CHRISTUS INVICTUS

In the racing, screaming
Silent cell
Weak, whimpering
In my body's hell

Eyes look upward
Sobs turn sweet
Warm arms embrace:
Father, daughter meet

Loved, unburdened
Floods of mercy flow
Peace, identity
All my life to owe

Though amazed,
Not ignorant of the cause
The "why" I kneel
In humble awes

A price was paid
For this communion sweet
A Life laid down
At justice's feet

An atonement made
For all mankind,
A way, The Way
To reunite with The Divine

An Endless Sacrifice
Why this must be
Required of the Innocent One?
I ask in humility

His sincere reply
In visions unfold:
Matchless love
Anguish untold

Just for me

That I may understand
That Jesus of Nazareth
Was more than
"Just a man"

Eyes opening
To His celestial rank
The horrors endured
With little thanks

The injustice, the pain
A projector in my mind
Seeing, feeling,
His unyielding love divine

Keep His commandments?
Is that all He asks?
Shouldn't there be more?
To repay such a task?

I'll do it all!
Words, songs, thoughts of praise
Revere, worship
All my days

I will thank

The God I know
In heartfelt extols
For the gift of His Son's
Unconquerable soul

----

The Wine Press of Grief
Forget? Never! I vow,
The Garden, His body bloodied
Reverently, I bow

In abject spirits
When I can't brook more
I think of The Kind One
Blood from every pore

When wronged by friend or foe
Anger seething my skin
I think of The Meek One
In hours most dim:

Nails pound through His bone
Still He chooses to live
Hung on a cross of hate
Speaks, "Father, forgive."

 For little brother, sister
Divine determination
Spat on, whipped, rejected
By man, His own creation

That Light descended
To the blackest pit of all
So the most base, vile being
Can reach upward if he calls

Because He understands

The grotesque of sin
The hysteria of shame
The dungeon of "alone"
The emaciated, maimed
The addict's tomb
The hold of secret chains
The abuser, the abused
The muted, the mundane
The exhaustion of the world
The bedlam of "insane"
The burning greed of body
The full spate of the brain

And mercifully, God,

--Inestimable memory
Superlative, intelligent
Forgets my wrongs
...When I repent

Truly

The Genesis of grace
The Exodus of gloom
Obviating danger
My own bright future blooms

So yes,

Alone--broken, dead,
Unequipped, I may be
A waltzing automaton
In trite mimicry

But under His tutelage
Conforming to The Son
I find happy, wacky, Rachael
My dark nights--all done

With The Family everlasting
Priesthood again on earth
Death and Hell mastered
The Finisher in berth

The orb of time shattered
The world laid out in scrolls
Christ conquered His fate
With blood, He bought our souls


CHRISTUS INVICTUS