Shalom

Shalom peace
is the offering of blood and body upon the table.
A bountiful benediction and ghostly vesper -
nothing is missing, nothing is broken.

What is ‘shalom’ but God with us?
What is peace without the pieces of God incarnate inside us?
his breath in our lungs,
his blood for our sins,
our image, from His.

Shalom isn’t a prayer
but a wholehearted proclamation given by the womb of a woman
to the hands of his not-biological-father
to the broken world of those who have refused to make room at the inn.

Shalom isn’t just a reminder,
it is a re-making.
The wine pressed from the grapes
giving a new shape
new potency
to the drink of self we offer the world.

Christmas isn’t a one day celebration,
but a continual life-feast of “God with us.”