After thirty years' seclusion,
a brief public career of journeys,
preaching and spectacular healings,
on tour with a band of friends
and their attendants. It was an
operation of a certain success;
He made quite the stir, caught
the notice of crowds and important
authorities. And always with some
luck to count on, as this Man could
walk through a murderous mob
like Abednego dancing in the fiery
furnace. Then, the triumph in
Jerusalem, palm branches and
hosannas; they could all be pleased
with such a reception, expected
crowns in his kingdom.

Then victory turned to spectacle:
there is no more arresting public act
than the Martyr's final performance:
the mocking, scourging, forced march;
until they nailed him suspended
over the horde.

But first, for one desolate night,
he returned briefly to his privacy.
Abandoned in the Garden, he entered
his solitary cell, gripped by darkness,
bereft of friendship. Dread knowledge,
hidden offering, his heart handed over
to the Father: this first Golgotha
a forsaken cave again like Bethlehem.

CC 2007 Sharon Mollerus