Even at Sunset, You Show Me the Passion of Your Shroud

John 19:38-42

A complete silence
settles, and utter stillness darkens
my awe, and Our Lord from
His Cross is being taken down, and
Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus
are hurrying to wrap Him with
perfumed spices…before
turns into blood-red
the night’s burial cloth.

Equines

To think, lo aft all
these millennia, they still
patiently await their
Savior’s return, horses, gathered
as they are at the shoreline
of His heavenly carpet,
just as they were at
the Bethlehem stable and
amongst the crowd of
flowing, colorful robes,
when Jesus whispered
His Beatitudes at
the Sermon on the Mount.
There was something
special about Him.
He listened to them, and
when He spoke, even
at ease were placed the
wildest tides. And
so now they wait…At first
they thought His
Second Coming would
be imminent, but that was
before they realized
He was not bound by simple
space and time. The
sand grains gave testament
and final clues to this –
once finest, granite rock they
incredibly stood, sheer
slabs of almighty might, but now
in their humbleness
reduced to infinitesimal
specks…content to be imprinted
on the bottoms of each
horse’s hooves.

John 20:29

(“How Happy Are Those Who Believe Without Seeing Me!”)

And so tonight the dark
rolls over me, and my soul sighs,
and I let the effects
settle and stay upon me,
because there is
naught to do otherwise,
except to watch as
do sentinels for daybreak,^*
when God’s face over
my doubt rises.

Saving Mercy

O Lord, “create in me
a clean heart” and wash the soiled
memories and reasonings
from the murals to which I cling.^*
“Leadeth me beside the
still waters,” wherefrom Your Love can
bathe my soul in Beauty.^**
O Lord, “create in me
a clean heart,” and I, in surety, can in
Your sheepfold rest in peace,
dipping my gourd into
Your living spring, eternally
slaking what before
could not be relieved.^***

Ode to Jesus

So much of You
is mystery,
so much of You is
Bethlehem stable and
Calvary Cross.

So much of You
is shadow,
so much of You is
Light o’ercoming doubt
of Thomas.