flowers-274x300Archaeologists can work their entire lives and yet rarely pull forth from the earth an ancient piece of gold jewelry.  But when they do, they are amazed that the gold retains its brilliance.  The woman once buried with the gold ring or broach or necklace is but dust and bones, yet her gold jewelry remains untarnished.  This is why gold is so valued.  It gives us something that seems to resist the ravages of time.

Still, even gold will pass, and yet the bones that are crushed will rise again.  Our world is full of paradox!  At this time of the year, as we see the daffodils and forsythia bursting forth into an otherwise gray and brown landscape, we are reminded of that wonderful poem, “Nothing Gold Can Stay” by the American poet, Robert Frost, who speaks of the Felix Culpa, and reminds us of the consequence.  In these lines, the poet captures for us not only the fleeting reality of early spring, but also the reality of our human existence, that Camelot always fails, that golden ages are themselves so rare, and that we are always in need of a Renaissance and rebirth.

As we approach the holy season of Easter, we look forward not only to the annual celebration of the anniversary of our Lord’s Resurrection, but also to that rebirth in Him that will be into eternity, where there will be no decay, no sadness, and no end.

Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.