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The Righteous Fall of James the Just by Sam Hatch
of James the Just
Sam Hatch
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James the Just, brother of our Lord, Would not forswear the Christ, refused the words of his betters. Jesus was the door, said James, The way, the truth, and the light. No man comes to the Father but through him. 2 We cheered, his enemies hissed And hurled the sainted man From the temple parapet. “Righteousness,” we prayed, as he fell “Righteousness must waft and settle gently a good man’s fall.” His snow-white robes fluttered gracefully, Still the brother of Our Lord plummeted like a stone, Yet he did not cry out. After a moment that seemed unwilling to end, The good man landed on the temple steps. That liquid thud sickened us all, A sound none of us can ever forget. Despite all our prayers, Despite all the admiration James inspired even in his enemies, His righteousness could not defy the power of gravity.
3 On the temple steps, his body broken, James, with his last words, like his brother Forgave his enemies.
We wondered why his grace frightened us so much, Much more than his fall.
4 Stepping from the crowd, a common laundryman, A man, to all appearances, without grace. Holding his fuller’s brush as if he were About to beat a load of wash at the river’s edge, He smashed the good man’s skull like a common clay pot. The light in the good man’s eyes, The light we had seen so often That lifted our spirits in dark times, Those eyes we thought unquenchable, Simply went out like a small candle in a stiff breeze. Who was redeemed by this sacrifice, we wondered, By this blood flowing on the temple steps? Could even Jesus redeem this brute, Holding aloft in triumph his bloody brush?
5 Today we mourn the great man, We celebrate his greatness And ponder the lesson he taught us that day before the temple. We cherish our homes and children, We thank the Lord for His blessings each day, And humbly cultivate the smaller, less conspicuous, But still important virtues. Remembering gravity, too, demands our respect, We are careful each day
To serve God and qualify for salvation.
