“I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed!” – Luke 12:49-50

I do not see the flames alight
and sweeping through the trees,
charcoaling the grasses,
clouding out the sun.

I hear their crackling roar
in your frustrated voice,
creaking with impatience,
choking on anticipated smoke.

I do not see the water
beckoning you forward,
at once inviting and malignant,
that will close above your crown.

I see the falling water, Jesus,
streaking in the ever-present
dust its path from eye to lips:
the tracing of your tears.

A poem/prayer based on Luke 12:49-56, the Revised Common Lectionary Gospel Reading for Year C, Proper 15 (20).

Photo of a statue of Mary Magdalene in the Sépulcre de l’église Saint-Martin (Arc-en-Barrois, France). Photo by User:Vassil – File:Sépulcre_Arc-en-Barrois_111008_12.jpg, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16942922.