Glam-Spangled Words

Glam-Spangled Words

(“When you swear ‘by the altar,’ you are swearing by it and by everything on it.” Matthew 23:20)

You want to be noticed; you want people to watch you pray
so loud and long and higher than the clouds. You shine your
shoes so bright you blind everyone who stands beside you.
You declare
that the air you breathe is rarified by your piety. Your colors
are white but your heart is blackened by the dust of your hypocrisy.
You want everyone to see how you gather with your
dozen or so patriots downtown and pray louder than the
automotive exhaust. You never tire of making it clear that
you have climbed the ladder with your highly developed muscles
you used to use to kick fingers off the rungs. Now you don’t care,
you are far above all the failures you see from where you sit.
You’ve given more,
you’ve spent more,
you’ve announced more,
you’ve attended more,
you’ve spoken the most,
you’ve forgiven more than most,
you’ve bent the air of bishops and clerks,
you’ve pronounced their names disdainfully,
you’ve pretended you know the most,
you’ve broken the hearts that yearned for grace.

Your disciples are awed by your glam-spangled words,
they repeat them like mantras and receive nothing in return.
Why do you think your words mean anything at all after
being repeated endlessly before adoring crowds?
The day awaits your quiet heart that can give without
breathing a word about it.
It awaits your honest attention to the cries of those you
have overlooked, or seen and just set aside. You think
that extra hour of prayer
bought you a ticket to heaven, and a pass to doing anything
like feeding the poor. You lock up the immigrants and
declare yourself holy for doing it.

There is more of God in one beggar’s eyes and all the
crystal cathedrals you can build.