“They are strangling us slowly”, said the prior.
“Not so slowly”, said Dottrina. “They are going as fast as they possibly can without making the public nervous.”
“What are our adversaries trying to do?” said Elijah.
“They want the world to think that we say nothing because we have nothing left to say. We have short-wave radio, but there has been some jamming by unknown sources. Radio pirates, probably.”
“You would think we are at war!” said the prior.
“We are at war”, said Elijah.
“It’s the strangest situation”, said Dottrina. “All these outrageous things are being done to us, but not a hint of it gets into the media. Everyone thinks things are normal.”
“What is the Holy Father going to do?”
“What can he do? He speaks and speaks, but even when some of his words reach the people, they hardly listen.”
“How is his health?”
“Not so good as last year, but you know his indomitable spirit. I have tried to get him to consider some contingency plans in case there is an attack on Vatican City.”
“Do you really think it would come to that?”
“Not for the present. The semblance of normality is essential to the plans of our adversary. He will strike in private and only when there are few left who support us.”
“Who would strike the Pope?” said the prior. “Surely you don’t mean physical violence?”
The cardinal raised his eyebrows. “Perhaps not. But we can no longer be sure of anything in the human scheme of things. They have already arrested some of our people on trumped-up charges, some for personal sins, some for political. I don’t know who is next. A noose is slowly tightening around us, and I am sure the ultimate objective is the Vatican.”
“If it comes to that, will you urge the Holy Father to go to a safe place?”
“I have suggested Switzerland. Possibly Australia, but like so many countries, the Church there is riddled with compromise, and I don’t know of more than a handful of bishops who would welcome him.”
“America?”
“That would seem more likely. However, the Church is bitterly deadlocked there, and the president of the United States is one of our enemy’s strongest supporters. That is beside the point. The Holy Father will never leave Rome.”
“Not even for the sake of preserving the chair of Peter?”
“He believes it would be best preserved by offering his life for it.”
“Martyrdom?”
“He is convinced it is the path the Lord has chosen for him, and he refuses to avoid it.”
“We have to pray for him!” piped up Brother Ass, speaking for the first time. The three priests looked at him. They saw what an effort it had cost him to open his mouth.
“You are right, Brother”, said the cardinal.
They bowed their heads, and Dottrina led them in prayers for the safety of the Pope. When he was finished, he got up and cleared the table of its coffee cups, went over to a tub on a bench, and began to wash the dishes. Brother Ass started as if he were witnessing a shocking act.
“Please, your Eminent, I mean your Oliness, I mean cardinal—you can’t do that!”
“Why can’t I, Brother?”
“Because. . . because, it’s my job!”
“You mean I took it without permission?”
“Yes-No! I didn’t mean that!”
“Brother, would you please allow me to wash the dishes?”
“No, sir! I mean yes! Er. . . no!”
The prior suppressed his amusement, and the cardinal humbly turned over the washcloth to Brother Ass, who looked confused, wondering how to extricate himself from an impossible situation.
Elijah said, “Brother, can I borrow the cardinal for a moment? I would like to show him the oratory.”
Brother Ass nodded emphatically and turned to the dishes with a red face.
Elijah and Dottrina went outside and around the end of the building, stepping over the low foundation wall into the oratory. It was open to the sky, illuminated by a full moon.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to embarrass him.”
“He will recover quickly”, said Elijah.
“Why did you want to speak with me alone?”
“I need your discernment about a problem. But first I must tell you of something the Lord did to me.”
Using spare language, Elijah related what had happened during the forty days in the wilderness. When he was finished, the cardinal did not speak for a time.
“The experience is biblical”, he said eventually.
“I don’t know why it has happened, or what is going to happen next. At least not the details. I know only that the Lord has called me to Jerusalem to bear witness against the adversary.”
“Then you must go.”
“That much is clear. But how will I get there? What shall I say?”
“Your task is to obey. The words will be given to you.”
“Should I go by myself? I fear to bring my two companions into danger.”
“I’m not sure. Perhaps you could travel with me.”
“Do you have the necessary papers to get across the frontiers?”
