Mary’s Sword

Mary’s Sword

Luci Shaw

“Yes, and a sword will pierce your own heart also...”
— Luke 2:35

The fortieth day, and now we watch as
the little family waits in the temple
for old Simeon to bless the new Baby.

His prophetic declaration: one of promise
and import for the human race—our ascending,
our decline. Then, quite shockingly,
he tells young Mary, her infant in her arms,
“...Also, a sword will pierce your own heart.”

Hearing that warning, does she suck in her breath?
And that foreboding thrust—will it haunt her, living as she must,
on the fringes of her Son’s too-brief life?
When others leap up, restored by his touch,
might her own heart’s flesh knit,
its raw edges scarring over?

But we guess that Mary lived the weapon’s threat
through all the years until its deepest wound, when,
witness of her Son’s harsh dying, the spear-thrust in his side
assured her of a healing, and a resurrected life.

And on that day of darkness, how could she have known
that all our generations would rise
and call her blessed?

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Luci Shaw
Poet & Author

Luci Shaw is Writer-in-Residence at Regent College in Vancouver, and the author of more than thirty-five books, including Scape, Sea Glass: New & Selected Poems, and her new collection, Angels Everywhere.

Painting by Rembrandt