.ad aeternitatem.
toward eternity
There has been a time for sorrows, and now is the time for joy.
And so the boy returns to his friends. They meet him with hugs and tears, but if they weep there is no longer any sorrow in it. He smiles back at them, and his sister notices that his eyes hold a new wisdom, and a tenderness she cannot quite explain.
She thinks that perhaps he alone of them all truly understands the joy that now shines at the heart of the world. There is sorrow mingled with the wonder in his face, a pain transfigured into beauty. His eyes know the meaning of sacrifice.
She thinks that they are the eyes of one who has glimpsed eternity.
And she is right. The boy stands at the edge of forever and his eyes reach across the gap to a place where time has no meaning. He is puzzled for a moment, uncertain of what it is he feels, and then he smiles, and his face is filled with a light like the stars.
He understands that the distance is not so great as he had thought. It is only the short interval between death and resurrection.
He called, and his father came. And that is everything.
The eyes of eternity gaze back at him, and the morning dawns.
.ad memoriam aeternitatis.
for perpetual remembrance