Religion's Failure

If a person should offer you peace
and blameless ecstasy
wouldn't you love them utterly?
But Christ
has not been represented
this way.
If a person should love you in such a way
that your once pain-dimmed eyes
grew bright
with that quality of light
found in cold mountain steams,
wouldn't you turn your soul
to that One
as the yellow-fringed sunflower
turns its black face
to follow the sun?
But Christ
has not been represented
this way.
Have you ever seen the stern eyes of Christ
staring from the walls
of Saint Sophia,
or glaring from icons
painted by monks who hated their bodies?
How can the one
who was birthed by Love
that Love might awaken love
in Love
have stern eyes?
How can the one
who suffered the world's hell
for Heaven's effusive joy that immersed Him
have stern eyes?
How can the one who now lives
in fountains of divine
ecstasy
have stern eyes?