by Mary Pearson
fulfilled in your hearing.”
But then there was grumbling and it was clear there were many who doubted Him. A few times the children heard the name, “Yochanan” and when Jesus said, “there were many lepers in Israel during the time of Elisha the Prophet but the only one who was cleansed was Naaman the Syrian,” they rose as an angry mob and the children were dragged along with them. It seemed they were trying to push Jesus off the brow of the hill on which their town was built.
“Jesus !” Finne shouted and Lucien and Finne tried to fight their way through the crowd to help Him It was all Logan could do to protect Mags from being trampled (if ghosts can be trampled-- he sure didn’t want to find out). Throwing her on His shoulders he plowed after them.
“Jesus, we came to save you!” Lucien tried to hold back the angry mob.
Jesus wasn’t looking particularly worried but His eyes softened. “Hold each others’ hands and make a line.” They did. Then He breathed on them and their invisibility became a solid wall with which they were able to hold back the crowd. When they began to walk, Jesus followed and He was able to walk through the midst of the men, almost casually. When He was completely clear of the mob He paused to rip a tassel from His robe. He handed the tassel to Lucien and their visit was done.
“Did you find what you were looking for?” Mrs. Collins frowned at them. “Oh,” she said, really looking at them, “are you feeling alright? You look a little green.”
“Dizzy,” Finne clutched his stomach.
Mags grabbed Mrs. Collins’ pant leg. “We saved Jesus,” she said.
“You mean Jesus saved you,” she corrected.
“No, we saved Him!” Mags insisted “He was tall.” She pulled Mrs. Collins down to her level. “Jesus is my besty.”
“Your what…?”
“Her besty,” Having recovered, Lucien was all dimples again. “That’s how she says ‘best friend’.”
“Oh,” Mrs. Collins picked her up. “He’s my besty too. Listen, guys, it’s time to lock up for the night. I see your mother coming in the back.” And she ushered them out, but in a friendly talkative way. Lucien tucked the tassel deep in his jeans pocket for safe keeping.
Mad at Jesus
“Forgive me father, for I have sinned. My last confession was a couple weeks ago.”
“How can I help you, Son?”
Logan knew their priest was a linguist. “What’s the Hebrew name for John?”
“Yochanan.”
(Pause) “That’s what I thought.” Logan cleared his voice. “I think I’m mad at Jesus,” he said.
“Why would you be mad at Jesus?”
“He didn’t save John the Baptist. That’s why all the people in Nazareth wanted to kill Him, isn’t it? I mean, John was His friend!”
“His friend… and His cousin.” Father Andrew scratched his beard thoughtfully.
Logan’s lip trembled. “He said He was there to release prisoners, then He just left John in prison,” Logan continued in a small voice, “and they killed him.” He cleared his throat. “I read ahead.”
“You know that everybody dies, my Son.” Harsh words, but Father Andrew spoke them softly.
“But not like that!” How John the Baptist had died was too terrible to say out loud.
“Well,” Father Andrew said thoughtfully, “It’s horrible for us to think about, but in his case it would have been quick and nearly painless. That’s not the point, though. The point that Jesus was trying to make by coming into our world is that it doesn’t so much matter that we die.” His eyes became intense. “What’s more important is how we live.” He paused a moment to let his words sink in. “And, anyway He did save John and all of us, by His life, death and resurrection. John is in Heaven right now. I think you will forgive Jesus once you get to know Him better.”
“So,” Logan was almost afraid to ask, “what’s the penance for being mad at Jesus?”
“One Our Father should do it, I think. Jesus would rather be hated than ignored. At least you’re paying attention to Him.”
Solo Trip
After the children had placed the tassel from the fringe of Jesus’ robe into the “ark” treasure box, there was the inevitable discussion.
“Who goes next?”
“Me,” said Lillian. “It’s my feast day. Grandma Teri said I could go to daily Mass with her.”
“All by yourself?” This was Lucien. “No fair!”
“I’m the only one she’s taking, because I get to go shopping for a new outfit after.” Lillian grinned with mischief. “I wouldn’t want to waste a good opportunity. Wasting is a sin.”
“Ayent you scaiyood to go alone?” Molly’s eyes widened.
“No.” In truth Lily was sick of always having to share everything: gifts, clothes, her bed. Until recently she even had to share her bath. She was about ready for a solo adventure.
So she chose the Bible story she wanted to visit: Jesus walks on the water. She had often read that one in her illustrated children’s Bible and it was maybe her favorite. After Mass was over and when Grandma Tari was looking the other way she slipped up to the pulpit and opened the big Bible. Flipping the pages she found Matt 15:22 and began to read. “Then He made the disciples get into the boat and precede Him to the other side, while He dismissed the crowds. After doing so, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray--” And she was off.
It was late evening and somewhat cold to her ghostly self. Lily zipped up the jacket she was glad she had worn that day.
Jesus looked at her, “Back again so soon?”
Lily had no idea what He was talking about so she just shrugged.
“Where are your brothers and sisters?”
“I came alone.” Lily gave a weak smile.
Jesus regarded her for a moment before He spoke. “We are never alone.”
Lily surveyed the sparseness that surrounded the mountain in the waning light. She wondered what sorts of vermin lived in the Judean desert of Jesus’ time. Snakes, for sure. She could remember reading about snakes. She shuddered. “Can I sit with you?”
Jesus motioned to His side. “Please be still, child. I am very saddened by the death of my cousin, Yochanan. I am talking to My Father.”
Lily sat down beside Him and watched as He turned His Face to the starry sky. She could see His contrasting emotions-- joy, loneliness, anger, patience, longing and resolve-- she could have watched Him like this forever. His Face was so shining and beautiful. Finally He seemed spent and she dared to speak. “Teach me to pray.”
He turned His face to her and smiled. “But you already know…” He let this sink in. Then, “Our Father..” He prompted.
And Lily took over. This time she really thought about the words. With Jesus’ help she was able to pray and really mean what she was saying: praise, hope and petition. This time when she finished Lily felt like she had really spoken something lasting and profound.
Walk on Water
Dawn’s first light was beginning to creep into the sky and the wind had picked up. It was swaying the foliage that grew sparsely on the mountain.
“Come,” Jesus reached for her hand.
“If I touch You, won’t it send me back?” she asked.
“Not unless I will it.” His hand closed around hers. And here is another wonder, because to hold Jesus’ hand -- even in a semi-ghostly form-- is nothing that can be described by human words. She could not have forced herself to let go of Him. Thankfully He didn’t make her. When they reached the sea she could see the apostles’ boat being rocked and whipped by the wind. “Here we go,” He said as they stepped onto the surface of the sea.
Waves are springy to walk on, was Lily’s thought and she bounced a little bit to test it. Jesus gave her a semi-stern look and she half smiled in apology. By now the disciples had noticed Him and they seemed frightened, thinking Him a ghost.
“Take courage. It is I. Do not be afraid,” Jesus said.
Then Peter leaned out and asked Jesus, Lily knew (although she cou
ldn’t understand the words) to make him able to walk on the water, too.
“Come,” Jesus beckoned.
“It’s fun!” Lily couldn’t resist adding.
And at first Peter seemed exhilarated, but then, his arms flailing about, he started to sink. Jesus reached out for him with his free arm, simultaneously He met Lily’s eyes and when He squeezed her hand she began to spin.
“Are you ready, dear?” Grandma Tari’s hand was on her back. “I’m sorry I took so long talking with Janette. “We had some catching up to do.”
Lily cleared her throat. It felt so weird to jump worlds like this. “It’s ok. When we go shopping, can I get a purse, too?” She opened her palm and looked at the thing she had brought back: a little sprig of palm needles from the short bushes that were growing on the mountain where she had prayed with Jesus. She bit her lip. Although a part of her knew she was being selfish it really was her treasure. Jesus had given it to her and only her. Why should she share it with the others?
Selfish
“Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned. My last confession was a couple of weeks ago.”
“Continue, my child.”
Lily sobbed quietly. “I was selfish. I walked on water without my brothers and sisters. Then when they were jealous because I had so much fun, I promised we could all go together, and they could do it, too.” She sniffed a couple of times, then choked out, “It didn’t work.”
Father Andrew sighed before speaking. “We walk but once,” he said.
“I know that now. I just feel so guilty. All that time I spent, just Jesus and me, it’s like I stole it from my brothers and sisters.”
“Child,” Father Andrew said softly, “you are being too hard on yourself. We all need to spend time alone with Jesus once in awhile. It was His will for you.”
“But that’s not all.” Lily kneaded her hands nervously, “I was selfish with my souvenir. I hid it away instead of putting it in the ark box.”
“Now, there’s something you can change,” he said.
“And I can take my brothers and sisters with me every time I go so they won’t miss anything.”
“You could ask them,” he suggested. “They might not all want to go. Or they might not all be meant to go.”
When he dismissed her with a small penance Lily felt much better. The first thing she did was to put the little tuft of fragrant pine needles-- her token from Jesus-- into the box with the other mementos.
“So,” Logan and the others were gathered as usual in the girls’ room to decide where the next adventure would take them, “It’s the boys’ turn to choose where they want to go…” The others nodded. “But everyone gets to go, if they want to.”
“Calm the storm,” Lucien suggested.
“We wouldn’t all fit in the boat,” Lily objected. “Not with the disciples, too.”
“You can stay behind,” Logan said pointedly. He was still a bit wounded from Lily’s walking on water excursion.
“Nobody should stay behind,” Molly objected. “They would be sad.”
“Depends,” said Lucien, with a devilish smile. “I have a better idea. Demoniac!”
“Yeah!” said Logan and Finne together.
“What’s a demoninac,” Molly stumbled over the word.
“A guy possessed by the devil. Jesus heals him.”
“Ok,” said Molly.
“Not ok,” Lily objected. “Remember that King Kong movie you saw part of and then you couldn’t sleep for a week. Don’t go.” She met her sister’s eyes. “I’m not going.”
“Wuss!” This was Logan. “He can’t see us.”
Lily put her hands on her hips and faced him. “How do you know that?”
“No one else can,” said Logan.
“Except Jesus,” Finne reminded the others.
“Well, I’m not gonna take the chance. Mags neither. You should stay with us, Molly and Finn.”
Molly nodded but Finne shook his head. “I like monsters.”
Lily raised her eyebrow and shook her head. Logan thought she looked just like Mom. “We’ll see,” she said.
Molly, Lily and Mags waited in the pew during Adoration while Logan and the two younger boys went up to read from the book. From Lily’s perspective the boys were just standing staring at the Bible for about three minutes. When they finally broke from their trance, Finne was screaming and Logan had to put his hand over his mouth and yank him away from the microphone quickly. They wouldn’t tell the girls anything at all until they were all safe at home in the girls’ room.
Demoniac
Logan opened the Ark box and threw in a few links from a broken iron chain. He shuddered and closed the box.
“Ayen’t you going to tell us?” Molly asked.
Logan closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Then he began to tell the story:
Jesus and a couple of His disciples were just getting out of a boat when they got there. It was an area with caves hewn into the sandy hill, very remote, very deserted, except there was a horrible sulfurous smell about the place and the growling and grunting of some sort of animal--
Only it wasn’t an animal but a very hairy wild-eyed man with insects whining around his head. He looked more frightening than the most rabid unleashed wild animal you could imagine and, while most everyone (other than Jesus) had been completely unaware of the presence of the children, so that it was more like they were standing inside of a movie, but still not a part of the action, in this case it was clear that the beast thing person could see them. He turned straight toward them and started to laugh, and when he laughed it was like you were hearing fifty different voices coming out of him all at once. Then the thing snarled and ran toward them. It was so fast and they were frozen with fear.
“Enough!” Jesus held up his hand and the horrible creature whimpered and fell back away from the children.
“What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God,” the thing said with it’s many voices. (The weird thing was the children could understand it just like they could understand Jesus when He spoke.)
“Unclean spirit, come out of the man!” Jesus ordered. Then he asked, “What is your name?”
“Legion,” the voices came from his mouth, “for we are many.” Then the thing pleaded with Jesus to let them enter another body and the man’s head snapped in an unnatural way to stare at the cowering Gonker boys with it’s horrible vacant gaze.
