Space Which Remains in You
by Pope John Paul the Great
(from the perspective of John, the beloved disciple)
I often return
to the space which is Your Son, your first Son.
Then thought takes on His form
but the eyes remain empty--
and to the lips words return, the same words
which he put on
when he wanted to stay with us.
These self-same words enfold his space
better than sight,
better than memory and heart--oh, Mother,
then you are with Him again.
Bow down with me and take--
Your Son is the taste of bread,
and beyond taste, ineffable substance.
And now--more real than in my lips' whisper,
than in thought, sight and memory--
in the space also more really in bread?
Your arms now remember His space, the little head
snuggling to your shoulder,
for the space has remained in You,
for it was taken from You.
And shining never empty. So very present in You.
When with my trembling hands I broke the bread
to give it to you, Mother,
I stood for a moment amazed as I saw
the whole truth through one single tear
in your eye.
and now some not so profound words from me...
My husband got me the book "The Place Within: The Poetry of Pope John Paul II" for Mother's Day in 2005. This poem is my favorite of the ones I've read. It touches a place in my heart which was broken, that place that misses my sweet baby girls whom I lost in miscarriage. Mary, too, lost her baby. The memories she must have had as He died, the moment when she proclaimed herself the handmaid of the Lord and the Holy Spirit came upon her to conceive the Savior, carrying Him within her womb those 9 months, His Holy Birth, nursing Him to sleep at night, snuggling with her precious One, His childhood, and beyond. Her Sorrow must have been tremendous watching Him there upon the Cross. With St. John beside her, he must have seen all of this great Sorrow and wanted to return her to those happier times. And he can, through the most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar, he, a priest, can bring her sweet Jesus back to her and fill that space which remains in her. Jesus, in this Holy Eucharist, longs to fill that space which remains in us in the same way. He remains with us in the Blessed Sacrament to be the One who heals and fulfills us, and so, we run to Him!
