Nothing Left

Today we renew the hope in eternal life, truly founded on Christ’s death and Resurrection. “I am risen and I am with you always”, the Lord tells us, and my hand supports you. Wherever you may fall, you will fall into my hands and I will be there even to the gates of death. Where no one can accompany you any longer and where you can take nothing with you, there I will wait for you to transform for you the darkness into light.
Benedict XVI, Angelus 11/2/2008

When there's nothing left but ending,
when your feet run out of road,
when there's nowhere but descending,
Christ is there before you go.

Where there's nothing you take with you,
empty handed in the dark,
hope is just a dying glimmer:
Christ is there to strike the spark.

He is waiting, Word eternal,
where the weeping make no sound,
so come all you heavy burdened:
Let your weary soul sink down.

Let the earth receive your grieving;
let it soak into the sands.
Deeper far than all believing,
there youa re within his hands.

There he cradles you in sorrow;
there he holds you to his breast.
Though you rise with him tomorrow,
yet for now you shall have rest.

Lay your burden down in darkness;
let the seed fall to the soil.
Sleep must come before the harvest;
you shall share the feast of joy.

Jakub Schikaneder – All Souls’ Day – Ophelia2, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12453561

Adam Lay Imprisoned

Riffing on “Adam Lay Ybounden“:

Adam lay imprisoned,
captive held, and bound,
and we are held there with him
'til mercy may be found.

Bound to recall betrayal—
his own and Eve's that day;
bound to the death of Abel—
he cannot look away.

Bound to see us repeat it
each generation since.
Bound to the loss of Eden;
bound to lose all his sons

'til one shall come unbinding,
come breaking all the chains,
'til one whose light comes blinding
shall touch the heart of Cain.

And all who weep with Adam,
and all who tasted death
shall rise from deep in shadow,
shall taste of heaven's bread.

And all whose chains are broken
mourn Adam's choice no more
for heaven's gates stand open
now and forevermore.

By Anonymous 15th Century scribe, digitised by the British Library – http://www.headlesschicken.ca/eng204/texts/images/Sloane2593.jpg, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12139575

One Father

As for you, do not be called ‘Rabbi.’
You have but one teacher, and you are all brothers.
Call no one on earth your father;
you have but one Father in heaven.
Do not be called ‘Master’;
you have but one master, the Christ.
The greatest among you must be your servant.
Matthew 23:1-12

One Father, one who made us
and made us to be one,
one source and one creator,
and we are all his own.
We have no other Father;
we have no other god,
no other that we honor
with all our mind and heart.

One Son who came to lead us
when we were lost and gone,
to break the chains and free us,
and bring the captives home.
We have no other master;
we have no other king,
and we shall fear no shadows
who rest beneath his wings.

One Spirit, one who knows us
and one who makes us known,
who sighs and groans out for us
before the Father's throne.
We have no other teacher;
we have no other lord,
and we are all one people:
God's own forever more.

Rublev’s famous icon showing the three Angels being hosted by Abraham at Mamre. By Eloquence – Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=158610

This Very Night

Inspired by the Lyke-Wake Dirge:

This night, this very night,
or any night at all,
the clock runs down, the flame burns out,
and Christ receive thy soul.

And all that you have said or thought,
any night at all,
shall be laid out before his heart,
and Christ receive thy soul.

And all that you have been or done...
shall be laid down before his throne...

And every gesture, every look...
shall be writ down within his book...

And then shall he that volume take...
and read whereat his heart shall break...

And then shall he rise from his throne...
to bear each wand'ring wether home...

And then shall he lay bare his heart...
to show where you are carven on't...

And all you are or could have been...
he makes his mercy to redeem...

And throws a feast of wine and bread,
any night at all,
then trust him and lay down your head,
and Christ receive thy soul.

Candle By Arivumathi – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=24728169

Heartbeat

When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees,
they gathered together, and one of them,
a scholar of the law tested him by asking,
“Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?”
He said to him,
“You shall love the Lord, your God,
with all your heart,
with all your soul,
and with all your mind.
This is the greatest and the first commandment.
The second is like it:
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”
Matthew 22: 34-40

The breath of all the prophets
and heartbeat of the law
is love for one another,
for God with all we are.

We balk: Who is our neighbor?
How can we love our foes?
So God came as our savior,
and love is what he chose:

an infant with his mother,
or in a father's arms,
for each of us a brother,
a shelter in our storms.

And now love has a heartbeat
and prophecies a breath
who kneels and washes our feet
and makes a way through death.

And this is how we know him:
The breaking of the bread
where we can be forgiven
and we can all be fed.

