffs, a gentler stream.

A HYMN ON THE TRINITY.[4]

[1]Mk 5:1-13; Lk 8:26-33.

[2]Under the law we hear of the coming of the Savior but resist it.

[3]The frost, snow and ice refer to the rigidity of the life lived in bondage to the law, which the gospel melts.

[4]Cetedoc 1439, 414; FC 52:19**. How warmly does the love of God melt the callous, frozen heart and wash away the ingrained residues of sin.