His Greatest Seal: Poems by the Rev. Francis Quintin-Arthur
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On That Day …! (Dies Illa, Dies Irae …!)
Those who encumber people with onerous loads
Who themselves have not experienced the heaviness
For they will not lift a finger
Who learn of the heaviness from those they have thus burdened
And can tell from the grimaces of these carrying their crosses
Crosses made by man but nonetheless from God the Almighty
Will taste the heaviness of the burdens they laid on others
On that day,
The good Lord
The Wonderful Counselor
Will gather all those having been thus entoiled
And He will point to their measure
And have each of us lift those burdens we laid on others
We’ll realize how heavily we’ve hampered them
Having administered
What we don’t want done to us
Then we will wince and grimace in pain
Our legs will unbalance
As we stagger under the weight of the burdens we created
But to those who repent
Oh, He will send His holy angels
To bear them up
And rid them of their burdens
And when His angels meet them at the gate
And usher them into heaven
What we consider joy on earth
Will be as nothing compared to the glory
He will shower on them
But those who repent not of this
They will be under their heavy weights
And as double-quick as a bat flying out of hell
They will stumble along to the other place
Right where the bat flew from
—cum magna cellesitate!
And no one shall pay them any mind
On that fateful day
Before the Prime Mover,
Who settled us here
Intending for us our lives as gifts to present unto Him,
We arrive at the throne
Barehanded
After having gifted us with the talents of life
To be made fit for the heavens, He would demand an account
Of the testing here below
Where nonetheless joy abounds for the wise who love truth
Seek Him!
On that day, if you have no gift,
If your life you have wasted through laziness and wickedness,
Substituting I-don’t-care-isms for love
The most loving Father
Who is most merciful and comforting
Having extended His hand to enfold you
As He always has
Would wish you had not turned your back on Him
As you wheel around to go to the other place
To where, while others are suited in glorious celestial garb
You will be covered with one or three leaves
For being disobedient to His command to love—
To love as best you can
And you will pout and stamp your feet!
Judgment
Unqualified
How pure!
That of God
To Him alone do you belong
Man tries to appropriate you
For his own ends
But would never succeed
Judgment
God made you only for Himself
Let me be wise enough
To be contented
With what God has given me
For should I seek beyond this
I’d grab that apple
And also take a bite
To observe my own nakedness
Judgment
I evoke you not
For you belong to the almighty God
And to Him alone
A hut
In exclusive neighborhood
Or a house
In the city
Or a hamlet
Anywhere
Or any property:
Trespass not!
For these our possessions are
So the ferocious canine
We employ as guard
And all who dare enter
Without the proper code
Onto what we claim for our own
The dog may bite
Could be fatal
But, mortal man,
Stop to consider
This property, for example, the house—
Of how many particles of sand composed?
Answer me!
What lies deepest down in it?
Could there be a macroscopic container of gold?
Or a time bomb many miles down?
Respond!
How came it there?
Yet you claim this property for your own.
To the point of dog-biting—
Even unto death!
Cogitate again!
Your property?
Yet ignorant of precise composition?
He who has all information
To its minutest detail
Owns property
Caretaker you are,
And a good job you’d better do of it
To maintain to magnificence
Or at least keep tidy,
For the owner would come to demand
How well you preserved it.
Then the authentic Landlord-cum-Landowner
You’d meet—
And if you did no satisfactory job on the land—
Or whatever it may be—
He’d demand an account
Then you’d realize
That you yourself, demanding others not to trespass
Would have trespassed yourself
So keep the warning on both sides of the sign:
“ Do not trespass,” Caretaker!
For the Master of the land cometh!
He approaches like the fire
The Counselor, since none can give what one has not
—But He can give what He may, since He is all that’s good—
And insofar as He has so wisely
This orbit thus fashioned
With sole view of mortal man
His happiness ensuring
All that in this said orbit to mortal gave
But—and here appears the “but”—
This ecstasy that man so gravitates toward,
And which really must be sought
Will be brought to question by this Counselor
And you probably thought that ecstasy
Would never be questioned
But it would. And this done,
Found wanting in some of those true ingredients
That are solely founded on Divine Law,
He, the Almighty—who Justice too is His name—
Would fatherly lead the proprietor of this ecstasy into purgatory—
Old belief thought by they who know
And maintained by us who follow
Where He would expiate those idiosyncrasies
But he who has blatantly hurt his neighbor in seeking this ecstasy
And has not had the common sense to forgive
And has been downright wicked to the end
Not caring about God and man
But his own whim followed
Of his own accord shall fall into the depths,
Where many who believe that hell
With its fiery furnace is the worst of punishments
Shall realize the true punishment
Worse than six thousand fires
Where the mind, the curious mind,
Who in days on earth pursued his quest
Is now so close but so confused
And mind’s eye shall look on nothingness
Having failed the decisive test
But the eye of the loving mind
Shall feast on the Lumen Gloriae
And shall be happily amazed
At the selection of countless ecstasies
That would be laid before him
And angels shall wait on him forevermore
He who transgresses God’s ordinances and rationalizes
Knowing fully well they are in the Sacred Books—
In black and white—
The questions God will throw at him on that day
When he stands there scratching his head
Well aware that his pretense could not hold much water!
