"Who We Can Become" (Sunday, June 5, 2011)

Who we can become

We do not know our power,
any of us-- except perhaps those
who bathe in the power of others,
commanding armies to march
where they would never dare tread
themselves.

Our power (the power that comes
from within) is so much more humble
(and, let us hope, so much more abiding):
slow to anger, yes-- but too slow at times
to act and know itself, as well.

We can transform the moment,
and in so doing, begin to change
the world.
We can live in truth,
as much as that costs us,
(though, if truth be told,
its sacrifices pale when compared to the suicide
of giving oneself away endlessly
to the forces of death and taxes).

This is the miracle of our birth,
the miracle of our being here:
that in our radical dependence,
our utter insignificance,
we are called to uniqueness as well—
that our responsibility to the world
births the freedom of the soul.

We are called, all of us:
Called to live our lives,
Called to share our gifts,
Called to love one another,
in the continual shedding of old skins,
in the continual sacrifice of our old lives
for new ones.

jbs
2/20/03          6/1/03          6/5/11