The End and Beginning

I am of the opinion that the God
            shall of a radiant morning make
 
full manifest a chaste, surpassing
            outcome, an issue of immense
 
compassion on the part
            of the loving Creator, even
 
with respect to the difficult
            matter of our suffering,
 
that out of it—pouring forth
            even from Gehenna’s bleak
 
abysmal torment—we will behold
            all the more and all
 
the better the immeasurable
            reach of His love.
 
Among all His actions, we find
            not one that is not entirely
 
a matter of mercy, love,
            and compassion. These comprise
 
the beginning and the luminous
            end of all His dealings with us.
 
                        adapted from The Ascetical Homilies of Saint Isaac of Syria, the Second Part