When Mercy flows as a downpour,
without letup, in stint or volume,
what happens to the excess,
the Mercy left unused?
Does it drip below to a basin
where it gathers more of sunshine
to make its spray more crystal
and mindful of diamonds,
or stars,
or deeds of brighter face,
to await the one
who next is drawn
to beauty and to light
and Mercy’s seductive song?
Though Barbarossa the Second
left tears in Assisi’s font
of Baptism,
where Francis and Clare were baptized,
with his trail of evil designs
to conquer and despoil the world,
his countryman sent an emissary
to remind him
that he would choke
on a world that lacked for love,
and Frederick’s proposals
were flushed in the basin of Mercy.
When Mercy goes unused
another gains the insight
to invest the added treasure.
e. g.
the former altar server,
who wrote the sequel
to his sullen prison struggle
in the blood of extermination camps,
was countered and reversed
by two popes of sanctity
and the nun
who mercified Calcutta,
creating the opposite
of Nazis concentration camps.
Holy Year of Mercy, 2016
Bonaventure Stefun, OFM Cap.