Teresa of Avila - You are Christ's Hands
Christ has no body now on earth but yours,
no hands but yours,
no feet but yours,
Yours are the eyes through which to look out
Christ's compassion to the world
Yours are the feet with which he is to go about
doing good;
Yours are the hands with which he is to bless men now.
-- from The Longing in Between: Sacred Poetry from Around the World (A Poetry Chaikhana Anthology), Edited by Ivan M. Grange
Poetry Chaikhana | Teresa of Avila - You are Christ's Hands
This beautiful and inspiring poem has been on the Poetry Chaikhana home page for nearly a month. I've been waiting impatiently for it to go away and be replaced by a poem more to my liking. Since i look at the site nearly every day, i have scanned this poem dozens of times and read it carefully several time. Now the poem is being replaced by an equally beautiful one by Rilke, and i've decided that i really need to post it and keep it.
The poem has been spoiled a little for me by various Proteestantized versions, all inferior, to my mind, in quality and message. But i fear that my real reluctance to make the poem my own is its reference to "Christ." To my mind, Jesus was an admirable teacher, one of the best, while "Christ" is an invention of the churches, which, in their attempt to glorify Jesus, distort his message and debase his memory (imppo)
But i have no problem with poems that call on Shiva or Krshna or The Void or Tao, or Allah. I am a stranger to the faiths which hold these images sacred. I know that each of these "names" points to something unavailable to the human intellect, to mystery, within mystery within mystery, inpenetrable. When i see or hear "Shiva" i know that she (it/not it) is beyond my comprehension and i can still my inquiring mind and just worship. But my people are always telling me what i should think of Christ and i cannot identify with them.
The other faiths i know mostly through their finest writings and noblest teachings and beliefs.
My "mother faith" i know from real human beings who are struggling, usually unseccessfully, to live those teachings and beliefs out in their daily lives. When i see violent Buddhists and opinionated Taoists. i know that i am looking at people who, like myself, have much to learn (or unlearn). I have to learn to cut the Christians some slack.
no hands but yours,
no feet but yours,
Yours are the eyes through which to look out
Christ's compassion to the world
Yours are the feet with which he is to go about
doing good;
Yours are the hands with which he is to bless men now.
-- from The Longing in Between: Sacred Poetry from Around the World (A Poetry Chaikhana Anthology), Edited by Ivan M. Grange
Poetry Chaikhana | Teresa of Avila - You are Christ's Hands
This beautiful and inspiring poem has been on the Poetry Chaikhana home page for nearly a month. I've been waiting impatiently for it to go away and be replaced by a poem more to my liking. Since i look at the site nearly every day, i have scanned this poem dozens of times and read it carefully several time. Now the poem is being replaced by an equally beautiful one by Rilke, and i've decided that i really need to post it and keep it.
The poem has been spoiled a little for me by various Proteestantized versions, all inferior, to my mind, in quality and message. But i fear that my real reluctance to make the poem my own is its reference to "Christ." To my mind, Jesus was an admirable teacher, one of the best, while "Christ" is an invention of the churches, which, in their attempt to glorify Jesus, distort his message and debase his memory (imppo)
But i have no problem with poems that call on Shiva or Krshna or The Void or Tao, or Allah. I am a stranger to the faiths which hold these images sacred. I know that each of these "names" points to something unavailable to the human intellect, to mystery, within mystery within mystery, inpenetrable. When i see or hear "Shiva" i know that she (it/not it) is beyond my comprehension and i can still my inquiring mind and just worship. But my people are always telling me what i should think of Christ and i cannot identify with them.
The other faiths i know mostly through their finest writings and noblest teachings and beliefs.
My "mother faith" i know from real human beings who are struggling, usually unseccessfully, to live those teachings and beliefs out in their daily lives. When i see violent Buddhists and opinionated Taoists. i know that i am looking at people who, like myself, have much to learn (or unlearn). I have to learn to cut the Christians some slack.