XXVII
SWORD

Your body like a sword that shines in the sun;
your body like a sword that sparkles in the sun,           Isaiah 34:6.
a sword of the Lord, covered with blood,
like the knife with which the scaly skin           Job 51:7.
of the Leviathan was cut away;
like a sword that wins battles
—your word is a two-edged sword!—           Hebrews 4:12.
which is used to sever the earthly cord
of our life. Since You came
to bring us peace by means of war:           Luke 12:51, 54.
because of You there is war between parent
and child; between brothers, husband and wife:
you are the sword of peace that wounds
in order to put an end to war with war;
you are the steel that divides and unites,
since only that which divides can unite;
and you are the sword that burns, pure fire,
like the flaming sword of the cherubim           Genesis 3:24.
who guards the path to the tree of life
in paradise. And you are the white flame
in the blazing fire, the crucible of our souls,
that dissolves our pain and transmutes it
into a river leading to the sun, an ocean of fire.
A white flash, a lightning bolt which is blood
from the darkness, like the one which
struck Saul on the road to Damascus,
asking him, “why do you persecute me, Saul!
I am Jesus whom you persecute, Saul.”           Acts 10.
White flame of fire which devours,
a blaze of love: like the dry tinder
that burns my entire heart;
my sinful flesh is consumed,
and its glowing sparks become embers!