Gethsemane

The word you wanted doesn't come:
the moment of abandonment.
“But, Father, let your will be done.”
You'll bend the way the world is bent.

The weight of our mortality,
the desperate comfort Judas takes,
fall on you in Gethsemane.
You'll bend beneath it 'til you break.

We cut ourselves away from God—
it was another garden, then—
and it was then we pierced your heart.
Oh, we will pierce it once again,

but first your kneel to wash our feet,
to give yourself as covenant,
and when the Passover's complete
we'll look upon the one we've rent.

Your eyes, O Jesus, will not see
that looked upon creation's birth.
The dark not dark to you will be,
and you'll be laid, alone, in earth.

All those who're born are doomed to die,
O Son of Man from mankind torn,
but you alone have cause to cry,
“My God, why leave me here forlorn?”

Brooklyn Museum – The Grotto of the Agony (La Grotte de l’agonie) – James Tissot – Online Collection of Brooklyn Museum; Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 2006, 00.159.231_PS1.jpg, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10957579

Counted

“For I tell you that this Scripture must be fulfilled in me,
namely, He was counted among the wicked;
and indeed what is written about me is coming to fulfillment.”
—Luke 22:14-23:56

We had Eden, but we lost it,
and our lives as leaves are flown.
Now a chasm—Lord, you crossed it—
lies between us and your throne.
You are counted with the fallen,
flesh of flesh and bone of bone.

Now into creation's burden
you have come to bear its griefs,
and at last to crush the serpent
died, a leaf among the leaves.
You were counted with the worthless,
as a thief among the thieves.

Knowing this would mean your slaughter,
still you filled the wounded world.
Even the rope that Judas knotted
had you woven in the cord.
You were counted with the godless,
and you took their death as yours.

Even the leaf by winter withered
clinging empty to the vine
you will draw into your kingdom
when you drink the brand-new wine.
You were counted with the sinners:
Count us, Lord, with the divine.

Ecce Homo, Nuno Gonçalves, 15th century By Unknown author – [1], Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6014228

Harrowed

To lie so long in darkness
that you forget your sight—
then shaken by a heartbeat,
pierced by a spear of light,
your chest, constricted, burning—
you choke through yards of dirt.
The breath of life returning,
and oh, dear God, it hurts.

Contort and cough and retch now;
remember how to gasp.
Your folded hands are stretched out
and pinned within his grasp.
Your legs are drawn and trembling,
weak as newborn pup,
the fragments reassembling
as you are lifted up.

How many days you lay there,
crumbling at last to dust!
Now all at once awakened,
ravenous, drenched in thirst,
still your son draws you upward,
Adam and Mother Eve,
to where he fills the cup full.
Take it, he says, and drink.

In Harrowing of Hades, fresco in the parecclesion of the Chora Church, Istanbul, c. 1315, raising Adam and Eve is depicted as part of the Resurrection icon, as it always is in the East. Photo By © José Luiz Bernardes Ribeiro, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16873002

Exodus

You come now to the strand:
The sea before you crawls,
and though you cling to your homeland,
another kingdom calls.

Your feet, already wet,
inch toward the farther shore.
You are a creature of the depths
you've never known before.

You try to dig right in,
to grip the gritty sand,
but each wave slipping back again
pulls home out of your hands.

Let go; O love, let go.
This Egypt is not yours.
You stand now on the Red Sea road,
with only one way forward:

through sorrow and through pain.
They will not stand like walls,
but plunge you in the heaving main.
You cannot swim at all.

They only promise this,
that whispers in the tide:
Beyond the sea, beyond abyss,
there is another side.

Crossing of the Red Sea By Nicolas Poussin – http://www.1st-art-gallery.com/Nicolas-Poussin/The-Crossing-Of-The-Red-Sea,-C.1634.html, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10289613

Mother

From Grace Hamman’s Jesus Through Medieval Eyes, the chapter on Christ as Mother. For Holy Week:

As Eve cried out in labor,
who bore the curse and Cain,
and wept again for Abel,
so you bear us in pain.

The body gaping open,
the wound of our first sin,
brings healing through the broken—
and new life enters in.

You walked the earth our brother,
formed with us of the dirt.
Now on the cross as mother,
your labor gives us birth

of water and the Spirit,
of holiness and blood.
The sin that we inherit
is drowned out in your flood.

Your body is out birthplace;
your sorrow is our hope.
O firstfruits of our dead race,
your life becomes our hope.

Your wounds O Lord, our shelter:
the shadow of your wings.
The cleft rock is our refuge,
O mother of all things!

The Birth of Ecclesia, fol. 2v (detail), ONB Han. Cod. 2554, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Vienna. Made in Paris, 1225–49.

Have Mercy

Have mercy on the flock,
though from your hand they flee.
If there's no mercy for the lost,
then there is none for me.

