In Secular Saeculorum

If all the oughts and nots given by God
Are excommunicated from debate,
Except in terms of conscience which she lauds,
I’d like to blame our Holy Mother State.

I’d blame this Novus ordo secular
On savants who with smiling faces say:
“Neanderthals!” or “to the sepulcher!”
They satirize or sanitize the Faith.

But if religion’s now identity
Is it because they’ve banished mystery?
Or reason’s lost its reins to language games
Inscribed in law, assuming reason’s name?:
“Right in the heart of sacred liberty
Exists a right that makes a person free
To define what ‘a person’ means, you see—
And freedom’s liberated from all creeds.”

Still if God has become a therapist
Dispensing gifts and giving little tips
You must admit the numinous we’ve nixed,
We’ve neutralized ourselves into a fix.

This Novus ordo will the whole world fill
Until we gain extraordinary forms
Of logikēn latreian and these norms
Spill from cathedral to the cubicle.

—Joshua Hren