Be happy for the failing
that gained
a champion of infinite prowess,
and happier still,
with mercy beyond the infinite,
for those who experience
the gratitude
of knowing mercy
at the judgment seat,
for there, the more the failure,
so more the restoring forces,
until it takes on the work
of cosmetic surgery.
With bursting nets
the Zeebeedes filled both the boats,
while Peter stood and gawked.
The fishermen made fast transition
from netting for fish
to enticement for people,
from Isaiah wailing
for his lack of speech
through the final days
of the drama of redemption.
The numbers of Ordinary Time
will count the millennia
that we waited
for this Holy Year of Mercy,
not that the Lord withheld it,
but humans had covered hearts,
and minds misguided
by the weight of life’s responsibilities.
Emmanuelites,
in opening devotions,
included Messiah for their worship,
confessing him incarnate God,
wondering
what marvels they could anticipate,
if God assumed a human form
would angels respond in kind?
or, perhaps withdraw
to make more space
for beings of the human kind
to make of creation
a shout of joyful praise?
I pray by numbers,
just press the number '1'
and all my obligations
toward family and friends
would seek resolution,
the first
and most important
of towering requirements
for seeking aid
or guidance,
from a father
whose concern supplants
the best that I could conjecture.
With stars and creches packed away
we pray our scheduled hours
and liturgies
without emotional promptings,
beginning the ordered weeks
of Sundays by the number.
No frills of added songs,
or ornamentation entice us.
no prelates officiate
as their vestments get tucked and pressed,
for coming festive days,
John’s baptism separated people
from their stealthyÂ
inborn sinning,
contesting them
for service without slippage,
recruiters’ school
for the Master’s corps.
They took the purity
of Jordan’s murky waters,
the stream that terminated
by evaporation,
as though the waves
distilled themselves
in higher yearnings,
abandoning
the sludge and foul debris.
The word Epiphany
befuddles children
and the simple.
To say it comes from the Greek,
forever renders it,
for a second grader,Â
impossible to learn or remember.
With luckier words,
like making things clear,
or explanation,
describing in daily words,
or introducing a person,
as in telling what a person is like,
with honest words.
What have messiahs to do
with families?
If ours is to teach
or lead us into battle,
he lies helpless in his crib,
though when presented to God
at eight days old,
he possessed Jerusalem,
for the prophetess Anna declared,
he conquered the city,
with nothing but pigeon power.