The priest,
he assures us he is in heaven,
that he made it through the gates because he was not in his right mind,
because he was not thinking clearly.
Thank God for his suffering.
But his Son,
did he not willingly carry the cross?
Did he not choose to die
for our sins?
This story,
it is one of sacrifice, empathy, validation,
not a technicality of reason.
So I want to say:
Was Jesus
thinking clearly?
Was Jesus
in his right mind?
Might it be that we have gotten it wrong?
Why yes, and on the third day,
he climbed out from under his self-made tomb
and rose again.
Susan L. Leary is a Lecturer in English Composition at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, FL. Her most recent creative work is forthcoming in After the Pause.
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