Vigiling

 

I remember Maundy Thursday

As a loving day

Maybe we knew Good Friday’s coming

It’s a homely name, Maundy

I like it

I liked the quiet, burnished time in church

When had communion after dinner

In my home-like church

 

That was long ago, and there have been

Hard days since

Even then there were some challenges

I rose and fell

And tried to rise again

Isn’t this the life we have?

 

Maundy means mandatum

(sorry, teacher talks)

That is command

Because Christ gives to followers

Not a suggestion

A good idea in the feedback box

But a directive

Love one another

And I call you friends

 

Not bad for a Thursday

Looking toward an empty Saturday

Knowing that hope

And hopelessness must be comingled

For a time

 

The warmth on one day

The cold of a void the next

There might be triumph

Most would take

Small victory for more days of good life

And peaceful living

 

And why not

We follow as we will

Into the garden

Up the hill

To split places in the world

Underneath, as if to die

Hoping to awake

In a quiet place again

 

Leaving something like

A hibernation

Toward a meal with family

And our forever friends

 

Anathema

Catharsis

If we must have both

Well, that frightens me

Maybe you are more stalwart

I’d respect that, I’m sure

 

But for those of us

Even a little part part-rabbit

We treasure stillness

But the moving kind

That assures us there is day

To follow night

And a life in the light that’s good

 

It will happen

It might be hard at first

Maybe we fight, maybe we endure

But three days follow Thursday

Then we’ll know

We’ll know again

And for the first time

 

C L Couch

 

 

Sergio de Castro, detail of Jonah window for the Collegiate of Romont (Switzerland).

(image) Dominique Souse – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=38701105