* Proudly dedicated to Zack Robinson and Michael Wagaman, Jr.
+------------------Your Bittersweet Ascension
Zack and Mike, we stand in awe of
your ascension, subsumed into cumulus
clouds of vocation, our vision obscured
by the radiant sun of your Divine Destiny
beaming brightly. Our robes are threadbare,
sandals frazzled
from years of privileged Glory walking
by your sides, primary eyewitnesses
of astonishingly dramatic miracles –
insouciantly sauntering
atop waters of the inconceivable challenges
of establishing a young men’s prison ministry
from scratch (Zack, those administrative hurdles
were simply waves washing over your toes), of
effortlessly
and fearlessly inviting spontaneity of
the unknown while doing street evangelism:
curing our reticence and timidity to stand
upright in faith and walk boldly; we were
the paralytics lowered frantically
through a roof
of cynicism on a dubious cot, flanked then
by jaded crowds of
our subconscious skepticism. Mike, you
multiplied two paltry fishes and
five twice bitten bread loaves of
our standard devotions seven hundred fold
by instituting prayer hours, guided by holy
candles’ flames, for the first time eating Hebrew
and Greek, we were five thousand #CLYA men
with vibrant spirits, reclining on verdant
hillsides of joy belching,
not including the women and children
satisfied by the Godly example, and also
slightly amused.
As we gaze heavenward with agape mouths,
brushing aside tears, saline on our lips,
your precedents speak to us like
the Son of our Loving Creator strengthening
us in His imminent absence –
“continue what I have began…” you say to us
“in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea,
and in Samaria,
and unto the uttermost part of [Baltimore.]
(#nightfever anyone??)”
Forgive us if we linger awhile here, though,
we have grown fond of hearing the two
handsome angels of your memory
assuring us that you will come back to us,
one day soon, in like manner.
[GOD BLESS YOU BROTHERS,. GODSPEED IN THE PRIESTHOOD. YOU WILL BE MISSED. THANKS FOR BLESSING US FOR THE SHORT TIME WE SPENT WITH YOU]
----Acts 1:6-12
When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven. Then returned they unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem a sabbath day's journey.
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