As I step forward to receive the ashes on my forehead (“you are dust and unto dust you shall return”) – a poem of the exiled Guatemalan activist Julia Esquivel – “I am not afraid of death” comes to mind. It is a beautiful poem, a good reminder of what this season is all about: an invitation to live now in a manner beyond death, beyond fear. I hope you find the poem (really the entire collection of her poems Threatened With Resurrection) helpful as you begin your Lenten journey.
I am no longer afraid of death
I know well
Its dark and cold corridors
Leading to life.
I am afraid rather of that life
Which does not come out of death,
Which cramps our hands
And slows our march.
I am afraid of my fear
And even more of the fear of others,
Who do not know where they are going,
Who continue clinging
To what they think is life
Which we know to be death!
I live each day to kill death;
I die each day to give birth to life,
And in this death of death,
I die a thousand times
And am reborn another thousand
Through that love
From my People
Which nourishes hope!
—From Threatened with Resurrection
(If interested, see my Lenten Journey booklet as a resource for this season.)
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