I never suspected
Resurrection
and to be so painful
to leave me weeping

With Joy
to have met you, alive and smiling, outside an empty tomb

With Regret
not because I’ve lost you
but because I’ve lost you in how I had you –
in understandable, touchable, kissable, clingable flesh
not as fully Lord, but as graspably human.

I want to cling, despite your protest
cling to your body
cling to your, and my, clingable humanity
cling to what we had, our past.

But I know that … if I cling
You cannot ascend and
I will be left clinging to your former self
… unable to receive your present spirit.

Mary Magdala’s Easter Prayer by Ron Rolheiser in Holy Longing