Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?

Something in Common

I recognize him.
Just another pathetic mortal
like myself, but one in whom
divine love sometimes glimmers.
Now you invite me to see him
in unwelcome cousins,
a leech, a bore, garlic breath,
an angry voice, a leering look,
a patronizing glare.
You even invite me to serve
and more to love
this puddle of good and evil,
this oh so human mix.
In fleeting glimpses
I do notice a minor shadow
of his mirror in myself, in you.
On occasion I see in someone else,
his humility, but always badly tangled
with justifiable pride.
It takes a hearty dose of confusion
to be fully human.
I delight, for example
in being hilariously flummoxed.
I hope he had that.

[The Covenant Journal, Number 26, September 2007 All poetry in this issue is by Robert Cogswell.]