Falconer

Pearls Before Swine reminded me of this poem from W.B. Yeats (1865-1939) written in 1919.  It’s called "The Second Coming," and it reads:

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

Perhaps Irish poet Yeats was influenced by the horrors of World War I and its aftermath (1914-1921).  Perhaps this poem is a protest.  Yeats was an Irish patriot who objected to the hatred and bigotry of the Irish Nationalist movement at that time.

Different interpretations of his poem have been offered.   All are a bit distressing but perhaps not as much as the state of our world today.  For example, the falcon, turning in a widening “gyre” (spiral), cannot hear the falconer; “Things fall apart; the center cannot hold; anarchy is loosed upon the world; the blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere the ceremony of innocence is drowned.”  Such pessimism!

We should focus more on the second coming but not the one poetically described by Yeats.  He seemed to believe that a monstrous Second Coming was about to take place, not of Jesus, but of a new messiah, a “rough beast,” the slouching sphinx rousing itself in the desert and lumbering toward Bethlehem.”

What’s our Catholic understanding of the Second Coming, i.e., Christ will come again.   Our Catechism summary says:
(1) Christ the Lord already reigns through the Church, but all the things of this world are not yet subjected to him. The triumph of Christ's kingdom will not come about without one last assault by the powers of evil.
(2) On Judgment Day at the end of the world, Christ will come in glory to achieve the definitive triumph of good over evil which, like the wheat and the tares, have grown up together in the course of history.
(3) When he comes at the end of time to judge the living and the dead, the glorious Christ will reveal the secret disposition of hearts and will render to each man according to his works, and according to his acceptance or refusal of grace.

The “last assault by the powers of evil; triumph of good over evil; and secret disposition of hearts” are all important aspects of the Second Coming.  They all relate to the Judgment Day.  Frankly, the days of judgment are already here.  They are every day: past, present, and future.

Do we assault the powers of evil by resisting calls to hate and divide?  Do we recognize evil and work to overcome it in all its many forms?  Do we have secrets in our hearts that harden them and make them cold?   Have we refused grace?

Do we recognize and denounce the “rough beast,” the slouching sphinx, that has roused itself from the desert and lumbers toward Bethlehem to undo Jesus’ works?  We must.

We are all falcons that hear the falconer, Jesus.  We must prevent things from falling apart.  We must assure that the centre will hold.

Deacon David Pierce