Resurrected Stranger

Remember, Lord, the good old days
of packed synagogues rapt
by your fresh-air teachings
and electric crowds of contagious cures?

Remember how alive and focused
we all felt far away from the dopey
smell of fish?
Man! (or Son thereof)

we were on top of the world!
(or was it over the moon?)
the cat’s meow and the camel’s hump!

But then came Your perforation--
they pierced and pressed You out
like a teabag after boiled steeping.

In the wooden crosshair shadow
all we want with all our heart
is to remember and forget
in such rapid succession
that the little pencil drawings
of Your life and ours
attain once more some animation.

But that’s not what this is now about,
dear Resurrected Stranger.
Christ Almighty!
We got to work again
all over to get to know You
and nothing we knew before
will be much help
in this hard, so hard and happy task.

 

Greg Kennedy, SJ works as a spiritual director at the Ignatius Jesuit Centre in Guelph, Ontario. He is author of Reupholstered Psalms volumes I, II, and III; and Amazing Friendships between Animals and Saints (Novalis Press).

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2 Comments
  • Adelaide MaDonald
    Posted at 07:56h, 28 April Reply

    Astute and true, I think.

  • Peter Bisson
    Posted at 09:00h, 28 April Reply

    Thank you very much Greg!

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