How long will we inhabit the
earth?
I’m told the world started with a big bang,
Or maybe it was through evolution.
Some say God created the world,
But these days nothing makes sense,
Especially in the wake of America’s demise.
If all came to be when gaseous worlds collided,
Perhaps it is that unforeseen worlds end in extinction
Comfortable coincidences no one can explain.
Is it not easier to see the world evolve?
God cannot possibly be the creator of atrocities,
Until all is in question these past days.
There is no longer one world or any world,
No reason to believe the possibility of humanity.
There is no future reason to celebrate success,
For only failure dashes every hope and dream.
Life is snuffed out to no longer respond,
Inquiries only defy the meaning of life.
Now resting in the ruins and ashes of defeat,
We struggle amidst insanity to declare freedom.
Crawling from opprobrium we seek light,
The first release from helplessness,
We boldly declare our faith to scream aloud,
That no ashes will ever bind us to the earth,
For our power rests in the hope of declaration
That defeated we shall entertain victory
Translated as a cry for justice and peace,
Oblivious to condemnation, vengeance or revenge.
And now today peace rests within the grasp of humanity,
For God’s greatest gift is the gift of humanity
A spark or amber in the amidst of rubble
Declaring a sense of relentless and enduring hope,
No longer extinguishable, attainable through love
Until an enemy becomes my sister and brother
And God is finally discovered indistinguishable
From woman and man will always be God’s greatest gift,
The real treasure we must never neglect.
Father John Walsh
September 2001
|
Death is nothing
at all
Death is nothing at all,
I have only slipped away
Into the next room.
I am I,
And you are you;
Whatever we were to each other,
That, we still are.
Call me by my old
familiar name,
Speak to me in the easy way
Which you always used,
Put no difference in your tone,
Wear no forced air
Of solemnity or sorrow.
Laugh as we always
laughed
At the little jokes we shared together.
Let my name ever be
The household word that it always was.
Let it be spoken without effect,
Without the trace of a shadow on it.
Life means all
That it
ever meant.
It is the same as it ever was.
There is unbroken continuity.
Why should I be out of
mind
Because I am out of sight?
I am waiting for you,
For an interval,
Somewhere very near,
Just around the corner.
All is well.
Henry Scott Holland
1847 -1918
|
Nothing new under the sun
There are no words
and yet they must be found
to bear witness
to these chaotic times.
We who thought were evolved
and illuminated,
simultaneously feel
love and hate,
faith and fear.
There's nothing new under the sun,
nothing that has not been felt before.
Wise words from a book
said to be the Word of God.
The same God
that everyone claims
Is on their side
on the battlefield.
Who does God speak to?
Who listens when God speaks?
What do they hear?
I see what people do
in the name of God,
and it doesn't look real.
And I think,
If I were God,
I'd strike down all
who do harm in my name.
I'd make them disappear
into thin air.
Fortunately, I'm not God.
I'm ridiculous, like everyone
who wants to
think for God.
Only God is God.
God is love, not hate.
God is life, not death.
God is good, not evil.
Anyone who thinks
God guides to do harm
is gravely deluded.
God is love.
No scriptures, radicals,
holy people or sinners
will make me believe
otherwise.
We're confused,
and we try to make God
look confused too.
Shame on us.
How dare we?
Carmen Colombo
October 2001
|
The Kingdom of God
God says
that I should love
those who hurt me.
For through them,
the Kingdom of God
is revealed.
How do I manifest
the glory of the Kingdom?
While I am in the world,
the Kingdom is within me.
Am I wise enough to see
its reality?
Am I strong enough to keep
its integrity?
My cup runs over,
I am full of emotions.
Each pulling me
in different directions.
But what do I reveal
if I retaliate?
What do I reveal
if I forgive?
Free will is mine.
But evil, like termites,
makes the Kingdom
collapse.
Little by little,
unnoticeable on the outside.
But quietly creating
a vacuum inside.
Emptiness is...
The denial of love.
The coldness of alienation;
The final result of pride's
fleeting satisfaction.
What good is
an empty Kingdom?
Devoid of life,
its light extinguished?
The children of God
are recognized by
the way that they
love one another.
My only choice, then,
as a child of God,
is to love.
Easier said than done.
Cruel.
Unthinkable.
Yet...
necessary.
For my own good,
for the common good.
And above all
in honor of
the Kingdom of God.
Carmen Colombo
March 2002
|
