It was the longest Sabbath Day
we had ever known.
An emptiness hung in the air
like a menacing sound,
Threatening to envelope us
in its noiseless grasp.
The fear that had paralysed and held us fast
had now given way to non-existence
a sense of non-being.
All of us , dead as he was;
numb; feeling nothing.
With sorrow, pain and guilt
as our ever-present companions.
How we had tried to understand
that which could not be explained
How we reasoned with each other
into the long dark night
But reason and understanding
could not answer the questions
that raged within our hearts.
And still our minds returned
to one single question ,
"Why, Why , WHY ?"
With the dawn came a kind of peace, the kind
that is born only of tears,
a surrender to the force of grief.
There was nothing left to do
but wait.....for Sabbath to pass ?
or wait for something more ?
The whole city lay still.
The temple courts once filled with singing and
the sound of pilgrims' voices
............were silent .
The veil torn,
a violence by unseen hands,
revealed the remaining shreds
of a covenant long broken
by disobedient human hands.
Jerusalem, for whom He wept,
shrouded in silence,
tried to ignore the events
that darkened the skies
and rent the veil.
"It is finished ",he said,
and Jerusalem agreed.
Easter 1998
