Oh, no, not this harsh and dreadful
Given on this night of Your glory.
Send me to fast in the desert.
Tell me to light a thousand candles.
Command me to give my body to be burned.
But do not ask me to love as You love me.
I simply don’t have it in me.
This world is filled with Judases,
Thieves who betray with a kiss,
Liars who despise all that You profess.
I agree with the Sons of Thunder:
Call down fire from heaven!
So much of me simply wants to see
An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.
Who cares if we all go blind and toothless?
I keep stumbling over this command
To do what I cannot do – by myself.
But wait… oh, yes, I begin to see it now,
A hidden invitation – to beg of You,
To stretch the muscles of my heart.
—Fr. J. Michael Sparough, S.J. is a retreat master, spiritual director, playwright, and poet at the Bellarmine Jesuit Retreat House