A Hymn To Transcendence

A Hymn to Transcendence


I sing of
the foundational eros
by which nothingness
is attracted to fullness,
creation to the Creator,
the human universe
to the divine milieu.

We exist to transcend
our existence.
Faith takes us
beyond cognition;
hope aspires
to a better condition;
charity is a drive
to fuller fruition

The limited beckons us
to the boundless;
the contingent postulates
the necessary;
the partial gives a glimpse
of the All.

Bewail not, then,
the condition
of creatureliness:
the sea does not complain
of the shore,
nor does the mountain envy
the sky.

Extol, therefore,
the virtues of
limitation.
For, it is the humble
who achieve greatness
and the meek
who inherit the earth.

Our limit is
not a boundary,
but a connection.
We cannot exist
of ourselves
and for ourselves;
without being
interrelated
we perish.

The intricate web of
coexistence and collaboration
is not a net
that fetters us in shackles.
but a springboard
that frees us for flight.

For,
if there is nothing
beyond our mortal ken,
there is no room
for flight or fancy
and no purpose
to our dreaming
and striving.

©   Msgr. Walter Niebrzydowski
June 3, 2003
Fr-Walter@nyc.rr.com
www.epiphanyrcchurch.us