Well-in-hand
Anchorite Julian 1,
(man's name, woman's heart),
said all manner of thing shall be well.
Out of her fevered reveries
came certitude of divine love.
Crazy Candide 2 saw
grace even in quakes,
tsunamis and fires.
We still search there for
signs of His compassion.
What is the Christian role
when the unhinged reign
and innocents suffer?
Gaddafi's crime is to
expose our uncertainty.
Unforgivably, he shows
that we haven't a clue
how to love our neighbor.
We really don't know
whether to cry or scream.
Food would only
feed the hungry;
Arms only stoke the fire.
Surely more was asked
of us by Christ.
Humility is a start,
prayer a good middle;
but far, far more must follow.
Our lives may need to be
turned inside-out.
Empires rule;
consumers devour,
until none remains.
In the end we find that
Ozymandias 3 is not Gaddafi; Ozymandias is us.
God watches...and waits for our next move.
—Alexander Patico, Secretary (North America), Orthodox Peace Fellowship
Notes:
1 Julian of Norwich, 1342-1416, a solitary contemplative and author of Revelations of Divine Love.
2 Candide, the eponymous protagonist of a book by enlightenment philosopher Voltaire, regarding the theological proposition that we live in "the best of all possible worlds."
3 Ozymandias, alternate name for pharaoh Ramesses the Great, commemorated in a poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley by the same name in 1918.