In this poem a geber shows up on the scene. A man (what kind of man and exactly “who” this man is has been the subject of much conjecture) who has experienced the pain, the suffering and the exile firsthand. He then launches into a description of what he has befallen him: his skin and flesh grow old, his bones have been broken, he has been besieged and surrounded with bitterness and hardship, he dwells in darkness like those long dead, he has been walled in, and weighed down with chains. When he calls for help his prayer is shut out, his way has been barred with blocks of stone, his paths have been made crooked, he was dragged from the path, mangled and left me without help, he was the target of arrows, his heart was pierced, he was a laughingstock of all the people, they mock him all day long, he is filled with bitter herbs, has only gall to drink, his teeth has been broken with gravel, he has been trampled in the dust, deprived of peace, he has forgotten what prosperity is and now says, “My splendor is gone and all that I had hoped from the Lord.”
His response to all of this? The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. W.T.F.? Seriously? How can this be? How can one name all that has befallen them and then turn to the one causing all the heartache and express trust? O’Connor writes, “When you meet the geber, you meet someone with tangled theology. Hope and horror stand side by side. Hope and honesty stand side by side. Hope and contradiction stand side by side.” And that’s the thing about hope - it doesn’t ignore the crap and the hard circumstances. It stands right beside them.
Many have been told that hope is to the exclusion of the raw emotions expressed by the geber - you either have hope, or you succumb to your circumstances. Here, however, is someone who has hope, and sits with humiliation, deprivation, suffering, bitterness, and the horrors of what he’s witnessed. Isn’t this how it often is? That hope is near to all these other circumstances? It’s possible to say in the same breath, “God is good” and “This is hard and it hurts and I’m getting screwed all in the same breath.”
May 19, 2024: The Virtue of a Good Swindle - Michael Hidalgo
May 12, 2024: The Joy of Being Lost - Hannah Thom
May 5, 2024: The Beginning of a New Beginning - Michael Hidalgo
April 28 2024: A Meal for Everyone - Paula Williams
April 21 2024: Is This Seat Taken? - Michael Hidalgo
April 14 2024: A Lament for Everyone - Hannah Thom
March 31 2024: The Wounds Are Still There - Michael Hidalgo (Easter Sunday)
The Cursed and Disgraced - Maggie Knight
March 17 2024: The Coronated King - Hannah Thom
March 10 2024: What is Truth? - Michael Hidalgo
March 3, 2024: I Have No Idea What You are Talking About - Michael Hidalgo
February 25, 2024: No Jury Needed - Michael Hidalgo
February 18, 2024: Under Arrest - Hannah Thom
February 11, 2024: You've Got to Let it Go - Michael Hidalgo
February 4, 2024: Growing Everywhere - Mattie Motl
January 28, 2024: A Religion of Liberation - Michael Hidalgo
January 21, 2024: Wake Up! - Hannah Thom
January 14, 2024: The Pain of Reconciliation - Michael Hidalgo
January 7, 2024: It’s Not Going to be Like That - Paula Williams
December 24, 2023 (Christmas Eve): Right Where You Cannot See It - Michael Hidalgo.
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