Jesus if

Jesus, if I could ever shape you

I'd pour you black as tar

and white as snow on Himalayan heights

with brown eyes in yellow face

and feet that know sand and rocks alike

I'd grow you breasts  upon your chest

and hang testes between your legs

your lips as broad as the Ganges

your hands soft as  canyon grand

your smile as wise as the world

You'd hang on an inlaid cross

woods from ev'ry tongue and land

You'd die a freak in Palestine

and  rise, claiming ev'ry Man

*Every saint is troubling.  Every saint reveals some of our fears and and makes us question our fear-driven choices.

-Jim Forest

*...the iurodovii[ a unique Russian holy person] dramatize something about God that most Christians find embarrassing but which we vaguely recognize is crucial information.  It is the special vocation of the iurodivii to live out in a literal, breathtaking way the "hard sayings" of  Jesus.  Like him, they live without money in their pockets (thus Jesus, in responding to a question about paying taxes, had no coin of his own with which to display Caesar's image).  While never harming anyone, the iurodivii raise their voices against those who lie and cheat and do violence to others, but at the same time they are always ready to embrace these same greedy and ruthless people  They take everyone seriously. No one, absolutely no one, is unimportant.

-Jim Forest

*...the Gospel and sacramental life aren't just for smart people.

-Jim Forest

*...to seek God is not necessarily the same thing as to seek sanity.

-Jim Forest