The Call to Stay
Hesed.
We learned that word as spongy novices
From Joseph Patrick Brennan
(biblical scholar, faith-filled priest-friend,
sunny-faced lover of life.)
Hesed.
Steadfast love,
which came to live in
Mary, the mother of Jesus,
Mary Magdalen, the apostle to the apostles,
and a host of other women disciples of Jesus.
They knew, practiced with,
drew strength from
the Steadfast One.
Priceless hesed.
Steadfast love.
Women today practice hesed.
(Men do, too, of course, but
this reflection affirms
women,
braced against and bullied by no’s,
who dare the unthinkable.)
The temptation,
potent and simmering,
Is to become unsteady,
lovelessening.
We do hold fast to steadfast love,
but not without cost…
… lopsided lives,
half of which have been
lost, limited and lamented.
… hearts and hands
directed by others
(friends, foes or fragile
Imitators of the Steadfast One.)
Go, they say.
Stay. Leap. Run. Wait.
Again, again, again.
We stay steadfastly firm,
In unwanted ways,
knowing that deniers of our apostleship
await our silent fall
into our own denial of our very selves.
Unflappable,
born of faith and hope everyday
we create our environments.
We cast around us,
like fertile Seeds,
images of what could be
If hesed became welcome
In the form of a woman.
Tireless hesed.
Determined hesed.
Hesed of many voices, sprouts and hues.
Offered by Joan Sobala ssj