Blessed Are We

By Ryan Clark

Four years ago, Andy Barchus and I chose to observe Lent a bit differently. Instead of abstaining or fasting, we decided to create. We committed to each writing a poem a day, coming up with topics based on what we were reading or learning or observing in life. And then, smack in the middle of this lead up to Easter, the global pandemic hit.

Among many other things, it certainly was an interesting time for reflection. Culture, as we know, is like a lake, and we are fish oblivious to our own waters. But when the world stopped we were given a chance to poke our heads up and look around a bit. As a sort of a filter to do this, we decided to write a series of poems based on the Beatitudes, taking one per day and looking at our modern American culture and what WE value through the lens of Jesus’ most famous sermon. The result was jarring. And personally convicting. By the third Beatitude I felt almost compelled to reframe the beatitudes as the things we value in our culture (including me personally). That exercise became this poem, “Blessed are we.”

Blessed Are We

Blessed are the wealthy,
for surely wealth will heal their aches.

Blessed are the self-assured,
for they need no god but themselves.

Blessed are the consumers,
for their throne will never be overthrown.

Blessed are the Influencers,
for to mimic them is to touch the very
Gucci bag of God.

Blessed are those who get to the top,
for the only place they have to look
is down.

Blessed are the independent,
for they have cast off the weakness of
vulnerability.

Blessed are the materialistic,
for theirs is the stuff that gives meaning.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst
for Insta followers, for all those hearts
surely means love is being spread.

Blessed are those who achieve their
dreams, for theirs is the kingdom
of Disney.

Blessed are the powerful,
for indeed they will win, win, win.

Blessed are we who are far, so far,
through space and time and
understanding
of the old mountainside
dotted with the desperate
listening to their prophet proclaim
“Blessed are the meek.”