Encountering Paradox Upon The Eve Of My Retirement – A Poem
Me at Camp Foley in 1962.
God of changing changelessness. God of endless surprises, confounding the confoundless. You are the God of Paradox, revealing to children, that, which you hide from the learned. Those mortals you touch, utterly transformed, Divinely refereeing matches between angelic wrestlers and mere morals, Jacob becoming the limping Israel, Moses’ staff raining down plague, terrorizing those who terrorized, the vanquished becoming vanquishers. The angel adorned ark, the secret weapon of your Covenant, the enslaved now the rulers. Shepherd royalty, blossoming deserts, lions at peace with the lambs, children playing with cobras, Angelic announcements a Virgin conception of the God/Human who serves but refuses to be served, creation murdering the Creator, the Dead not remaining dead. Divinely bestowed paradox, abundantly planted in history, who am I to question You about a broken left ankle on the Eve of my retirement?
(c) 2019, Robert Charles Wagner
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Deacon Bob
I am a composer, performer, poet, educator, spiritual director, and permanent deacon of the Catholic Church. I just recently retired after 42 years of full-time ministry in the Catholic Church. I continue to serve in the Church part-time. I have been blessed to be united in marriage to my bride, Ruth, since 1974. I am father to four wonderful adult children, and grandfather to five equally wonderful grandchildren. In my lifetime, I have received a B.A. in Music (UST), M.A. in Pastoral Studies (St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity, UST), Certified Spiritual Director. Ordained to the Permanent Diaconate for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, in 1991. Composer, musician, author, poet, educator. The Gospels drive my political choices, hence, leading me toward a more liberal, other-centered politics rather than conservative politics. The great commandment of Jesus to love one another as he has loved us, as well as the criteria he gives in Matthew 25 by which we are to be judged at the end of time directs my actions and thoughts.
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