What is Man?

Consider the four gospels
consider the controversies and convergence,
consider the contradictions which are the authentification
of true events.

Consider the holy apostles in debate and misunderstanding.
Consider this: that even they needed time and steadfastness
and faith and prayer to find clarity and mercy and peace―
and from this the fruitfulness heaven desired.

All men are tested.
All servants of the King are tested mightily.

The steadfast man says, “Here I will stay. I shall not be moved.”
And in this his soul speaks: “Here is the place where I accept to be killed.”
Yes, on this battleground. In this desolation. In this place of defeat, will the victory be found.

And with all men be of single heart, listening to the eternal in them;
be not dissuaded nor convinced by every tale formed on their tongues,
for even in the mouths of the best, a tale takes another shape than its true meaning,
and even in the mouths of the worst, a truth may be found.

Love all equally if you can,
but trust the few,
and even with these few, understand they are not perfection,
yet in their imperfections they carry their poverty toward eternity,
and in this way, with hammer and saw and wood and stone
and laughter and tears, they forge the shape
of the reliable word.

Look neither to the left nor to the right,
look not to opposing poles to find the true center;
do not measure equidistant from them,
for the earthbound poles shift
and the poles in men’s minds are more unreliable than these.

Be not a slave to the apparent,
but seek the perspective of a higher vantage point.
Climb the mast with patience,
endure the abstinence of the immediate
for the sake of what is beyond the arc
(the spin of the arc, which men call horizon,
which men call the line of horizon,
which is not in fact a fixed line,
for it is a wave,
the hiatus between matter and infinity).

Seek the true center, which is above.
See the true center, which is above.
~Michael O’Brien