Holy Trinity
Dunked beneath the piled up waves
of Jordan’s pilgrim water
a rabbi unshackled by sin
submitted to the ranks of the sinful and halt
who longed to see the face of God
without the screen of tears,
like the river’s splashes,
too murky to check the bottoms
of life flowing by,
too fast for answers of lasting life.
The water washed and cooled his body
and moisturized the tissue,
a threefold gift
conveying baptism’s operation
of letting go of a sinful past
to weave a cloak of worthy works
and live in keeping with the Maker’s managing.
The Jordan stacked its waters
like mountain seas of blood,
as evil’s grime and thick detritus
impacted on him as an Atlas restraint.
He embraced the moraine of millenniums
and groaned and grasped the burden
made light because
it was a brother-sister’s load,
and in this gift
of struggling brothers and sisters
he knew he was a son
of a loving father,
who sent a comforter or spirit guide,
and Jesus learned
the operation of God,
relating by personhood,
a threefold personification
of creating love,
redeeming love,
and sanctifying love,
external manifestations
of a God defined as love.
May 2015
Bonaventure Stefun, OFM Cap.
See more reflections here.
Advent-Christmas