The Emperor Constantine’s mother, St. Helena
had Pontius Pilate’s steps
brought to Rome in the year 326 AD
a documented version of archaeological theft.
Now reinstalled across the Piazza
from Sans Giovanni in Laterano,
the church of popes.
No human foot may touch
- the 28 white marble risers
– the Scala Santa
wooden boards installed above,
grooves worn deep by pilgrims
who ascend on their knees in silent prayer
struggling to follow the path of Christ
to acknowledge the human travail of the Diety’s
trip to mortal condemnation.
At the top, the Chapel of the Holy of Holies,
- the Sancta Sanctorum
where only the Pope may enter to pray…
Tell me, if only the Pope may enter….
does he take a squirt bottle of Windex with him
and clean the fingerprints off the inside
of the bullet proof glass?
Or is there a nun, who enters quietly
at 3 AM to clean,
when the doors to the Chapel of St. Lawrence are shuttered,
the calm darkness of the night has fallen over the city
pilgrims and the clerics resting
having completed their reflection
on their day and on their God…..?
If a sister does visit to clean,
what does God say to her
when she asks him to pick up his feet?
Ray Brown
Photos of the Scala Sancta, the Sancta Sanctorum, and the Piazza di San Giovanni in Laterano, are posted on the Ray Brown Facebook Fan Page.
This is the twenty-second poem in a series called “An American and an Italian Spring” chronicling a spring trip to Rome and the Amalfi Coast.
Read the entire series as it is developed at: – “An American and an Italian Spring”
