The Cross

Painting by Vladimir Basic-Soto


The Cross


When I was a kid
I wanted to see Jesus
on the cross
as my Catholic friends
across the street
saw him: brass figure
of a man in agony
on the wooden beams
above the altar.

Ours was burnished
steel - cool and bare
as our dark pews.
And when I asked,
our minister replied:
"He's inside."
At first I thought
he meant inside
the cross: trapped
in the dark as I was.

"No," he said, "there,"
and with his finger
touched my chest
and worked a miracle
of math: at once I saw
that there were many
Jesuses, one
for each of us,
and space inside also:
enough to house a god


Gregory Orr

Posted over on Spirituality & Health