VI
FACE

Your face, a reflection of Glory,           Matthew 26:39.
dropped to the ground, and you kissed
the mother goodbye, while the kiss
of your Father filled your tormented
heart with anguish. And your sweat
moistened the dust of the earth, blessing it,
as you gave water to the olive trees
that heard your lament. Their foliage
was trembling above You, next to the wings
of the Angel of Grief. And you asked that
the cup of sorrow be removed from you.           Luke 22: 42, 44.
But no, my Adam, by watering our soil
with the drops of your blood, You give us
the bread of our life. As a consolation,
You strove to gain courage by struggling
against sorrow with the help of the earth,
a storehouse of sorrows. To fulfill
your divinity you needed to experience
the anguish of death. So you blessed
the remains of the hearts that had once
been beating with love. And you spat on
the ground that, anointed with your blood,           John 9:6.
gave sight to the blind. We see because of this,
the soil anointed with saliva from your tongue,
with which the Word had spoken;
through the clay with which God made us,
you saw the depths of our misfortune.
With the soil made divine by your Word
placed over our eyes, we can see the mysteries
of afterlife. Lord, do not hide your face           Psalm 12:1; 26:9; 44:24.
from us, because that would deliver us,
like vain sparks, to the center of nothingness.