Christian Poetry
Poems by Zareen Cave

MEDITATION 1

There are fewer of us now than there were three years ago;
You, our rabbi, mentor friend and companion
Have gone to your Father.
You did promise to be with us always
But we can’t see you anywhere, anymore.

You are a baffling man;
You leave us confused, wandering, wondering and alone,
We do feel bereft.

We were eager to blame Judas
For betraying you to the establishment;
The body of men about whom
You were sometimes so scathing

You have left us to fend for ourselves;
Where do we go from here?
We might as well go back to our fishing
Something with which we are familiar.

We have been in this boat for hours;
We have completely lost our skills;
We have caught nothing!
What are we expected to do now?

MEDITATION 2

We drew towards the shore
You were there Lord;
We saw a silhouette of a man beside a charcoal fire;
Who was this man so early, at daybreak?

As we approach the shore
You speak, “Have you caught something?’
We all shook our heads forcefully;
“Absolutely Nothing!”

“Cast your nets on the other side”
We have nothing to lose,
We might as well do as he suggests.
We are really surprised when we net in
An adequate supply of fish.
Enough to feed all of us.

This reminds us of the other incident;
When you were always with us,
You suggested we tried another spot,
When we did  Wow!  What an enormous catch we made!

We had to ask help from other fishermen.
There was enough and to spare for everyone.

MEDITATION 3

After netting in the fish,
We decided to go ashore.
After all we had been up and about
Almost all night.

You were there welcoming us,
You had lit the fire,
You were ready to cook the fish,
Our much needed breakfast.

We pulled the boat to shore,
Some stayed behind to ensure that everything was as it should be!
Others ran ahead to greet you.  We realised it must be You.

Thank you for coming back to us
For not leaving us alone forever.
Thank you for your presence
Even when we don’t see you or feel you.
You are the keeper of promises!

We enjoyed the breakfast you prepared for us;
It was a simple meal of bread and fish;
You were with us; You nourished us with yet another meal.

You are a faithful, promise keeping friend;
Even when we doubt you;
These last two or three weeks have dragged on endlessly;
Like grey days always do,
With no glimmer of your constant presence.

You seem to drift in and out of our lives;
Now we see you and in a flash, you are no longer there!
No wonder that Thomas questioned
Whether it was really you that we saw.

You turned to Peter once again,
The impetuous, hot-headed, short-fused fisherman.
He had been feeling very down-hearted,
Miserable, morose and probably very guilty.
You asked him the same question three times!

“Peter, do you love me!”
“Yes Lord, I do
“Feed my sheep!”
Peter, Do you love me?”
Yes Lord, You know that I do.  I have already said so”
“Feed my lambs”
“Peter,”  “Yes Lord”
Do you love me more than all these other people?”
Lord, you know everything!  You know how much I love you!
“Tend my sheep”

If it had been one of us you asked
What would have been the answer?
You know everything about us;
Our confusions, our conflicts, our fears our deep phobias,
Yet you always know how to bring out the best in us.

You know our gifts;
You encourage, affirm and nurture us;
When we go back home
May we do the same for those with whom we come into contact.

May we encourage, nurture, and refresh one another
Knowing that you are in our midst.
You will always care with and for the carer.

When you give us a task
Remind us that you will always
Equip us to fulfil this task
Please remind us
Especially when the going gets tough
That’s when we are most likely to forget.

May we encourage one another?
Please stay in the midst of us.

(© 2015 Zareen Cave – All rights reserved. Written material may not be duplicated without permission.)

**********************