There is a crushing

There is a crushing                                                                                              
 
How do I escape suffering, Lord, 
fear, ignorance and death?  
 
And He answers me, though I am reluctant to hear. 
There’s a crushing and a transfiguration.
 
Grain becomes bread; grapes become wine;
then upon our tongues and in our throats,
 
we take the body and blood of Christ.  
There’s no rescue
 
(praise God for that, He tells me),
only endurance and culmination;
 
the end of hope and then, an awakening;
only a trust in the necessity and the outcome;
 
in the worth of the pearl.  Faith in love,
in the Maker and Father, in the process.
 
All shall be well (He revealed to one lover, centuries ago).
All shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well.
 
O child of God, request not rescue and escape
but solace, strength and conviction instead.