An Argument for Apocatastasis, Clarence Caddell (September 2026)

An Argument for Apocatastasis

Assuming sentiment does not misplace
Itself upon a sleeping infant’s face
Or co-opt reason doubtfully to find
Within the womb a thing of the same kind,
At least it is not of the same degree,
That much is clear. Having begun to be,
Other things equal, we would see it live
And where it fails to, spare some time to grieve,
But not as much as if it had advanced
As far in life as otherwise had chanced.
Assuming then that which seems presupposed:
That though those little eyes as yet be closed,
A soul, immortal, individual
Takes residence behind them, and that all
The chance it has of a lifetime in our world
Is actual already, lying furled,
To be no more than just this once incarnate—
And one more thing, as messengers will warn it,
That sins it will commit right from the start
Will be engraved upon its little heart
In letters God has promised to erase
From those hearts only that accept His grace,
(Which many won’t, or won’t know how to do
In this age where the Truth is thought untrue!)—
Then, if we take for premises emotions
That whisper—squeal sometimes—against cruel notions
Selectively in favour of those we can’t
Help smiling on, cannot both smile and plant
In Limbo’s chilly graveyard as the price
Of our admission to where natural ties
As tight as flesh upon the skeleton
Perhaps are disentangled—having gone
Thus far against our starting premises,
Should they show up again in all this mess,
As guilty-innocent as looks a child
Whose features keep our adulthood beguiled
Through all her misbehaviour—there remains
Only to save our children from the pains
That we must take who are alive, to keep
Our wretched souls off the Gehennic heap,
And at the cost of our eternal lot
For their sake do the thing that we should not,
And thus ensure what every parent wills:
That their child live a life free of those ills
They have power to spare them. Then, who knows?
(The choice invidious, and what we chose
The best to be discerned!) that God whose story
Post-incarnation has not lost in glory
For not being over long—might He admit
Us visiting rights in heaven from the pit?—
Or might our children’s prayers be suffered to acquit?