“Some day, perhaps, remembering even this
Will be a pleasure.”
Virgil, The Aeneid, I
Aeneas and his men have endured much since leaving Troy. And of course they left only after the destruction of all they knew and loved in a flaming inferno of death.
Now they’ve been shipwrecked in a strange land. What does a captain say to his men?
Some day, perhaps, remembering even this
Will be a pleasure.
Few words, perhaps, have ever sent more of shiver down the spine of Western Civilization.
Far from an unfeeling, or nihilistic, or even jaded utterance, these words express the true heart of a man struggling to maintain his confidence in the divine plan for him. In the midst of intense suffering.
Such a supple and faithful attitude in suffering can be maintained. It has been done. And it can be our purpose to do it again.
A fuller reflection on this astounding text is at Aleteia.
Virgil (70-19 B.C.) is the great Roman poet, author of The Aeneid and The Georgics. In the Divine Comedy Virgil appears as Dante’s guide through hell and purgatory.
This Wednesday Quotation and reflection originally posted at Bacon from Acorns.