Then we become the heartbeat
and we become the breath
of all the law and prophets,
by love disguised as bread.

A an etching by Jan Luyken from the Phillip Medhurst Collection of Bible illustrations housed at Belgrave Hall, Leicester, England (The Kevin Victor Freestone Bequest). Photo by Philip De Vere. https://www.flickr.com/groups/the_phillip_medhurst_collection_of_bible_prints

Same

A table song for enemies:

O Christ, the Son of God,
have mercy on us all.
Alike you drew us from the mud;
alike to death we fall.

And all alike we sin:
Before your gaze we stand,
marked by the blood of kith and kin,
with weapons in our hands.

Have mercy on us, Lord,
who all alike are lost,
and teach us to lay down our swords
and take, each one, our cross.

To follow where you led,
not just to Calvary,
but sitting where you broke the bread
to feed your enemy.

For we are all still dust,
in triumph or in shame;
as one we share an equal thirst.
Our hunger is the same.

Then let us break your bread
and share in it as one.
As one by mercy we are fed,
within your kingdom come.

Last Supper. Russian icon By Anonimous – http://www.sedmitza.ru/ index.html?did=32500, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3071693

Psalm 46

Riffing on Psalm 46:

Come, O Lord: The earth is shaken,
mountains falling to their knees.
All we thought we knew is breaking
with the raging of the seas.
Be our refuge and our shelter;
be our help in troubled days.
Let the earth be still your dwelling,
through the bloody wars we wage.

See, O Lord, how we hold nothing:
Only you can fill that void.
In our need, we fight for somethings
until everything's destroyed.
Look on us, the weak and thirsty;
see us wounded, hungry ones
aching for the taste of mercy,
yearning 'til your kingdom comes.

Speak, O Lord: Your word is power.
Break the bow and bend the spear.
Turn the bloodied swords to plowshares
with the whisper of “Be still!”
Turn our battlefields to gardens;
turn our famines into feasts.
Come at last to reap your harvest
with the implements of peace.

Rapier By Rama – Own work, CC BY-SA 2.0 fr, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4359923

Images

He said to them, “Whose image is this and whose inscription?”
They replied, “Caesar’s.”
At that he said to them,
“Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar
and to God what belongs to God.”
Matthew 22:15-21

In the beginning of it all,
you drew us on the ground.
You plunged your hands into the soil
and sculpted what you found.

You made your image from the dust—
no gold or precious stones,
but mud and water, flame and rust:
These bear your face alone.

Why, then, are we so prodigal
to squander what you make?
The question of all questions still,
since Abel fled from Cain.

But on a day that no one knows,
one Image will return
to sit upon a burning throne
and raise the ones we mourn.

One question only will he ask
as we for mercy plead,
as every stone cries out at last:
“Whose images are these?”

Tiberius. AD 14-37. AR Denarius (18mm, 3.84 g, 7h). Lugdunum (Lyon) mint. Group 1, AD 15-18. Obverse:TI[berivs] CAESAR DIVI AVG[vsti] F[ilivs] AVGVSTS (Caesar Augustus Tiberius, son of the Divine Augustus), laureate head right Reverse: PONTIF[ex] MAXIM[us], Livia (as Pax) seated right on chair, holding scepter in right hand, olive branch in left; plain chair legs. Catalogs: RIC I 26; Lyon 144; RSC 16; BMCRE 34; cf. BN 14 (aureus). This particular coin has been graded as “EF, toned, Artistic style”. When Jesus was asked whether or not it was lawful to pay tribute to Caesar, he requested that he be shown a coin. After questioning his questioners, he replied “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s“. It has been argued that a coin similar to this one was the coin handed to Jesus. By Classical Numismatic Group, Inc. http://www.cngcoins.com, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=24821148

Canticle

Based on the Canticle of Zechariah:

How long, O Lord, must I pray
and weep to deafened skies?
How long until the light breaks,
and when will your sun rise?
Our guns unleash their thunder;
our rockets blazing bright,
we split the skies asunder,
but this is not your light.

How long until you hear us,
until you look down low?
O Mercy, now draw near us
who in the shadows groan!
We wail along with sirens
as rubble fills the streets,
and afterwards, the silence
is not the sound of peace.

We long have dwelt in shadows:
of death, of doubt, of fear.
O God, in your compassion,
draw near to us!  Draw near!
Unlock the door that bars us;
free us and guide our feet
on paths you lay before us
into the way of peace.

Estatua en mármol de San Zacarías, ubicada en la iglesia de San Juan en Arévalo, Ávila. Está datada a mediados del siglo XII. By Ángel M. Felicísimo from Mérida, España – San Zacarías en Arévalo, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=107065485