St. Paul’s Basilica – A Cautionary Statement

St. Paul’s Basilica
(A Cautionary Statement)

By David Niall Wilson

They built their lives
Into the walls of
The Basilica in Rome.
Days, years, lifetimes,
No difference to the stone,
No difference to history.
Only the church remains.
Men long forgotten carved stone,
Painted visions,
Worshipped with characters from
The world’s best selling novel,
And died.
We never met them,
But we know them through the walls,
Rising to challenge the skies,
The paintings, brilliant and inspired,
Ancient and admired.
Through colonnades and altars
They reach to us through time,
Embracing each new face,
Filling each mind, heart, and soul
With the wonder
Of their lives.
We cannot reproduce,
In our modern, technological world,
What they built from desire.
We cannot copy what they
Accomplished through faith.
We have walked upon the moon,
The cost the heart of the Earth.
They built their lives
Into the walls.
We fling ours to the stars.