Jesus, Where Are You?

 
You promised to be with us always,
always, until the end of the world,
but where are you?
               * * *
You are in Awareness
when I wake in the morning
whether or not I greet you
that first moment….
 
You are in my Home,
my comfort where I rest,
the nest for one or many –
structure of human love
 
You are in every Person
You have told us so,
that we are all members of one Body,
your Body, each a different part
 
You, Creator, are in every blade of grass,
each flower, wave or mountain
each moment, drop of dew,
dead seed and new beginning

Your special Promise brings you there
when two or three
gather in your Name
–  Behold!
 
You wait “reserved” in Tabernacle ark
God in the Temple of his Church
intended for our visit,
Your building has a Center
 
You shine in Monstrance to adore
with candles and gold
perhaps incense and song,
sometimes in lonely vigil
 
You are in our Congregation,
a great diversity which shares
no age, or looks, or taste, or thought, or motive
but only You, as your Body
 
You are in the Ordained, those ranks,
up through the Holy Father,
built on Peter-Rock,
Shepherd of your great flock
 
You are in the Ritual of today and yesterday
 “Do this in memory of me” –
Priest’s presence, words and gesture,
“line of Melchisedek”
 
 You share the heavenly junction
when angels with your Mystical Body,
Church Triumphant and Militant,
pause in Liturgy’s Mass to adore….
 
You are that repeatedly new Presence
for which no culture truly has a word,
“Transubstantiation” coined to term
the humanly inexpressible
 
You are in Communion’s closeness
when you visit me, one of many,
whether attention  “there” or absent,
only to find Fruits afterward
 
You speak in “Ite, Missa Est,”
sending us to bring you to the World,
to love your Least Ones,
as loving You, one-on-one
               * * *
You promised to be with us always,
always, until the end of the world,
and we find you  –  everywhere
 
(2010s)