PAIN:
IT HURTS!
Poem for Today - Monday - September 29, 2014
THE WAY OF PAIN
For parents, the
only way
is hard. We who
give life
give pain. There
is no help.
Yet we who give
pain
give love; by pain
we learn
the extremity of
love.
I read of
Abraham's sacrifice
the Voice required
of him,
so that he lead to
the altar
and the knife his
only son.
The beloved life
was spared
that time, but not
the pain.
It was the pain
that was required.
I read of Christ
crucified,
the only begotten
Son
sacrificed to
flesh and time
and all our woe.
He died
and rose, but who
does not tremble
for his pain, his
loneliness,
and the darkness
of the sixth hour?
Unless we grieve
like Mary
at his grave,
giving him up
as lost, no Easter
morning comes.
And then I slept,
and dreamed
the life of my
only son
was required of
me, and I
must bring him to
the edge
of pain, not
knowing why.
I woke, and yet
that pain
was true. It
brought his life
to the full in me.
I bore him
suffering, with love like the sun,
too bright,
unsparing, whole.
© Wendell Berry
in Upholding Mystery,
An Anthology
of Contemporary
Christian Poetry,
edited by David Impastato.
Oxford University Press,
pages 43-44
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