Words of St. Nathaniel

OCTBER 30, 2021

“It wasn’t really 30 pieces of silver,

It was much more abstract and much more lofty, 

For it was the idea of making all men brothers, of slowing down climate change,

Why, of even improving the state of the world.  

And what he offered in return, this man in white,

Was not a betrayal as it had been before,

For there was not a broken body on the cross, 

And there had been no scourging, no crowning with thorns.

What he offered was simply confirmation that it was well and good for one in mortal sin to receive communion,

And he hastily pushed from his mind what he knew to be true,

That there was indeed a broken body, a cross, a scourging and a crowning with thorns involved

In that bread and wine. 

But he smiled and shook hands, this man in white,

As he walked carefully with this leader of the nation, 

Over the slaughtered bodies of the infants upon the floor.

And all the shepherds held their breath, 

Wondering whether they would be indicted in this betrayal, 

But they held their tongues,

And averted their eyes,

From the cross upon the hill.”

-S