The Day They Call Good

At this hour He hangs.

The blind He healed no longer see; the deaf He healed no longer understand. Those who stood close are now only brave enough to watch -- from a safe distance.

He cries out; they bring Him vinegar and gall to drink. A small Roman market opens at the foot of a dripping cross: guards place bids on His garments, even the hem of His garment.

Nothing can stop His bleeding issue.

No one knows, perhaps not (yet) even He, that everyone hangs in Him, that His exsanguination is theirs; is their only hope. There is mockery, scoffing, cursing;

the unknowing living spit sarcasm into His wounds,

He, the only knowing dying,

turns vitriol to wine
He has finished His cup
and it pours out
pooling beneath so many
nervous feet

one thief finds paradise in His great poverty
another finds nothing worth taking
not even this broken bit of bread

a sign maker admires his work,
dumb to the irony of his irony
a crown weaver picks a thorn from his thumb
thinking about furlough

a virgin finds her son finding her Son
and a son finds the mother who gave birth to
a dying God

a rabbi weeps at the Law's last breath
a guard feels the weakness of the sword,
the strength of surrender

a spear pierces the side of heaven
and hell spills out

there is no safe distance


©2007 Bill Gnade. All Rights Reserved.

Super Shrove Tuesday And Following

It will be easy to forget, largely because Americans have been force-fed a steady diet of Super-sized media events for the last few weeks. First, it was Super Sunday, the annual national holiday involving two football teams, too much food, and countless TV sets. Then, this year, immediately following Super Bowl Sunday, 22 American states celebrate Super Tuesday, perhaps the most significant primary and caucus day in presidential politics. For days after Super Tuesday, the American media will drive Tuesday's events right into a Super-sized cliff.

All of this results in the diminution of the great Christian season of Lent. Tomorrow, Shrove or Fat Tuesday, marks the transition from feast to fast; the fast which begins Wednesday, Ash Wednesday, or the official start of the Lenten season of penitence, discipline, mortification, gratitude, hope, deliverance, resurrection, and triumphant rejoicing.

I would urge my Christian readers to remember this season with all due diligence. It is a season of wonders, a season of soft and salvific discipline. It is a reminder of all good things to come.

Peace.

BG

©Bill Gnade 2008/Contratimes. All Rights Reserved.