Only to Rise Again
"The slip of a vine planted in the ground bears fruit at the proper time. The grain of wheat falls into the ground and decays only to be raised up again and multiplied by the Spirit of God who sustains all things. The Wisdom of God places these things at the service of man and when they receive God’s word they become the eucharist, which is the body and blood of Christ. In the same way our bodies, which have been nourished by the eucharist, will be buried in the earth and will decay, but they will rise again at the appointed time, for the Word of God will raise them up to the glory of God the Father. Then the Father will clothe our mortal nature in immortality and freely endow our corruptible nature with incorruptibility, for God’s power is shown most perfectly in weakness." Saint Irenaeus, bishop.
Now the green blade rises from the buried grain,
Wheat that in the dark earth many years has lain;
Love lives again, that with the dead has been:
Love is come again, like wheat that springs up green.
In the grave they laid Him, Love Whom we had slain,
Thinking that He’d never wake to life again,
Laid in the earth like grain that sleeps unseen:
Love is come again, like wheat that springs up green.
Up He sprang at Easter, like the risen grain,
He that for three days in the grave had lain;
Up from the dead my risen Lord is seen:
Love is come again, like wheat that springs up green.
When our hearts are saddened, grieving or in pain,
By Your touch You call us back to life again;
Fields of our hearts that dead and bare have been:
Love is come again, like wheat that springs up green.
--John Macleod Campbell Crum 1872-1958
(Yeah, I know this was written in English, but it is still good. If you gotta have it in Latin, here's something from someone after my own heart!)
Surgit a sepulto spica semine,
sub terra quam tegebant tenebrae;
Amor revivit mortis e loco:
AMOR EN! REDIVIT SEGETIS MODO.
Sepeliverant occisum homine,
quem non sperabant excitum fore:
par dormienti spicae sub solo,
AMOR EN! REDIVIT SEGETIS MODO.
Pascha vidit instar spicae surgere
post sepulturam tertio die;
ex morte Christum ortum video:
AMOR EN! REDIVIT SEGETIS MODO.
Quando hiemales lugent animae,
vivificas nos tuo pollice;
sint corda nudo paria solo,
AMOR EN! REDIVIT SEGETIS MODO.
--Latin Translation by Mark Mortimer
