Despite the fits and starts, faith’s a great and graspable Gift.
Just as none of us can unravel the mystery of beauty
so it is with the beauty of the Mystery.
We die inside–a scorpion sting–
by the silence of our friends, our lovers, our family.

“Then, what can I do?”
We can do this:
we can gather it up,
the cup can be filled, the top can be reached.

This is how it goes: Let’s all come,
let’s touch
let’s sit around the table, touching,
let us chew and swallow
our bread of faith
in one room
from one table in one place
One in our taking it in, we be bound as one.
The oneness making faith easier, and so
making hardships easier.

So yes, at this time,
and in this place,
we’ll eat with our friends & family
who ate with their friends & family
and their friends &; family…
to link time, substance, space

all the way back to
a hard table & a hard floor
where a handful of hard men were eating with the Lord
as He faced The Hard Time,
and whose faith they borrowed—
a kind of plagiarism.

But which, somehow in the end,
cements
all sorts, varieties, and degrees of separateness
of this, our alien identity, with the One.
And through some kind of miracle of multiplication
he shared the One Bread,
but it has served billions–
And with His sharing and serving,
has given each one of us
our primary of allegiance.

And yes, for each of us faith is different–
God’s not interested in mass production.
And though our faith is the same,
the product is unique.
And no convert is
the Original.

©A Charity Higgins Johnson 2021