“Enough to take me as far as Jordan. From there, friends are going to obtain a permit for my passage into Israel.”
“I might handicap you. I’m still a wanted man.”
“We could go together as far as Amman, and from there you would have to play it by ear.”
They left the matter unsettled, went in to the hut, and slept.
* * *
After breakfast they hiked up the mountain. The three companions would not tell the cardinal where they were taking him. Brother Ass especially delighted in the joke, and when they reached the ancient road, he could not stop himself from rushing on ahead, leaping from one pile of rubble to another. Every so often he would stop and wait for them to catch up. He abandoned every scrap of deference he had felt for the visiting dignitary on the previous day, calling, “Come on, Your Honor!” whenever they lagged behind.
“Slow down, Brother”, retorted the prior. “Have a little mercy. We are old men!”
By the time they reached the entrance to the cave, the small one had already gone in. They found him sitting against the back wall, smiling ecstatically, tears running from his good eye.
“What is this place?” said the cardinal.
No one answered him.
He looked about the chamber, then slowly sank to his knees. He breathed a loud sigh.
“Theotokos”, he said.
They remained in the cave for several hours. No words were spoken. Light filled them. Strength came into them. The four men raised their arms simultaneously and began to sing and praise God.
Their arms did not grow weary.
Joy came into them.
Song poured like a river from their mouths.
Tears like an oil of gladness streamed from their eyes.
When the beam of the setting sun crept into the entrance, Brother Ass lay down and fell asleep. The current of divine sweetness faded gently and then ceased, leaving the three priests enveloped in peace. Eventually the cardinal looked down at the sleeping form of the brother.
“You call him Brother Ass”, he said. “A strange name. Does he like it?”
“As long as I have known him,” said the prior, “that is the name he has wanted.”
“What is his name in religion?”
“I can’t remember for sure. I think on the day of his profession he was given the name Brother Enoch.”
“Shouldn’t we call him by his right name?” said the cardinal.
“If you think so, but he wouldn’t like it.”
“Perhaps”, said the cardinal pensively.
At that point, the small one gave a sharp cry and sat up. He held a hand over his bad eye.
“What is the matter, Brother?” said Elijah.
“It’s burning, it’s burning!”
E
lijah knelt beside him and pulled the hand away from the eye. The gnarled scar tissue, ordinarily white, was now inflamed.
Brother Ass grabbed Elijah’s right hand and thrust the palm against his bad eye. Elijah tried to pull away, but the brother would not let him. The scar in his palm grew hot. He could feel its shape, the cross, like a burning.
“What is it? Is he all right?” said the prior.
“Leave them”, said the cardinal.
Then the brother’s grip loosened, and he lay back. Elijah’s palm no longer hurt, though the mark of the burn was still livid upon it.
“Open your eyes”, he said.
The brother opened both of his eyes. The bad one blinked and watered.
“I can see”, he gasped. “With both my eyes. I can see!”
* * *
On a fine September morning, two men walked out of the wilderness of Moab, in the east, and crossed over the Jordan at the Hajalah ford. No one saw them, and on the Israeli side of the border, no one stopped to ask for their papers. From there, they struck south across the countryside until they came to a paved road. They turned west and walked throughout the remainder of the day, stopping only to drink from their water bottles and to eat a handful of figs and dates. Cars and transport trucks and vehicles of war passed by them, going in both directions.
In the early evening, they came to a junction where the road joined a highway along which heavy traffic was passing to and fro. An hour later, they came up over a rise and Jerusalem lay before them.
They stopped and unslung their packs. They raised their hands in the orans position. The elder, an old man with white hair, cried out:
We praise You, Lord God Almighty, for You have brought us out of the wasteland. We praise You, for You have hidden great things from the mighty, and the lowly You have raised up. Now do Your enemies make war upon Your servants, and now do Your servants glorify You in the midst of great tribulation!
Upon the palm of his right hand was a cross, burning in the light of the red sky.
“Salvation and glory and honor belong to You alone, O Lord!” cried the younger one, in whose eyes was Jerusalem the golden.
You are the Alpha and Omega,
the First and Last,
the Morning Star shining bright.
