BREAD  OF  LIFE 

Poem for Today

EUCHARIST

Grip of Christ around my heart!

Ah, let nothing rend apart

Flesh and love that interlock

Thick as roots that buckle rock.

Lord, thy links are hard to sever.

Swear then I am saved forever;

Cannot, though I twist and slip,

Free me fully from Thy grip.

Or at least this fair assurance:

 Should I tear the lovely durance,

Rip with sin the massy tackle—

Tender Eucharistic shackle

Love-alive and fiercely sweet

Round my heart's rebellious beat—

Let the last convulsive shreds

Drag, and cut me with their threads,

Score me Touch Not—Dearly Priced,

Brand me X for Jesus Christ.

So, when I am saved from hell,

Come, ye saints, mark it well:

Here's salvation barely gained

This one heart, though black and strained,

Showing crisscross, rudely sliced,

Scars where once clung roots of Christ.

© John Duffy

Page 35

in Under the

Goldwood Tree,

Poems by

John Duffy, C.SS.R.

Exposition Press,

Smithtown, New York

1982