Wordsworth wrote an endless poem in blank verse on” the growth of a poet’s mind.” I shall attempt a more modest feat for a more distracted age: a blog, “Things which a Lifetime of Trying to Be a Poet has Taught Me.”
Maundy Thursday is the day that Jesus instituted the celebration we call the Eucharist or The Lord’s Supper or Holy Communion. The church has never been able to agree on the precise nature of what happens in The Lord’s Supper. I submit that it helps to imagine what it would have been like to have been there on the night of its Institution.
EUCHARIST
Once again the Lord of Heaven
Stoops with towel around His waist,
Breaks the Bread made without leaven,
Watches Judas leave in haste.
Once again the Lord of Glory
Lifts the cup to bless the Wine.
We who reenact the Story
Seek the Savior in the Sign.
More than just an illustration
Thought it is but Wine and Bread:
This, the Spirit’s proclamation
Of the Holy One who bled.
It is more than just a symbol
Though it is but Bread and Wine,
For the Spirit flows, as nimble
As the sap within the vine.
More than just a silent Letter
Lying dormant on the Page,
This is Truth that breaks its fetters,
Vaults the intervening age.
Words like Transubstantiation?
Too precisian to define
How the Lord takes up His station
In the Bread and in the Wine.
Although we, like doubting Thomas,
Need to see the Hands and Side,
He is gracious with the Promise:
“Come, behold them where they hide.”
It is more than just a token,
More than just a word about;
With this Bread, we must be broken,
Like this Wine, our lives poured out.
In that mysterious oblation
Faith is strengthened and restored.
With refocused adoration,
Saints rejoice to meet the Lord.
So again the Lord of Glory
Lifts the Cup to bless the Wine.
We who reenact the Story
See the Savior in the Sign.
Remember: for more poetry like this, order Dr. Williams’s book Stars through the Clouds: The Collected Poetry of Donald T. Williams, 2nd edition (Lantern Hollow Press, 2020)at https://smile.amazon.com/dp/173286800X?ref_=pe_3052080_397514860!
And look for Williams’ other most recent books: Answers from Aslan: The Enduring Apologetics of C. S. Lewis (DeWard, 2023), An Account of Things Accomplished: An Exposition of the Gospel according to Luke (Christicommunity Press, 2024), Credo: Meditations on the Nicene Creed, 2nd ed. (Stonetower Press, 2025) , and A Useful Companion: A Reader’s Commentary on the Tolkien Legendarium (Tampa: DeWard, 2025)!
Order from the publisher or Amazon.
Donald T. Williams, PhD, is Professor Emeritus of Toccoa Falls College and the author of sixteen books.
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