The Spirit and the Bride say “Come!”
Be with us now as we face our foe,
that we might stand firm,
and strengthen the things which remain.
Thus did Enoch and Elijah go down into the city, while above them, a jet banked and began its descent to the airport by the sea.
And I took the little scroll from the hand of the angel and ate it; it was sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it my stomach was made bitter. And I was told, “You must again prophesy about many peoples and nations and tongues and kings.”
Then I was given a measuring rod like a staff, and I was told: “Rise and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship there, but do not measure the court outside the temple; leave that out, for it is given over to the nations, and they will trample over the holy city for forty-two months. And I will grant my two witnesses power to prophesy for one thousand two hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth.”
These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands which stand before the Lord of the earth. And if any one would harm them, fire pours from their mouth and consumes their foes; if any one would harm them, thus he is doomed to be killed. They have power to shut the sky, that no rain may fall during the days of their prophesying, and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood, and to smite the earth with every plague, as often as they desire. And when they have finished their testimony, the beast that ascends from the bottomless pit will make war upon them and conquer them and kill them, and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city, which is allegorically called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified. For three days and a half men from the peoples and tribes and tongues and nations gaze at their dead bodies and refuse to let them be placed in a tomb, and those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and make merry and exchange presents, because these two prophets had been a torment to those who dwell on the earth. But after the three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them and they stood up on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them. Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “Come up hither!” And in the sight of their foes they went up to heaven in a cloud. And at that hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell; seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.
(Revelation 10:10-11:13)
CHILDREN OF THE LAST DAYS is a series of six novels that examine the major moral and spiritual struggles of our times. Each can be read independently of the others. The first three of the following titles, however, are best read in chronological order, for they form a trilogy within the larger work:
STRANGERS AND SOJOURNERS, set in a remote valley of the interior of British Columbia, is about the lives of two exiles, an Englishwoman, Anne, and her husband, Stephen, an Irishman. Beginning on the first day of the 20th century, and concluding in the mid-1970s, the Delaneys’ story is the foundational novel for the following two titles.
PLAGUE JOURNAL is set in the final year of the 20th century. The novel is composed of both written and mental notes made by Nathaniel Delaney, Anne and Stephen’s grandson, who is the editor of a small-town newspaper. The story takes place over a five-day period as he flees arrest by a federal government agency, during the preliminary stage of the rise of a totalitarian state in North America.
ECLIPSE OF THE SUN describes the plight of Nathaniel’s children, who are scattered and have become fugitives as the government seeks to eradicate all evidence of its ultimate goals. The events of this novel take place during the year following those of Plague Journal.
FATHER ELIJAH is the tale of a Carmelite priest, Father Elijah (born David Schaffer), and his confrontation with the spirit of Antichrist during the final year of the 20th century. The events of this novel take place at approximately the same time as those of Eclipse of the Sun.
SOPHIA HOUSE is set in Warsaw during the Nazi occupation. Pawel Tarnowski, a bookseller, gives refuge to a Jewish youth (David Schäffer) who has escaped from the Ghetto, hiding him in the attic of the book shop. Throughout the winter of 1942-43, the two discuss good and evil, sin and redemption, literature and philosophy. A novel that explores the meaning of love, religious identity, and sacrifice.
A CRY OF STONE is the life of a native artist. Rose Wabos. Abandoned as an infant, and physically handicapped, Rose is found by an Indian woman named Oldmary and raised by her in the northern Ontario wilderness. The story covers a period from 1940 to 1973, chronicling Rose’s growth to womanhood, her discovery of art, her moving out into the world of cities and culture, her search for beauty and faith.
Other novels in the Children of the Last Days series:
Strangers and Sojourners
Plague Journal
Eclipse of the Sun
Father Elijah
Sophia House
A Cry of Stone
NOTES
Chapter Fourteen
1 “Begone, Satan! Drink the poisoned cup yourself!” Back to text.
2 “Begone, dragon! The holy Cross is my light!” Back to text.
*Sitra ahra: literally, the other side, the kingdom of darkness. Back to text.
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