power more certain of itself?
Was ever such a trumpet heard ’twixt heaven and earth?
Was it known before that the murdered had compassion on his murderers? Or that the meteor stayed his footsteps for the mole?
The seasons shall tire and the years grow old, ere they exhaust these words: “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
And you and I, though born again and again, shall keep them.
And now I would go into my house, and stand an exalted beggar, at His door.
Birbàrah of Yammouni
Jesus was patient with the dullard and the stupid, even as the winter awaits the spring.
He was patient like a mountain in the wind.
He answered with kindliness the harsh questionings of His foes.
He could even be silent to cavil and dispute, for He was strong and the strong can be forbearing.
But Jesus was also impatient.
He spared not the hypocrite.
He yielded not to men of cunning nor to the jugglers of words.
And He would not be governed.
He was impatient with those who believed not in light because they themselves dwelt in shadow; and with those who sought after signs in the sky rather than in their own hearts.
He was impatient with those who weighed and measured the day and the night before they would trust their dreams to dawn or eventide.
Jesus was patient.
Yet He was the most impatient of men.
He would have you weave the cloth though you spend years between the loom and the linen.
But He would have none tear an inch off the woven fabric.
Pilate’s Wife, to a Roman Lady
I was walking with my maidens in the groves outside of Jerusalem when I saw Him with a few men and women sitting about Him; and He was speaking to them in a language which I only half understood.
But one needs not a language to perceive a pillar of light or a mountain of crystal. The heart knows what the tongue may never utter and the ears may never hear.
He was speaking to His friends of love and strength. I know He spoke of love because there was melody in His voice; and I know He spoke of strength because there were armies in His gestures. And He was tender, though even my husband could not have spoken with such authority.
When He saw me passing by, He stopped speaking for a moment and looked kindly upon me. And I was humbled; and in my soul I knew I had passed by a god.
After that day His image visited my privacy when I would not be visited by man or woman; and His eyes searched my soul when my own eyes were closed. And His voice governs the stillness of my nights.
I am held fast forevermore; and there is peace in my pain, and freedom in my tears.
Belovèd friend, you have never seen that man, and you will never see Him.
He is gone beyond our senses, but of all men He is now the nearest to me.
A Man Outside of Jerusalem
Judas came to my house that Friday, upon the eve of the Passover; and he knocked at my door with force.
When he entered I looked at him, and his face was ashen. His hands trembled like dry twigs in the wind, and his clothes were as wet as if he had stepped out from a river; for on that evening there were great tempests.
He looked at me, and the sockets of his eyes were like dark caves and his eyes were blood-sodden.
And he said: “I have delivered Jesus of Nazareth to His enemies and to my enemies.”
Then Judas wrung his hands and he said: “Jesus declared that He would overcome all His foes and the foes of our people. And I believed and I followed Him.
“When first He called us to Him He promised us a kingdom mighty and vast, and in our faith we sought His favour that we might have honourable stations in His court.
“We beheld ourselves princes dealing with these Romans as they have dealt with us. And Jesus said much about His kingdom, and I thought He had chosen me a captain of His chariots, and a chief man of his warriors. And I followed His footsteps willingly.
“But I found it was not a kingdom that Jesus sought, nor was it from the Romans He would have had us free. His kingdom was but the kingdom of the heart. I heard Him talk of love and charity and forgiveness, and the wayside women listened gladly, but my heart grew bitter and I was hardened.
“My promised king of Judea seemed suddenly to have turned flute-player, to soothe the mind of wanderers and vagabonds.
“I had loved Him as others of my tribe had loved Him. I had beheld Him a hope and a deliverance from the yoke of the aliens. But when He would not utter a word or move a hand to free us from that yoke, and when He would even have rendered unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s, then despair filled me and my hopes died. And I said: ‘He who murders my hopes shall be murdered, for my hopes and expectations are more precious than the life of any man.’ ”
Then Judas gnashed his teeth; and he bent down his head. And when he spoke again, he said: “I have delivered Him up. And He was crucified this day. … Yet when He died upon the cross, He died a king. He died in the tempest as deliverers die, like vast men who live beyond the shroud and the stone.
“And all the while He was dying, He was gracious, and He was kindly; and His heart was full of pity. He felt pity even for me who had delivered Him up.”
And I said: “Judas, you have committed a grave wrong.”
And Judas answered: “But He died a king. Why did He not live a king?”
And I said again: “You have committed a