Beware!
For there are things we may get away with
But for His Word
That which brought creation to be
And which came down on earth to save.
The Word
Stretching His arms to enfold us
And man
Thinking himself God
Passed judgment on Him
Caught his God and spat on Him
And made the women of Jerusalem cry.
The Word.
Anyone who denies
Consciously
Just for his ends
This Word, denies with full sense,
The good God will be ashamed of him
On the day he stands before Him.
And he shall grind his teeth and weep
And no one shall give him a handkerchief
To wipe his tears.
From time immemorial till present time
Man in all generations
Has talked unceasingly
About the good old days
And from all indications
Generations to come
Will continue such talk
All well and good
For all to air personal opinion
But the days come
They roll on, comrades in fight
The combat for celestial joys
Altercating with the wicked one
The days flee
When comes the Prince of Peace
Whose name cannot be inscribed
With “bellicose” on the same line
Since He abhors all violence
Take a peek at His credential above
Lover of Peace
This Prince of Peace
Who is not in the least belligerent
But constantly ameliorates all for man
When He arrives on that day
Oh, will He demand an account of our lives
Sitting in stern judgment over us
The book of our deeds and misdeeds right before Him
On that day, no accomplice or friend can we seek for help
For each himself before Him stands
And no appeal to the good old days
Will serve as an excuse
For failure to love
All our mates shall congregate
When our mortal lives come to an end
And shall stand before the pearly gates
Seeking entrance to happiness
That day!
Those who with full knowledge
For their own ends to achieve
Distort what others say even in jest
Not unaware of the discredit
They would thus unnecessarily cause
But nonetheless feel the urge
Because of their own ego
Beware!
The Lord cometh!
He will ask us to look at Him
That is, the God of Justice, right in His glorious face
And this fellow human being
One has thus tried to destroy
Will stand right next to this destroyer
On that day none can lie nor hide
And all his ego will deflate
And only One will be judge for both
And He’ll support the innocent one of course
And will give him back his crown
Stolen from him by force
And the Lord will take away the thorns
The other person has made for him
And He, the Lord, will crown him—the innocent
With the authentic crown,
The crown of flashy gold
And the crown of shame
Will find its way
Onto the wicked one’s head
And he shall be silenced
Such a one shall be his own judge
For the same measure he gave
Will be given back to him
And he will weep
And gnash his teeth
And call his God fair
For he will understand what he’s done
But he who was so wronged
Will wear his crown to the streets
Smiling from cheek to cheek
And all will rejoice with him
For as water seeks its own level
All secrets will be laid bare
And he shall survive
And with the cherubim and seraphim
Shall dance to the tune
Of the angelic brass band
You who render judgment on another
Witness St. Matthew on judgment
Judge not!
If you do judge—
God will get you!
He will sit you in judgment—
In judgment over yourself
Since you did not care to do same to another
And your sentence will be handed over to you
The same you gave
And God help you if you escape
For if you’re human
And still listen not and judge your fellow human
Though forbidden
God will let you sentence yourself
And you’d realize how it is
To do to someone what you wish not
Others to do to you
A loaded gun
About to be fired to cause death
A wild canine
Both featured on board
Before huge mansion
The dog, as excellent guard of house
Keeping all intruders at distance
Occasional loud barks
But welcomed
For his doggy threats
Make the dwellers rest easier
To enter when uninvited
Watch out for a pound of your flesh
And sometimes about two pounds
But warning sign screams out loudly
Louder than the dog
“ Pay no heed to dog”
But points to loaded gun
And indicating gun as such
For the doubting Thomases
So man will go this length
Property to protect
But, man, you own not this house!
Nor all its contents
For all this orbit contains
Belongs to almighty God
So take care of your possessions
But keep in mind
To detach yourself from them
For that which you protect unto death
You possess it not
Take as good care of it as you can
But you’ll leave it right here on earth
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