The Defeated Winner
The risen Christ appears here through memory, art, liturgy, and the Emmaus story as a strangely wounded victor. The poem juxtaposes Rembrandt’s masterpiece “Supper at Emaus,” Holy Week worship, childhood memory, a student dramatization of Emmaus episode, and the breaking of bread (Luke 24). Christ has conquered death, yet seems almost “defeated” by compassion for human sorrow. He remains at the table because humanity is still arriving wounded, bewildered, and late (even without a prayer). The paradox of the title thus becomes its theology: divine victory is not the triumphal indifference of the powerful but the inexhaustible willingness of the Risen One to remain with those who suffer, co-suffering with them.