LAMENT BEFORE EASTER

- by Verena Hoffmann, Kingsburg, March 30, 2009

I did not know!
I cry,
How deep the misery would be –
Yet I chose to come.

All I saw
Was darkness;
Twisted bodies, distorted minds,
Lost souls crying for home.

I did not know
How it would feel
To become one of them.
All I wanted was to heal.
To wake up each soul
To Light and Love
To make them whole.

So I stood up,
There, high in the mountains,
The most beloved child
in the circle of wise old men.
I will bring them Love and Hope,
I said,
And joyfully I danced
down the slope.

How could I know
What it would be
When plunged
Into human frailty?

I did not question –
nor did it matter,
yet I cry
when darkness creeps up high
and clouds my mind
in useless chatter,
and heaviness
engulfs mankind –
and – that is I!
From faraway I hear:
Embrace it gently and bear
It up to Me.

A lifetime spent
Wading through darkness –
where is the end?

Be quiet, child.
There are no answers,
There are no rules,
But this I say:
You will be there
At dawn
When
The stone is rolled away.