A third time you fell
Lover of life and of all people
You kissed the ground again
The place of zero.

Yes, Jesus you fell
Back to the place where all ends.
And begins?
That place of humiliation.
Of shame. Of Failure.

You fell – hard, rough,
In fellowship with all those on the ground
Whose faces are smeared with mud
Those whose lives are ‘down’

Jesus you fell again, a third time?
The first fall I could overlook,
The second fall I could pity.
But this third fall?
Invites my ridicule, mockery, judgement

‘Seventy times seven’ you told us
But this third fall is sometimes one too many
I can take only so much
I can support the first fall.
Maybe the second.
But the third?
There is a limit to tolerance, Lord!
Or isn’t there?

Help me Lord. Heal me
Of those times I give up
I resent the place of Zero
And desire to be where you have not put me.
When I resist starting again
Because I think I have graduated.

Help me Lord. Heal me
Of those times I walk past you,
Lying on the ground.
In those I know or hear about.
Unable to forgive, to love, to reach out
Because you have fallen too many times
And my heart is not big enough.

by Sr. Ekaete Ekop MMM