IV

Of what do You think, Christ, after your death?
Why does that veil of blackest night
formed by your thick Nazarene hair
fall down over your forehead?
You look within yourself, where the Kingdom           Luke 17: 20-21.
of God is, within yourself where the eternal
Sun of the living souls is dawning.
Your body is white like a reflection
of the Father of Light, the life-giving Sun;
your body is white like the dead moon
that rotates around its mother,
our tired and wandering earth;
your body is white like the Host
of the sky during the deepest night,
of that sky which is black like the veil
of your abundant black Nazarene
head of hair.

You, Christ, are the unique
Man who succumbed willingly,
who triumphed over death which
because of You has become exalted. Since then,
because of You, death brings us life;
because of You, death has become our mother;
because of You, death is the sweet balm
which sweetens life’s bitterness:
because of You, the Corpse who does not die,
white like the moon of the night. Christ,
life is a dream, and death is an awakening.
While the solitary earth is sleeping
the white moon is awake; on His cross
the Man is awake while men are asleep;
the Man with no blood is awake, the Man
who is white like the moon in the dark night;
the Man who gave His blood remains awake
so that others will know they are men.
You are the savior of death. You open your arms
to the night, which is black and beautiful,           Song of Solomon 1:6.
because the Sun of life has looked on it
with its eyes of fire: because the Sun
has made the dark night so very beautiful.
And the solitary moon is also beautiful,
the white moon in the starry night,
which is black like your abundant
Nazarene hair. The moon is white
like the body of the Man on the cross, a mirror
of the Sun of life, of the one who never dies.

Master, the beams of your soft light
guide us through the dark night of this world,
anointing us with the fervent hope
of an eternal day. Blessed night,
oh night, mother of pleasant dreams,
mother of hope, sweet Night,
dark night of the soul, you are the source
of our hope in Christ the Savior.