Good evening,

My name is Marco, and I frequently read the answers on your website. I have written this poem, the fruit of an intense reading of the answers you give us concerning eternity. I ask for your opinion. To me, it is beautiful because it is like a catechesis contained within a prayer, which also holds much hope and trust. Thank you again.

1 I’ve come to this high mountain in solitude to think,

2 Far from all the distracting noises, close to the brink.

3 To grasp a concept would be great gain,

4 Though often spoken of, yet we’re off the lane.

5 What is time? Who will ever succeed

6 In giving sensible words to this reality we need?

7 Even great Augustine gave it honest care

8 Truly using the brilliance of his gifted flair.

9 And jokingly, he comes to say:

10 If no one asks me, I know time’s way,

11 But let someone ask me to explain it outright—

12 Alas, where has my wisdom gone from sight? 

13 Here from the Greek Aristotle comes a definition for you:

14 “Time is the measure of motion according to the before and after, too.”

15 If you are in time, there must surely be

16 Past, present, and future, all three. 

17 But of the three, only the present we can view,

18 The others we remember or await anew. 

19 I can state with Augustine, with absolute certainty 

20 That our soul alone measures time’s reality.

21 Without a soul to take a straining measurement,

22 Time would only be movement. 

23 I rack my brain for a further evaluation,

24 Concluding that time is our very dimension, 

25 And this sly and casual situation

26 Gives us our being in a slow, piecemeal fashion.

27 I fall then into the dilemma of time so stunning,

28 It shows you an adventure, but moments are vanishing, 

29 Leaving cheerful, sad, or faded memories behind,

30 So much that thinking of it stuns the mind. 

31 Where are my youthful deeds, whose absence I feel so?

32 Time swallowed them, as it wants sequence in events to flow. 

33 And now appears its terrible ally, nostalgia,

34 Beautiful moments sting you, but flew away like a phantasmagoria. 

35 What a pain for us humans to reflect once more

36 About sensations we can no longer restore. 

37 And so, as slaves to this universal decree that is our master, 

38 Where we must always regulate the “before” and the “after”. 

39 In this blur of changes in any event, 

40 I strive to keep the beautiful emotions I felt: 

41 Friendships, adventures, the joys and the fun, 

42 That marked my story since life had begun. 

43 But like a child whose ice cream is snatched away, 

44 The tyrant of time has robbed me of my play. 

45 I sit here and look down, 

46 Seeking a solution to not yield down.

47 But, resisting its ruling all and anywhere, vexed I become, 

48 For since I began thinking, half the day has gone.

49 The problem lies exactly in this dimension, 

50 Where we possess our being in succession. 

51 What a misfortune for us mortals the notion

52 Of having a great soul subject to so many tribulations.

53 What edge will I get over the horse or the bison?

54 If in time, like them, I must bow at my horizon.

55 Even the eagle and camel mock in death’s face,

56 For even after a century of strength, I shall share their same space.

57 Desperately seeking a cure for this black blight,

58 Because I want to hold onto life’s beauty and light, 

59 Now, a daring thought emerges, bold and vast,

60 That sees time defeated by its opposite at last.

61 The rule of our dictator shall surely end,

62 When into eternity we finally ascend.

63 And as the great Thomas Aquinas wrote as a comment,

64 “There God lifts man high over any event.”

65 There is no before or after; time is outcast,

66 Since the present never flows into the past.

67 Our deeds will never end and forever last,

68 For there, the acting never becomes past. 

69 Before Thomas, another had come quite near,

70 Boethius Severinus, a thinker most clear;

71 He wanted to remind us that state is exultant,

72 Although it consists of a unique instant. 

73 Imprisoned by an unjust sentence, he thought in the fire, so admirably writing:

74 “Eternity is the total, perfect, and simultaneous possession of an unending being.”

75 There, any need to choose will cease,

76 For nothing beautiful we release.

77 Moving from potentiality to act is a need of the past,

78 For in the fullness, the leap is forever past.

79 Some fool might think that from there

80 Our freedom is sacrificed somewhere;

81 Such people would be foolish not to believe,

82 That the eternal law is what we must receive,

83 And it will not be a loss, but a gain quite exact,

84 When we conquer the totality with a single act.

85 Thus, if we think well, freedom will not be lost,

86 But rather, there freedom is fulfilled at any cost;

87 By grace and your merits, you’ll have determined,

88 In the state that can no longer be reversed. 

89 Well Thomas said: eternal vision has no succession,

90 So that every lack will find exclusion. 

91 Like catching all the fruits of the earth in one basket’s throw,

92 There “all things seen, are seen together in a single intuitive blow.” 

93 Here men toil, but their work is momentary,

94 While there, without effort, all things are contemporary. 

95 Learned and ignorant have tried not a little,

96 To understand its game, to solve the riddle, 

97 But eternity stands high and resolute,

98 Shrouded in a thick mist and absolute. 

99 And with what words could a man ever explain

100 What he cannot even imagine or contain? 

101 I remain seated to contemplate and stare,

102 At the surprise that heaven wants to prepare,

103 Of how the Eternal, without any cessation,

104 Calls us to admire the divine operation.

105 I’ve pondered it often, and my heart starts to chime,

106 Thinking of the dwelling that holds all existence at a time.

107 How will be possible the unique moment

108 Where no decrease or increase is lent?

109 When a turtle has circled the equator a hundred million times around,

110 The instant without past or future will watch it, tireless and profound.

111 I believe I disrespect no one’s name if I say

112 That nothing here can stand in its way;

113 Indeed, I say with heart as light as a kite,

114 It is ridiculous even to compare in sight.

115 If I valued earthly goods little, it would seem a false thought,

116 But compared to her, I would count them as naught.

117 Indeed, for what good could a man ever trade

118 The prize that in eternity for him is made?

119 I admit that a bit of fear might strike,

120 Thinking there will exist is no becoming’s hike;

121 It’s the usual fear of the unknown and the haze,

122 For trying to grasp it would leave the mind in a daze.

123 As for me, I already taste the good in store,

124 Where bitter pains are suffered no more.

125 I thank Aristotle, Thomas, Severinus, and Augustine,

126 For helping us walk where the path is crystalline.

127 And if anyone has more questions on this grand theme,

128 In their company, I declare: there is no greater dream.

129 For a long time, I have felt a great ferment inside,

130 Thinking of Him, in whom no shadow of change can reside.

131 Finally it is evening, and the sun sets on my thought, 

132 Which in a few hours will be history, to “yesterday” brought.

133 Time won again, there is nothing I can do,

134 Though even he, one day, will suffer it too.

135 I lie on the grass and the breeze starts to cool

136 The brain that boils from being a thought’s tool.

137 I look up and admire the firmament above,

138 With my hands, I’d still stop this moment I love.

139 Eternity, I will wait for your coming for now,

140 For that will be the enjoyment of God Himself, I vow.

The Priest’s answer

Dear Marco,

I have enjoyed the reading of your poem with a surprising crescendo. Each statement reminded me of something I wrote about. In its simplicity, it is a perfect synthesis. I would not have been able to express it this way myself.

Evidently, you possess a poetic vein, but also an extraordinary capacity for synthesis. You did not leave out a single element of the discussion. I am happy to know you are in the company of Aristotle, Augustine, Severino Boethius, and Thomas. You were fortunate to have found these treasures on your path; the Lord placed them before you.

I am happy to publish it. Probably some student will draw material from it that may benefit their research or their exams.

May the Lord bless you abundantly. I remember you in my prayers and I wish you every good.

Father Angelo

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