Arguing succession and success,
was the prophetic failure of death
a threat to their ambition, or
of what were they afraid:
the banality of the cross,
perverse instinct of humankind to kill,
to crush instead of to create;
or the riposte of otherworldly love
that nurtures husk and kernel, broken,
buried in the earth, into new life?
They did not understand what he was saying and were afraid to ask him. … They were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another who was the greatest. (Mark 9:32, 34)
over the water 