Three-person’d God

I like Anglicans.  Here are the rich words of one in “Holy Sonnet XIV: Batter My Heart”:

Batter my heart, three-person’d God; for you

As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;

That I may rise, and stand, o’erthrow me and bend

Your force, to break, blow, burn and make me new.

I, like an usurpt town, to another due,

Labour to admit you, but Oh, to no end,

Reason your viceroy in me, me should defend,

But is captiv’d, and proves weak or untrue.

Yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain,

But am betroth’d unto your enemy:

Divorce me, untie, or break that knot again,

Take me to you, imprison me, for I

Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,

Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.

3 comments

  1. The rape imagery here is a bit shocking, but it does make some good points, the first being that love is the issue: in this case, God’s love for humanity. “We love God because God first loved us.”

    The next point is that one can distinguish, but not separate, agape and eros.

    The third point is that God’s wooing of humanity, what we call “grace,” while not irresistable, is very strong.

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