Do you want to know God? Then learn to understand the weaknesses and imperfections of other men. But how can you understand the weaknesses of others unless you understand your own? And how can you see the meaning of your own limitations until you have received mercy from God, by which you know yourself and Him? Thomas Merton. No Man Is An Island.
(Fifth Sunday in Lent)
How can I forgive
the man who
consumes childhood
like cheap wine
who hides behind priestly collars,
wears his holiness like a
circus costume,
to fill young lives
with piercing guilt?
Is there a man
to whom you will not
bend your brow?
who, face-to-face at last
sheds tears of sorrow,
shocked to learn that
in the end,
indeed
you are?
and if you forgive
the man who pulled
levers in Auschwitz,
to release the gas
that made holy martyrs
by the millions,
if you give a second, third
chance to the arrogant man
who slayed the children
of Norway
because he feared Islam,
If you permit even the presence
of the greatest of haters
Der Feurhrer, Der Ubermensch,
drawn, at last, like a moth, to your
golden glow,
where is justice?
How can I forgive?
My cheeks bloodied
shall I strive to be
what I cannot be?
But if my vengeance
becomes my god,
then how could you ever
forgive me?
(23 April 2012)
(Fifth Sunday in Lent)
How can I forgive
the man who
consumes childhood
like cheap wine
who hides behind priestly collars,
wears his holiness like a
circus costume,
to fill young lives
with piercing guilt?
Is there a man
to whom you will not
bend your brow?
who, face-to-face at last
sheds tears of sorrow,
shocked to learn that
in the end,
indeed
you are?
and if you forgive
the man who pulled
levers in Auschwitz,
to release the gas
that made holy martyrs
by the millions,
if you give a second, third
chance to the arrogant man
who slayed the children
of Norway
because he feared Islam,
If you permit even the presence
of the greatest of haters
Der Feurhrer, Der Ubermensch,
drawn, at last, like a moth, to your
golden glow,
where is justice?
How can I forgive?
My cheeks bloodied
shall I strive to be
what I cannot be?
But if my vengeance
becomes my god,
then how could you ever
forgive me?
(23 April 2012)
