A Humble Enquiry (reposted because I like it)

Sapphic lines (in the poetic sense, as in Sappho of Lesbos, not Sappho the lesbian) addressed to wiser people than me. It scans perfectly if read correctly.


A Humble Enquiry

“Let’s break bread together on our knees”, but the crumbs get
Into my turn-ups, and the sunrise blinds me,
And where does it say in the Gospels that Jesus
Was Lord of the Dance?* Eh?

And if it’s only bread, then what of the Real Presence?
Transubstantiation, the Eucharistic Fast, and
Holy Hours and Exposition? Have we chucked the Sacrifice
And opted for a picnic?

And why, when we pray the Litany of Saints, do we
Include Saint Martin Luther King, Saint Dalai Lama
And Saint Nelson Mandela? None of them is Catholic,
And two not even dead yet.**

And what of the Bishops of England and Wales? Who
Are they working for? Where are they sailing
In the bark of Peter? To the port of Heaven?
Or the shoal of confusion?

And can you explain please, who the Easter People
Are? Is it all OK now, no repentance?
Life is so cute, if you’ve the good fortune
To be liberal and Catholic,

And nuance the absolute, syncretise and sample,
Admire Tony Blair for sorting out that bigoted
Homophobe Benedict the Sixteenth's obsession
With objectively moral

Disorder. Come on you guys, I mean Bishops, own up!
You don’t believe all this stuff about Papal
Infallibilty. That’s just Pio No! No!
So long ago, too.

And what about those Martyrs, who never took advantage
Of the power of inclusive language to avoid such
Misunderstandings, or, maybe, understandings
As shortened their lives so?

Ha! Now I’ve got it! If Catholic means the same as
Universal, everyone, atheist, agnostic,
Practising and lapsed, burbling and rational
Is Catholic. No problem!



*Why not:
Bounce, then, wherever you may be,
For I like to bounce up and down - tee! hee!
I bounce up and down like a hyperactive flea,
For I am the lord of the bounce - tee! hee!

**
I heard this very "relevant" updating of the Litany
Of the Saints at Mass in a Catholic church in London,
A few years ago, but cannot for the life of me
Imagine who OK'd it.