Baptism of the Lord
You come to me to be baptized?
yet you can grant
a thousand times my gifts!
So let it be for now,
exhausting first
all ways that are only human,
the ways that fail to share
a life in God.
No perfection of natural effort
attains above the inborn traits,
as those of a rose,
or a horse’s marvelous speed,
but the best of nature’s gifts
cannot claim and share
a life in God.
The best of humans,
the apex of life,
is personified by John,
the greatest born
of life controlled by genes,
though those from the Spirit world
stand as though upon his shoulders.
Attached by love and admiration,
disciples will speak
of dying with me,
unmindful of the raging drive
to keep on living,
and not to sacrifice their life
to save another,
so all will flee
when I am led away,
until I breathe on them
and they learn to trust
beyond the second day,
admitting Abba’s third revealing day,
when they can share
a life in God eternally.
January 2015
Bonaventure Stefun, OFM Cap.
See more reflections here.