POEM: The Promise of The Return

(for Alphonse “Freddie” Calabrese, Dec 2009)

To you, I give the burden of justice.
I will provision a keen intellect
And the greatest love of books and learning.
I will grant you a great heart and love for family
I offer you the sacraments so you may know
That I have not abandoned you in faithless times.
I give you The Most Holy Mass, which you will revere –
And I will give to you my own body and blood
To nourish you along the way.

And when I call you home, there will be your
Mother, Josephine – and your father, Charles –
Waiting for the moment of your return.

For it is not just the glory of God
That we seek while we are here, but reunion.
We hope to regain all that we have lost
Along the way.

Your learning is not
Needed now, you may leave it behind.
What you will need is what you always thought
You would need: forgiveness and faith,
Love, and the soft heart that first I gave you.

I am the promise of the return that
Welcomes you home, back from where you never
Really strayed, back to where you always knew
You belonged, safe in the arms of the Love
That first sent you and claimed you as its very own.