OPEN MY EYES, LORD

On some liturgical calendars, they call this "Bright Tuesday" which seems funny to me since the gospel reading is taken from Luke chapter 24, the story about Jesus on the road to Emmaus. I don't think his companion - Cleopas, to be exact - was too "bright" that day, do you? When Jesus approaches them, after his resurrection, and asks what they are talking about, Cleopas responds with a, "Duh? Where have you been stranger...don't you watch CNN?"

 But, instead of saying, "Hey! Who do you think you're talking to?" Jesus plays with Cleopas and his friend.

"What's the buzz?...tell me what's happening..."

READ THE WHOLE STORY: Luke 24:13-35     

Sestina* of Cleopas by Gilbert Morris 

Well, don't stand there - come in, come in!
We're all just brothers here that know the Lord.
You smile at that? They've told you I'm the man
Who didn't know the Lord himself one day?
That's right, my boy. Cleopas is my name,
And I'm the fool who muffed, O such a chance!

What a joke! - Cleopas miss a chance!
I will not boast, but I must say that in
Emmaus I've made myself, oh, quite a name,
(In business, of course). I never know the Lord
Until two years ago, this very day.
That was the time I went to hear the man

They called Jesus. My boy, I'm not the man
For sermons, but I never missed a chance
To hear a would-be king! But on that day,
That day I heard a king- and he came in
And made himself a priest - a prophet - Lord
Of my heart - Jesus! What a name!

No matter that he didn't tell his name.
I'd know him in the dark! But on that day
He was a stranger. What a world we're in!
We vow our love to someone - woman or man -
But with a change of mood - a fretful chance
And we are strangers - as I was to the Lord.

Well, my boy, I've come to think the Lord
Comes often in disguise so day by day
We may be jostling God! Oh, what a chance
We take - to judge a person by his name
Or face. We're all immortal, every man!
That's the sort of world God put us in!

I saw the Lord - but never knew his name.
But since that day, I look at every man.
I'll miss no other chance - when God drops in!

*The sestina is an old fixed form of poetry, dating as far back as the twelfth century. It consists of six six-line stanzas and a three-line concluding stanza. The ending words of the first stanza are repeated throughout each subsequent stanza in a set pattern. The same six words appear in the concluding three-line stanza, two in each line.