Another Poem

The New Torah*


do the beatitutes
negate the ten
or enhance?

does wine negate
the meal or
enhance it?



the Israelites will die
if ____ should speak,
but the Son speaks face
to face sitting
on this mount,
this new Sinai;.
people flock to listen,
to be healed;
but it is hard, too
hard to grasp for
weak hands and wills.

“I have come not to
abolish them but
to fulfill them.” **

the piety of the Psalms,
the goodness of the Psalms,
the humility of the Psalms,
open the door to the
new law;
a new torah
blesses the poor
in spirit and
the humble heart,
the peacemaker’s
gentle preachings.
the life of St. Dominic
that offers a new
way to the new
covenant, the new torah,
a new life;
a life of preaching
not to the birds
but to the cats;
a life of study
not for self
but for all men;
a life of prayer
not by rote
but in lectio
devina, contemplatio,
meditatio and
nine other ways;
a life of community
to offer support
and example in a
kind of Kingdom
of God searching
for koinonia;
proclamations
in prayer and work
and in play, for a
mankind that knows
not what it does;
righteousness’ clean
hands and pure heart
reach out and call us
to seek the face of
God on this
sermon on the mount.




Referring to the Sermon on the Mount as the new Torah comes from Pope Benedict XVI’s book, Jesus of Nazareth, Doubleday, 2007, p. 68.

•• Mt 5: 17-18