Gazing into the Abyss
This painless life has been too little blest, Too little in true suffering immersed— Of all disease is comfort not the worst, For one who seeks a cause, a cross, a quest? Yet one who treads the road of holiness Leans perilously near a brink accurs’d: For vampire-slayers oft are bitten first, And exorcists are oftenest possessed. But still—but still—may not a man risk all, If only to escape tepidity? Ah, Father, let me climb and dare the fall, Though I myself soon beg surcease of Thee! Let me be tested, even if I call Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?
—J.B. Toner
J.B. Toner is a graduate of the school of hard knocks.
