Darkness encloses like an envelope, yet allows the sheets of rain to continue to pour and lines of lightening to continue to strike. Rumbles follow illuminated skies and reveal a man, a woman and her nearly dead child. A desolate situation, an abandoned area, and an uneasy quiet outside the thunder, yet hope was still found here – far fetched or reasonable, hope all the same. At the end of every desperate situation for the Priest, there is a revival of faith refreshed within him tying him even closer to God when he seems farthest.
Both the woman and the dog were living off of hope, but their types of hope were much different from each other. Hope is having faith – for the woman – this is faith in God. On the other hand, the dog just lives to be alive and this struggle looks to us like some form of hope. There is natural fight instinct within everyone to keep living no matter what, but animals cannot think past just that. They live for no purpose of their own, they die for no purpose of their own, and “An animal knows no despair.” (pg 141) They are stuck at the bottom of the human diagram; repeating the same cycle: birth, reproduction and death repeated constantly with no higher aspirations other than just existing and continuing the food chain. Humanity strives to be something more, but the natural pull to be something better comes with reasoning that animals cannot obtain. We are challenged with despair, but we must overcome.
As the priest overcomes more he becomes more cautious and his thoughts bend to be able to best meet the needs of others, but at the same time keep after his own safety. So while he is thinking or going through a process, he is constantly changing his mind. When he left the woman with her dead child at the graves he said, “A man’s first duty is to himself – even the church taught that, in a way.” (pg 155) Although he did change his mind and come back for the woman, this shows that he is still not at all perfect. The same occurred when he kept eating off the bone from the dog; setting places to stop eating and leave for the dog until there was nothing but bone – useless to a dog with broken teeth. Yet we see something else from the priest as well. As he witnesses a faith so strong in this woman, he finds no reason for God not to grant her her miracle. No reason for him to be shocked by what she was doing. But one did not wish for their life –confusion and dying – God would not punish the innocent to return to such a cruel world. The dog as well had seen the damage of the world, but persevered as she always had, for that was all she could do. “Unlike him she retained a kind of hope. Hope is an instinct only the reasoning human mind can kill.” (pg 141)
It seemed that every where the priest went, human life was receding – forever the blank area of the map. To him it seemed almost as if all life was diminishing until he saw snakes and monkeys. Such small reassurances gave him great comfort, for he wasn’t the only living thing left on earth. “O God, I have loved the beauty of Thy house,” the priest said in a prayer of thanks for even the slightest signs of life. Shortly after reciting this prayer in all sincerity the priest stumbled into a peaceful city in the middle of near-despair. Each time he thought he had escaped life all too completely, God presented him with some form of it, and eventually the priest happened upon people again. Faith with God should always leave hope in our hearts that he will guide us home again, whether directly or indirectly; “He fell asleep, with home behind his shoulder blades.” (pg 159) Along with the safety that surrounds when coming home, there is a wave of relief and security that washed over the priest for being able now to willingly die for what he believes in, even if that moment shouldn’t come too soon.
“Even through danger and misery the pendulum swings.” (pg …) Bells ring in the glorious victory of finally making it home. The white of the church and clanging of the bells blurred with the splendor of relief that rushed through the priest as he laid his back against the wall of the church, allowing God to keep him as he slept peacefully for the first time in years. The hope expressed at the end of the chapter was the most reassuring as it has ever been, but the pendulum will still swing. It will not stop to pause just as life will not stop for the priest to catch up, or forever stay in this moment of overwhelming bliss.
No comments:
Post a Comment