On all who cannot seek
beyond the bars they see:
If there's no mercy for the weak,
then there is none for me.

And on all who have done
what they dare not reveal:
If there's no mercy for the wrong,
then there is none for me.

On all who will fall down,
tripped on what they can't see:
If there's no mercy for the proud,
then there is none for me.

Have mercy on us all,
far-fallen though we be.
If there's no grace for those who call,
there can be none for me.

O God, have mercy still—
this, my unending plea.
Let even Judas' hands be filled:
Have mercy, Lord, on me.

The Kiss of Judas by Giotto di Bondone (between 1304 and 1306) depicts Judas’ identifying kiss in the Garden of Gethsemane

Spy Wednesday

What will you give me for him,
this troubling, trusting man?
Your soldiers cower before him;
I have him by the hand.

But still my hands are empty,
though thousands he has fed.
The world was mine: I left it—
for morsels of his bread.

He leads, and I have followed—
to hunger and to thirst.
His promises are hollow
as broken shells in the dust.

We cry to him for saving,
for healing, for the poor—
Whole armies fell to David;
he's turning tables over.

He calls himself a shepherd
who seeks the scattered sheep.
Then I must be too well fettered;
he does not look for me.

Then let him taste how bitter
it is to be his lamb.
So say what you will give me
to put him in your hands.

Christ tells his mother of what is to come; Judas on his way to the chief priest; Judas bargaining with the chief priests and receiving his silver By Unknown author – This image is available from the National Library of WalesYou can view this image in its original context on the NLW Catalogue, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=44920323

Alabaster Jar

When he was in Bethany reclining at table
in the house of Simon the leper,
a woman came with an alabaster jar of perfumed oil,
costly genuine spikenard.
She broke the alabaster jar and poured it on his head.
Mark 14:1-15:47

The carven alabaster,
a jar of sweet perfume,
rains out upon the master
anointing for the groom.
But once the flask is open,
no more can it be shut.
The hollow must be broken,
entirely poured out.

So Christ the living chalice
that holds the love of God,
not only tipped but shattered,
pours water from the rock.
And we are rendered speechless
as all the house is filled
with wonder at the fragrance
when that perfume is spilled.

We weep when it runs empty,
the sweetness all poured out;
we mourn to see his ending,
and all our tears drop down.
Though broken in his body,
anointed for the tomb,
still Christ pours out like water
the flood that makes us new.

Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. Berlin. Berlin, Berlin. Germany. Schilderij, Christus in het huis van Simon de farizeër, Dierick Bouts, ca 1465-1470. Painting. Christ in the House of Simon the Pharisee. Dierick Bouts. Ca 1465-1470. . Dieric Bouts (ca 1410/1415-1475). pmrmaeyaert@gmail.com. © Paul M.R. Maeyaert. © Paul M.R. Maeyaert. Ref: PM_152261_D_Berlin. DO NOT CHANGE THE FILE NAME. NE PAS CHANGER LE NOM DE FICHIER. By PMRMaeyaert – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=144874337

Come All God’s Great Creation

Come, all God's great creation;
come, Adam and come, Eve;
come, Cain and oh, come, Abel:
The light of Christ receive.
For he has opened barrows
and called the bones within.
The fields of hell he harrows
and tramples death and sin.

Come, Moses and Isaiah;
come, Peter and come, John;
come, Job and Jeremiah:
Arise and see the dawn.
Come, all who dwell in shadow;
come, exiled and forlorn
or weeping for your failures:
Come now and greet the morn.

Come, Abraham and Sarah;
come, Jacob and Esau;
come, Rachel and come, Leah:
Each one of you he calls.
Come out of death's dark valley:
He calls as as we are
and leads us into heaven
where we shall shine like stars.

Christ’s Descent into Limbo, woodcut by Albrecht Dürer, c. 1510 – Encyclopedia of Comparative Iconography. Volume 1, pp. 200-201 under “Damned Souls”, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=13756140

Judases

For Good Friday:

I dipped my hand into the dish
and took the bread you gave.
I pledged my faith to you in this,
and still I turned away.

I took your name upon my tongue
and knew it was divine.
I meant to make it ceaseless song,
then spilled it like sour wine.

But now your bread to acid turns;
my silver coins corrode;
the very bones within me burn:
I must pay what is owed.

They say that alms atone for sin,
but coins will not suffice.
O Master, may I mercy win?
Is there some sacrifice?

And if there is no grace for me,
if I must melt like wax
let pity drown me in its deeps:
Oblivion I ask.

Have mercy on the treacherous,
if such a thing can be.
If there's no hope for Judases,
then there is none for me.

Das Gewissen von Nikolai Nikolajewitsch Ge (1891) By Nikolai Ge – The Yorck Project (2002) 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei (DVD-ROM), distributed by DIRECTMEDIA Publishing GmbH. ISBN: 3936122202., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=151431