If we have found ourselves starting again from the very beginning, we do not do so alone. We, the defeated of the last century, arrive as strangers in this one, confessors of a faith never wholly secular, carrying with us nothing for the journey. Nothing except hope.

Leviathan, Capital-State-Empire, rules over every nation: drunk with the blood of martyrs, at war with all life. An enemy who has not ceased to be victorious. An enemy which has triumphed all over the world. But this world is passing away. 

It falls to us to remember this. It falls to us, despite everything, not to forget. To speak and act in forms new, and yet the same as always: everything for everyone, nothing for ourselves. One in heart, they held all things in common: With them the brotherhood of man was no mere phrase. 

We have found ourselves starting again from the very beginning. We have fallen, it seems, very far.  We are still travelling through purgatory; still contending, flesh and blood, against powers and thrones and dominions. What has to be done is beyond us. And we have, despite and because of all this, reason for our hope. 

Remember. We were, we are, we shall be.

Listen. 

Rise, He said. Get up and walk.