The God Who Comes

Tonight's play is critical of what's become of the American Church, but you have to love the people. No, really...you have to. Jesus commands it in John 15:12. Several years ago, at a workshop on creativity, Nancy Beach (a true inspiration) gave each attendee a beautiful poem. Church life can be messy. It can be painful. Frustrating. Indeed, brutal. Maybe this poem is a beautiful reminder that there is hope. Thanks Nancy and thanks Carlo. And praise God for those who have hope for the church and have not given up believing in the bride of Christ.

The God Who Comes

by Carlo Carretto

How baffling you are oh Church, and yet how I love you!

How you have made me suffer, and yet how much I owe you!

I should like to see you destroyed, and yet I need your presence.

You have given me so much scandal and yet you have made me understand sanctity.

I have seen nothing in the world more devoted to obscurity, more compromised, more false,

and I have touched nothing more pure, more generous, more beautiful.

How often I have wanted to shut the doors of my soul in your face, and how often I have prayed to die in the safety of your arms.

No, I cannot free myself from you, because I am you, although not completely.

And where should I go?