Day of God

Day of God

By Michael Banister


One

Anointed,
raised up in prison,
You had an audience with the Luminous Maid.
What is it,
what does it mean,
to be told who You are?

And before the Anointing,
had You no inkling,
no guess?
Did not Your father,
Mirza Buzurg,
tell You his dream of Your holiness?

Did You feel anything
when the Gate opened and closed?
Did the passing
of the Shirazi Youth
brush against You?
Did You awaken
during the Night Season,
dreaming Someone else's dreams?

Two

They say that in another life,
likewise before Your Anointing,
You would ask Your wife
to cover Your trembling body
with a blanket.

You feared the Angel's command:
"Read, in the Name of the Lord!"
And You protested to the Angel,
"But Gabriel, how can I read?
Letters have eluded me
in all my travels,
back and forth in caravans,
between here and there.
A merchant of the house of Quraysh
is all I am."

One day the Angel's command
was not unreasonable.
The Mother Book was legible
to the unlettered eye,
but transformed face,
of You, the Anointed One.

Was not Your uncle,
while You were yet a child,
aware of the holiness of his charge?
The soothsayer and the priest
told him bluntly,
"The child has the look of the Christ."
You were known throughout the Hijaz
as "Al-Amin," the Righteous One.

Three

In a time earlier still,
Mary and Elizabeth were told outright.
They did not doubt the greatness of the thing.
Not so their father Zachariah,
whose lack of faith stilled his tongue.

What did You think
when John bowed down before You,
and asked to wash Your feet?
Did not his reverence
forewarn You
that after Your baptism,
You would be greeted by the Dove?


Four

And before that time,
when the Word came out of Egypt,
did not Your sister Maryam know
that You were in her mother's womb?
Did she not know Your name to mean,
"I brought Him forth"?

What of the courtesans
of Egypt's royal rooms,
not to mention the Queen herself?
Did they not suspect the holiness
of the Child found in the reeds?

Five

How is it (I do not ask why),
that from the time of Your birth,
until the chosen moment,
You remain conspicuously unaware
of who You are?
I say "conspicuously"
because You are surrounded by light,
Oh Light of the world,
and others suspect the truth.

It would seem
that in all ages,
You are surrounded and nurtured
by loved ones
who are given signs
of Your eternal reality.
Yet when Your Anointing comes,
You are seized with awe and trembling.

Was it the awesomeness
of the task lying before You
that made You tremble?
Did the waywardness of Your peers
instill sorrow in Your heart?

In this Day of God,
the day when all Your flocks
will be gathered in one fold,
all the world has grown blind
awaiting Your advent.
The people knew there would be signs,
yet they knew not where to look,
nor how full would be
the Splendor of this Day.

We know now
what the Shirazi Youth knew:
The redemption of the Son
would be brought about
in the dispensation of the Father.

When that Youth gave You
Your new name,
Baha'u'llah,
did He know,
and did You know,
that in this Day
the "Glory of God" would never set?