Jesus is Here, This Week

Yes, Christmas is when

we speak of incarnation.

Yet it’s this lunar week in springtime

when the Presence 

of Jesus orbits most near,

most real.

It’s Holy Week, and so Christ

prowls the halls of our churches,

palpable,

and abides as at no other time

in spare empty sanctuaries,

keeping vigil there.

Feel him there,

keeping vigil.

Midweek, the work makes us scurry,

busy with details of services

and moving the furniture.

But time nonetheless moves slow now,

slowed down heavy with mystery 

and confounding sacred meanings.

Don’t preach this week.

Why offer your frail explanations

when he is here himself,

exuding his own vast Selfhood?

Your words will clatter foolish

in his so-near Presence.

Tell the story then sit down.

Let Christ take it from there,

meeting his people 

in the air around the music

and in divine-laden silences.

It is Holy Week here on Earth

and the Christ is among us,

Realer than real,

shaken free of all cliches.

Let all mortal flesh keep silence.