Poem For The Sunday Lectionary (Reign Of Christ, Yr B)

SONNET FOR THE REIGN OF CHRIST
(John 18: 33-37)

You, upon your throne of self-giving love
set upon a garbage-heap – that tower
of wood where on a dark day you are shoved
(to be rid of you) by the world’s powers –
you who called the blind to new ways of sight
and freed from their chains the captives to fear
and despair; who, with love’s strength in fresh light,
called the lost from graves, yet commanding here
no armies, holding here no sword, allow
yourself to suffer death for others – your
rule is surely not of this world. But how
surely it is our need! Show us the door
to true peace, O Christ. Rule our hearts: your voice
our one guide. Your way of love our one choice.