Kabalikat Civicom Global

There are many ways/ To become Christ/ There are many ways/ To become Christ/ Just as there are many ways/ To un-become Christ/ Even as also there are many ways/ To become un-Christ.

You may visit a church/ And kneel down down down/ In sorrow and contrition/  Your hands clasped/ Beseeching for his pardon./ Or you may simply close/ Your eyes and three times whisper:/ 0 let me be Godful!/ Let me be Godful!/ Let me be Godful!/ Or you may not even say/ Anything at all/ But merely sit there/ In silence and thrall.

You need not even/ Enter a church/ To pray for the souls/ Of your brethren/ Or commune with your Father/ Who art in heaven/ Hallowed be His name/ His kingdom come/ His will be done.

You may just keep your faith/ Silently with you./ For is it not true/ That the kingdom of heaven/ Is within you?/ That faith alone is enough/ To move mountains/ Or scale heights?/ That to believe is already/ To be with God?

You may sow mustard seeds/ And watch them grow:/ See some fall by the wayside/ Devoured by the fowl that flew/ See them yield good fruit/ Scorched by the sun/ See some fall among thorns/ Choked covered gone.

But the others:/ See them fall on the good ground/ See them yield good fruit/ And the mustard seeds/
That you sow/ Will once more be edible/ Precious than gold.

Then you may split/ The mustard seeds/ Split tham each to each:/ See a pair of disobedient souls/ Defy the fruited tree/ See the pair driven/ From the garden/ See a crawling figure/ Slither in glee/ Hear a great voice/ Wroth and angry.

But the pair of disobedient souls/ Refused to give up;/ They slaughtered lambs/ Upon the onyx stone/ Erected covenants/ Bt the rainbow's fronds/ And since God is after all/ Kind and forgiving/
He allowed the pair/ To redeem their fall.

There are many ways/ To become Christ./ You may give alms to the poor:/ They shall inherit the earth./ Give them your raiment/ Your bread and honey/ Your vinegar and salt/ Your wine and ointment/ Or you may just offer them/ A wreath of fresh lilies/ Gathered from the field/ Or simply a crown/ Of thornless laurels

To adorn the head/ Plus a lean and hollow reed/ For your right hand to carry/ Once you enter the town/ On a donkey's journey.

And there to lead/ The teeming multitudes/ Who will have no use/ For your beautitudes/ But miracles to prove/ You are from Heaven:/ Like raising the dead/ Into the living/ Or turning bread into fish/ Or changing water into wine/ From a jug that shall not empty,

Because unlike that woman/ With the pitcher/ As she draws water/ From the well/ It shall pour forth the water/ Of life divine./ Miracle for the poor/ To become rich/ While you wrestle daily/ With their faith./ Miracles to proclaim their world/ Which you reject for another/ Miracles that in the night/ Will lead to betrayal/ And a kiss.

You may also give/ Something to the rich:/ Will they not, too,/ Inherit the earth?/ Give them gold and silver:/ Three seven or thirty pieces/ With which to buy more riches/ More power and glory/ If you know what glory is/ If you know what power is/ For neither all your glory/ Nor all your power/ Can prevent the journey/ Of one who will be born/ Somewhere in the night

In swaddling clothes/ In a lowly manger/ Among the animals/ For whom three kings/ From the far ends/ Of the world/ Following yonder star/ Eastward leading/ Would watch and kneel/ In silent adoration/ By the promise/ So foretold.

Gold from one/ To crown him King/ Over us all to reign./ Frankincense from another/ For praying and praising/ All men raising./ Myrrh from the third/ That bitter perfume/ To herald a life/ Of gathering gloom/ Sorrowing and dying/ Sealed somewhere/ In the stone-cold tomb/ From whence shall arise/ Child and God/ And sacrifice.

There are many ways/ To become Chirst./ You may give the learned/ And the wise/ The laws and the prophecies/ The books and the scriptures

Written when the sea/ Was looming large/ Yet silenced and divided/ At the flick of a rod.

To allow a flock/ Of frightened sheep/ Flee the hungry wolves/ And irate mobs,/ Later to graze/ At verdant pastures/ On a destined mountain top/ From whence shall come/ The commandments/ In the holy stone writ/ Ten times to be fulfilled

There are many ways/ To become Christ./ You may enter the garden/ And be as a child again/ And like a child/ Seek to relearn/ The resurrection/ And the light./ And then to fast/ For days and nights/
Which you will break/ With a supper last/ Of bread and wine thus/ Which twelve times shall pass/
Through hands you hold in trust/ Save one who will defy thee/ Save one who will deny thee/ Before you relive the drama/ Of the crucifixion/ And the agony.

There are many ways/ To become Chirst./ You may give the learned/ And the wise/ The laws and the prophecies/ The books and the scriptures

Written when the sea/ Was looming large/ Yet silenced and divided/ At the flick of a rod.

To allow a flock/ Of frightened sheep/ Flee the hungry wolves/ And irate mobs,/ Later to graze/ At verdant pastures/ On a destined mountain top/ From whence shall come/ The commandments/ In the holy stone writ/ Ten times to be fulfilled

There are many ways/ To become Christ./ You may enter the garden/ And be as a child again/ And like a child/ Seek to relearn/ The resurrection/ And the light./ And then to fast/ For days and nights
Which you will break/ With a supper last/ Of bread and wine thus/ Which twelve times shall pass/
Through hands you hold in trust/ Save one who will defy thee/ Save one who will deny thee/ Before you relive the drama/ Of the crucifixion/ And the agony.

Then you may give away/ One of your bleeding ribs/ Your two pierced palms/ Your two nailed feet./
You may even give/ Your life away/ For three days/ And three nights/ If you are willing/ To talk sevenly hills/ Carrying on your shoulders/ A leafless intersected wood/ And stop at last with two men/
You know but know you not/ And even doubt you/ While in the distance/ Voices loud and voices strong/ Curse you and revile you/ From whom you shall/ Seek forgiveness/ Before you commend your spirit/ To someone who has forsaken you/ Where dying thus/ Your conquer death.

There are many ways/ To become Christ/ There are many ways/ To become Christ/ Just as there are many ways/ To un-become Christ/ Even as also there are many ways/ To become un-Christ.


*ALFREDO O. CUENCA, Jr. has varied experiences as a radio writer, public information officer, executive of a government broadcast network, film reviewer, free lance writer and promotions man, and a political ghost writer. His works have appeared in major national publications, little magazines and anthologies. He is a jazz buff, a nationally rated chessplayer, man about town, and has dabbed in art abstractions. He is presently a special lecturer for literature and creative writing at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines.