Father Elijah

by Michael D. O'Brien

  “Eminence, would you please get back into the car.” Item by item the cardinal went through his clothing. They found no other bugs.

  “I think we should walk now.”

  “First give me that thing. I’m going to rip it out!”

  “As you wish.”

  “No! Wait, don’t touch it”, said the cardinal. “Leave it on the car seat. When I get back to my apartment, I’ll put the pyx beside my cassette recorder. I think we should give our listeners a real treat. I have hours and hours of my recorded talks on mystical theology. Yes, perfect. And also the retreat I gave to the papal household last year. And then the cassettes the sisters made of my Scripture courses. Weeks and weeks worth. That should keep them busy for awhile.” He laughed humorlessly. “We might even win a soul!”

  They walked deeper into the olive grove, the path illuminated by flashlight.

  “How did they do it?”

  “I expect you must sleep sometime. You take baths.”

  “Through such little cracks we have fallen! Basta! I have had enough!”

  The cardinal’s irritable mood had given away to one of dismay and confusion.

  “What does all this mean? Who are these people?” he said.

  “That is the subject of our meeting. I believe I know who they are.”

  He described his visit to Foligno in its entirety.

  “So, you see, they have known our plans all along. The President has been playing with us as a cat plays with a mouse.”

  “Before he devours it”, said the cardinal morosely.

  “We are not devoured. And this is the Bride of Christ he is playing with. I think our Lord has a few things to say to this man. It’s not over yet.”

  “Considering what you tell me, and what has been happening in the Church during the past few weeks, we may be closer to the end than it seems.”

  “Is it bad?”

  “Some cardinals have been granting interviews to the press. In guarded terms, they let it be known that the Holy Father is slipping. It’s nonsense of course. He is as strong as ever in spirit, and his mind is clear. His physical health is failing, but not so much as they want everyone to believe.”

  “At least this reveals who is against him.”

  “Yes, it helps. But still it’s a blow.”

  “Why are they doing it?”

  “They want a fresh start. They say the Pope was not the right man for this time. They want someone young who can make peace among us. Bishops against bishops, cardinals against cardinals. The Catholic press is squabbling bitterly. All our family quarrels are spread out in public. Liberals are growing bolder. Many writers—even some we thought to be reliable—are clamoring for a new paradigm of Church, a democratic Church, a grass-roots Church, and claiming that their demands are the prompting of the Holy Spirit. On the other end of the spectrum, the ultra-orthodox are shouting that the Pope is playing into the hands of the Antichrist, whoever that may be. Old friends are painted in drab colors, new heroes are exalted. Cardinal Vettore, for example. . .”

  “I have not heard about him lately. What is he doing in the East?”

  “Great things for the Church, so says the press. And it’s true. He has obtained from the Vietnamese permission for the Catholic bishops to attend the next synod in Rome. He is in China, presently, supposedly negotiating with the administration for increased rights for Catholics. The underground Church is suffering a terrible persecution, but only a trickle of news about it reaches the West. In the meantime, there is a flood of interviews with Vettore about the Patriotic Church. He praises it for its ability to survive above ground in a difficult situation. All of this appears most reasonable to our commentators. Vettore’s reputation is rising. He is being called ‘the Vatican’s peacemaker’. The Holy Father has sent a message admonishing him to make no more statements that would encourage the People’s Church, and urging him to speak of the suffering Church in China whenever he grants an interview. So far there hasn’t been much response from the cardinal. It may be that censors have been cutting out any reference to the persecution. Or it may be that Vettore himself is the problem.”

  “What is your estimation?”

  “A combination of the two.”

  “Will you call him back to Rome?”

  “We are having trouble reaching him. He is traveling in the Chinese hinterland. I must say he seems to have no problem getting his articles and interviews out to the West.”

  “Isn’t this clearly a case of disobedience?”

  “He is very slippery. Besides, we have other things to worry about in the international situation. It grows more complex by the day. China is making mysterious moves on several levels. Russia is fragile and in a dangerous mood. Western Europe is drugged by its infatuation with the new vision offered by the Unitas conference. The Islamic nations are preaching holy war against the infidels in their midst and tearing each other apart at the same time. The President goes among them all, negotiating here, exercising pressure there, calming everyone. All the while, the Holy Father pours out a torrent of wisdom, never ceasing to proclaim Jesus Christ as the Lord of history, as the source of all true unity, peace, and hope. A great river of light streams from his mouth, and it runs away into the ground. No one is listening.”

  “Some are.”

  The cardinal wiped his face with his hands and sighed. “Not many. It’s discouraging.”

  “On a human level.”

  The cardinal looked up at the stars that showed through a break in the clouds. He steadied himself. He turned to Elijah. “Thank you for being so patient. An irritable old man venting his frustrations. Not very edifying is it?”

  “We are human. We stumble, just like the apostles. But we pick ourselves up again and go on, just as they did.”

  “Just so.”

  “Even if the devil achieves much, even if he succeeds in deluding most of the world, even then we mustn’t lose hope. Was it not ordained that the Church must one day go through this second Passover?”

  “I hoped it wouldn’t come in our time.”

  “Do you believe it has come?”

  “I’m still not convinced of it”, sighed the cardinal. “But, it seems more and more clear. There has never been a situation like it.”

  “The Fall of Rome? The Barbarian invasions?”

  “In those days the world had its evil masters, Nero, Tiberius, and Domitian. But even amidst the collapse of civilization, the world was crawling out of darkness. We are sliding back into it, and that is the difference. Our autocrats are not vicious tyrants. They are the architects of worldpower; and they manipulate all the resources of modern psychology to control the soul of man and make him an instrument of their purpose.”

  “In a sense they are rigid puritans.”

  “Oh, yes, but these puritans do evil coldly, motivated by the highest principles.”

  “Are you afraid?” Elijah said gently.

  “Should a cardinal admit that he’s afraid? Yes, I’m afraid. Afraid most of all for the many innocents who are falling into the mouth of that beast.”

  “What is the Holy Father going to do?”

  “Right to the end, he will keep on doing what he has been doing. We must do the same. Our task is to proclaim Jesus. We must strengthen the things that remain. It’s not for us to count the numbers who listen.”

  Elijah struggled to shake off a spirit of dread.

  The cardinal turned and looked at him. “You know, if someone had suggested to me three years ago that it would happen so swiftly, I would not have believed it. I would have dismissed it as alarmism. Now, I’m not so sure. In the space of a few short years we have seen events pass from relative stability to increasing chaos. It’s accelerating rapidly. I could not have foreseen the speed at which it has happened.”

  “There is still time. We can still hope.”

  “Hope? Above all, we must hope. Human securities are disappearing one by one. Each soul is being weighed in the balance. Many are failing their mo
ment of testing. I am especially disheartened by our shepherds.”

  “Many of them remain loyal.”

  “I wonder if there will be as many when the heat becomes intolerable. At some point, it’s going to become a question of martyrdom.”

  It was Elijah’s turn for frustration. “Eminence, this more than anything else incites me to the sin of anger. I resist it over and over again. I urge my spiritual directees to resist it, to pray, to fast, to forgive. And yet in my heart, I am at war with my emotions. When Anna told me about the torture and death of her husband, the reality of martyrdom finally hit me.”

  “We must all make the mental leap from the pious histories we have read in the martyrologies to the reality of living flesh and blood. Our early martyrs were real men and women, with their own personalities, their flaws and their greatness. We are no different.”

  “If only we could face the powers of darkness as a unified body!”

  “If only, if only. . . the old refrain. But it was ever thus. In all the major crises of our history, we’ve had to endure the treason of the very ones who should have guarded the flock! It’s human stupidity and weakness.”

  “Can’t our dissident bishops see what they are doing?”

  “Blindness of that magnitude is rooted in sin, the sin most difficult to see in oneself, and even more difficult to root out-pride. The ancient device of the enemy.”

  “Someone must warn them!”

  “They have been warned countless times. They don’t hear.”

  The old doubts began to resurface. “Why does our Lord allow this to happen?”

  The cardinal smiled sadly and put his hand on Elijah’s shoulder. “Such alarm in your voice my friend. I hear from you the same cry that was torn from the lips of the apostles during the storm on the lake, when the ship was going down, when the Lord lay sleeping.”

  “You shame me. Of course you are right. At the final moment, He will awake and rebuke the storm. Then He will turn to us and ask us why we had so little faith.”

  “Precisely. In the meantime, we carry the cross. We watch the betrayal. We suffer.”

  “Can we do nothing!”

  “You must understand, Father, that the devil’s purpose in sowing revolution in the Church is to throw her into confusion. Thus, her attention is distracted and her energies scattered. In this way, we are weakened at precisely the moment of history when we need to be most strong.”

  “Why does the Holy Father not act? Can’t he order these prelates into obedience?”

  “He has repeatedly done so, and in the most Christlike fashion. But he commands no police, no armies. He has been more firm with dissidents lately. The Prefect for Doctrine has been unwavering in his efforts to rein in the revolt. A proper exercise of authority. The solution isn’t authoritarianism, for that would only throw fuel on the fire of revolt. The Holy Father works while the light lasts. He calls us all back to the One who carried the Cross and died on it. In his hands, he carries only that, a cross; he speaks always of the triumph of the Cross. Those who won’t listen will answer to God.”

  * * *

  Smith came by that week and invited him out for coffee. They went to the café by the Tiber and sat at their customary table. They drank espresso. Leaves blew down the avenue. Smith lit a pipe and puffed it furiously. He pointed across the river with the pipe stem. The dome of Saint Peter’s glowed golden in the sunset.

  “Everything looks normal, doesn’t it, Elijah?”

  “What are you getting at?”

  “Nothing. Nothing at all”, he said through a cloud of smoke.

  “Something is on your mind.”

  “Hardly anything. Well, to tell you the truth, I’ve been wanting to ask for a long time what you think about all these apparitions?”

  “Which ones?”

  “There are hundreds. Visions, miracles, weeping statues, lights in the sky. Pick one. Any one.”

  “I have been watching, listening, praying.”

  “And. . .?”

  “Of course, some are of doubtful origin.”

  “That’s an understatement. What about that lady who’s going all over the world saying Jesus told her that the Pope has to clean up his act, or He’ll abandon him.”

  “I think she is the victim of imagination or spiritual deception.”

  “Right. I think so too. She’s got an airtight case going there: hey, you good Christians, if you reject my messages you’re rejecting Jesus who gave them to me. Now if you’ll just buy my next book. . .”

  “Rather hard to resist, isn’t it?”

  “I’ll say! Now on the other hand, we’ve got a whole bunch of visionaries stating that if we want to stay with Jesus through this mess we need to cling tight to the Pope.”

  “I believe these are genuine. However, we have a spreading confusion among the most dedicated of the Lord’s followers. It is to be expected.”

  “I know, I know. I just wish it were a little clearer. Some friends of mine back in the States have joined the schismatics. They’re convinced that the more conservative you are the more orthodox you are. They’re more Catholic than the Pope.”

  “I believe that some of the warnings are a grace sent to us from the Lord.”

  “Which ones?”

  “The ones that speak of fidelity and mercy. There is a consistency to those messages. Practically with one voice they are saying that unless mankind repents and returns to God, a chastisement is coming upon the earth, the like of which has never before been seen.”

  “Not since the time of the Flood, they say.”

  “The Scriptures warn us that the second deluge will be worse than Noah’s. Only this deluge will not be by water, it will be by fire.”

  “Yeah, I’ve read it. It gives me the willies.”

  “It no longer seems impossible.”

  “Not since Hiroshima. Look, Elijah, what bothers me is the speed. The prophecies are coming so fast and furious that you barely have time to make sense of it all. Natural disasters, wars, attacks upon the Church, martyrs, politics, intrigue, masons, devils, traitors, stigmatists, weeping statues, bleeding icons, three days of darkness, signs in the heavens, supernatural warnings. . . it goes on and on.”

  “It begins to make sense if we understand that this is the final confrontation between the Church and the anti-Church, the Gospel and the anti-Gospel. Thus, Heaven is pouring out many extraordinary graces.”

  “It seems a mixed bag of graces, if you ask me.”

  “If the adversary is mounting a last battle, isn’t it reasonable to assume that he would marshal all his powers and seek to undermine those graces, draw people away from the real ones, get them chasing after imitations?”

  “I guess so. It’s happened before.”

  “Indeed. Add to this his effort to dominate and manipulate every facet of human life.”

  “That’s a little dire, wouldn’t you say?”

  “We know from Scripture that the time of the end will be dire.”

  “Oh no! Don’t tell me you’re an end-timer!”

  “It depends upon what you mean by the term.” Smith looked around helplessly, searching for a reply. “You know what I mean. A raving apocalyptic.”

  “I try not to rave.”

  Smith pointed his pipe at Elijah. “You went through some hard times during the War, didn’t you?”

  “Yes, I did.”

  “Maybe it gave you a pessimistic outlook.”

  “Perhaps it gave me eyes to see what men are capable of.”

  “Okay, but for the sake of argument, what if this is just one more crisis we’re going through? We’ve weathered bad storms before, and this one looks kind of tame by comparison with some. Besides, the people of the tenth century got all worked up over the first millennium. They thought the Lord was returning too. They saw the Antichrist everywhere.”

  “I understand the point you are making, Father. You think a mass hysteria afflicts the world every time a millennium approaches.”


  “It’s a thought.”

  “It is worth considering. But beside it one must place another thought. It is this: suppose that a man is sick and comes close to death. Everyone is convinced that he will die. It is the end. But he recovers through a miraculous intervention by God. He lives a while longer in a condition of health. Then, as he approaches old age, he becomes sick once more. He appears to be dying. Should the doctor conclude that because he was once sick and recovered he will surely do so again?”

  Smith pursed his lips and relit his pipe with some difficulty.

  “Okay. You have a point, you talmudic scholar, you.”

  “Let us add another thought to the first two. Let us say that at the time of the end there’s a special danger for our doctor and the family of the dying man. They won’t be hysterical, oh, no, but they will lack a certain sense of urgency. They will lack vigilance.”

  “And the patient dies.”

  “We all die eventually.”

  “What are you saying? You can’t have it both ways. Should we let the patient die or try to save his life?”

  “We try to save his life and if he must die he must die.”

  “You’ve confused me totally.”

  “We labor to preserve the life of the body, but ultimately life and death are out of our hands. If the patient lives awhile longer, a certain kind of good will result. If God ordains that this is the time to die, another kind of good will result.”

  “All right, put it that way and I see it.”

  “The problem is not the survival of the Church.”

  “It isn’t! What’s the problem then?”

  “Souls. How many will be saved?”

  Smith glanced across the river. “But it’s intolerable just letting it run on like this. We’ve got to stop it!”

  “That is just what the apostles said. They could not understand why the Lord had to die.”

  “You mean we’re supposed to say nothing while the Church is maligned and unjustly condemned?”

  “No. We must say a great deal. But ultimately, it is the doing that is the real test.”

  “The doing?”

  “Do we love our enemies? Do we accept walking with the Lord on His way to Calvary and stand beneath His Cross? Do we perhaps even allow ourselves to be nailed with Him? Or do we not?”