That’s when Finne started to scream and he didn’t stop, but with the wave of His hand Jesus cast the demons into a large herd of swine, which began a high-pitched squealing and the pigs took off at a run, headed straight for the boys who suddenly realized they were standing on the edge of a cliff overlooking the sea. At the last second Jesus swept the boys out of the way as the entire herd threw itself over the cliff. The echoes of the pigs’ squealing were still ringing in their ears when the boys found themselves back at Cathedral, Finne still shrieking at the top of his lungs.
There was a bit of silence before Lily spoke. To her credit she didn’t say, “I told you so,” which she could have. Instead she said, “I’m glad we can only do that one once.”
And the boys didn’t disagree with her. There are limits to the amount of horror that anyone can stand.
Loaves and fishes
“I don’t want to go anymore.” Finne was sitting in the corner by the wall, his arms wrapped around himself.
“Sure you do,” Lily tried to draw him out, but he dug in. “We’ll just go nice places.”
“What if that thing finds me?” He turned his gaze to meet his sister’s and there was terror in his eyes. “It looked at me.”
“That thing is gone.” Lily smiled reassuringly. “The Bible says the man was cured.” She nodded her head. “All better.”
Finne sat and breathed for awhile. “Anyways, I’m always hungry there.”
“We can bring a lunch next time.”
“Picnic…?”
Lily nodded and he crawled into his big
sister’s arms.
Auntie Gen had just made a large batch of barley bread. There were many smaller loaves and their Mom said they could take some, and there were also some fish which their dad had caught when he visited little stone lake last weekend. Finne grabbed two wrapped smoked fish from the fridge and added them to the insulated grocery bag. “Picnic for six,” he said as he slung it over his shoulder.
“I’m ready!”
Because they had bread and fish they decided to go to the multiplication of loaves and fishes. That way they’d all be eating the same thing.
They gathered around the Bible together during their usual Adoration hour. (Mrs. Collins had gotten used to them reading from the Bible together. She thought it was charming.) This time Lucien read from the Bible with a bit of help from Lily: “…he withdrew in a boat to a deserted place by Himself. The crowds heard of it and followed Him on foot from their towns.”
And there the children were in the midst of a huge throng of pilgrims, many of them blind or lame, or with other impairments. When Jesus saw them He sat on a tree stump and had those who were sick come up one by one. He laid His hands on them and they were healed. The children saw scars disappear from a man’s face, a child with a withered hand was given a brand new perfect one. Mottled skin became clear. People who were carried in by their friends were able to walk out on their own. Blind were given sight, deaf could hear again. There were thousands of people and hundreds were healed as the children watched on.
After many hours of this Jesus realized that the people must be hungry. The children heard Him ask his disciples if there was anyone there with food.
“Cool,” Lucien said. “This is the part where the boy gives Him some loaves and fish and Jesus makes it enough for everyone.
Only it never happened. The disciples just kept looking and finding nothing.
Finne pulled his bag of bread and fish from his back. “Too bad we can’t share,” he said.
“Maybe we can,” said Logan. He nudged his little brother.
Finne ran up to Jesus and handed the refrigerator bag to Him.
Jesus smiled and blessed the air over Finne’s head. Then, taking Auntie Gen’s barley loaves and the fishes their dad had caught two thousand years later, He said a blessing, broke the loaves and began to hand them to the disciples to distribute.
When Finne looked around he was amazed to see everyone eating. It had become a bread and fish party where people were chattering happily, celebrating the cures of their friends and family. And it tasted so good because they were so hungry.
By now the sun was starting to set, pink fingers creeping along the skyline.
Then Jesus sent the people home. Last of all he blessed the Gonker children and
they appeared at the Cathedral. It wasn’t until they were back home that they realized each child had a chunk of bread and a piece of fish in his or her pocket. So they had a bedtime snack and wondered if all the people who had been with Jesus that day went home with a snack of the bread and fish which the Gonkers had provided.
Time, for God
“Oh.” Lily had decided to read the parts of the Bible where she and her brothers had been. She had found Walking on Water in Mark’s Gospel. Just before her adventure had come the Multiplication of Loaves and
