when the stars are fading

one early morning in Australia
just about when the stars were fading,
and the pink light of the morning spread through the dark bank clouds,
with the waves roaring against the sand,
and the great rays of the glory of the sun rising,
a thought transfixed me:

For the first time in my life I saw the truth as it is set into song by so many poets, proclaimed as the final wisdom by so many thinkers, and declared by God. The truth--that love is the ultimate and highest goal to which man can aspire. Then I began to grasp the meaning of the greatest secret that human poetry and human thought and belief have to impart: The salvation of man is through love and in love. I understood how a man who has nothing left in this world still may know bliss, be it only for a brief moment, in the contemplation of his beloved. For the first time, I was able to understand the meaning of the words, "The angels are lost in perpetual contempation of an infinite glory, love."