Sunday Meditation: Easter Sunday

We have finally come to the most glorious day of the year, the Resurrection of our Lord, in English referred to as Easter Sunday.  The Gospel reading in Year B comes from the John.  Why not from the Gospel of Mark, you may ask, since we are in Year B?  Because the Resurrection passage from the Gospel of Mark is read on the Easter Vigil on Saturday night.  We can meditate on that another time.  For now it’s the Easter Sunday reading.

 

On the first day of the week,

Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning,

while it was still dark,

and saw the stone removed from the tomb.

So she ran and went to Simon Peter

and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them,

“They have taken the Lord from the tomb,

and we don’t know where they put him.”

So Peter and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb.

They both ran, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter

and arrived at the tomb first;

he bent down and saw the burial cloths there, but did not go in.

When Simon Peter arrived after him,

he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there,

and the cloth that had covered his head,

not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place.

Then the other disciple also went in,

the one who had arrived at the tomb first,

and he saw and believed.

For they did not yet understand the Scripture

that he had to rise from the dead.

~Jn 20:1-9

What can be said about Christ being raised that has not already been said?  We can delve into the significance of the Resurrection, but let’s just focus on John’s Gospel narrative here.  Bishop Barron provides a solid look at all the tiny details.

 

Let’s meditate on a particular detail that Bishop Barron does not bring up.

Sunday Meditation: “On the first day of the week.”

Triduum Meditation: Holy Thursday Washing of the Feet

So we come to the Paschal Triduum—the three days that leads to the Resurrection on Easter Sunday.  I’m not going to have a meditation for every day of the Triduum in one year, but I thought I could do one of the days every year for the next three years.  I’ll do them in order, so today, this year, I will provide a meditation on Holy Thursday.

Holy Thursday—also called Maundy Thursday—commemorates the Last Supper but we celebrate it in a liturgy composed from Gospel of John’s version of the Last Supper.  More specifically we highlight Jesus’s washing of the Apostles’ feet.  The Gospel reading describes the action.

 

Before the feast of Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come

to pass from this world to the Father.

He loved his own in the world and he loved them to the end.

The devil had already induced Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot, to hand him over.

So, during supper,

fully aware that the Father had put everything into his power

and that he had come from God and was returning to God,

he rose from supper and took off his outer garments.

He took a towel and tied it around his waist.

Then he poured water into a basin

and began to wash the disciples’ feet

and dry them with the towel around his waist.

He came to Simon Peter, who said to him,

“Master, are you going to wash my feet?”

Jesus answered and said to him,

“What I am doing, you do not understand now,

but you will understand later.”

Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.”

Jesus answered him,

“Unless I wash you, you will have no inheritance with me.”

Simon Peter said to him,

“Master, then not only my feet, but my hands and head as well.”

Jesus said to him,

“Whoever has bathed has no need except to have his feet washed,

            for he is clean all over;

so you are clean, but not all.”

For he knew who would betray him;

for this reason, he said, “Not all of you are clean.”

 

So when he had washed their feet

and put his garments back on and reclined at table again,

he said to them, “Do you realize what I have done for you?

You call me ‘teacher’ and ‘master,’ and rightly so, for indeed I am.

If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet,

you ought to wash one another’s feet.

I have given you a model to follow,

so that as I have done for you, you should also do.”

~Jn 13:1-15

 

Fr. Geoffrey Plant explains the historical and Biblical contexts of Maundy Thursday. 

 

There is one interesting fact that Fr. Geoffrey cites that was startling to me.  He cites Fleming Rutledge’s observation (starting at the 27:00 min mark) that Christ washing his feet in His loin cloth is a corresponding image to Christ in His loin cloth on the cross.  This is not just a foreshadowing but an amplification of the action Christ’s self-sacrificing love teaches from the cross.  I also love the quote Fr. Geoffrey takes from Pope Benedict XVI, from I think Pope Benedict XVI’s Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week.  Speaking of the foot washing, Pope BXVI says,

 

Jesus represents the whole of his saving ministry in one symbolic act.  He divests himself of his divine splendor; he, as it were, kneels down before us; he washes and dries our soiled feet, in order to make us fit at the table for God’s wedding feast.

There is one observation on the washing of feet that no one in any of the homilies I sampled across the internet makes, and so this perhaps is a peculiar observation to me.  So if I’m wrong, you can blame me.  So the connection to the washing of feet, or more specifically the lowering of a king to a servant for the sake of his subject can be found with King Rehoboam in First Kings, Chapter 12.  King Rehoboam is the son of King Solomon and the successor to the throne, but King Rehoboam faces a crises.  Jeroboam from the northern Israel is threatening to divide the kingdom by rebelling Israel against Judah.  Why, Jeroboam asks, should Israel subject herself to his authority when Rehoboam and his father have been so tyrannical over Israel?  King Rehoboam seeked advice for an answer.  Jeroboam, confronts him.

(4) “Your father put a heavy yoke on us. If you now lighten the harsh servitude and the heavy yoke your father imposed on us, we will be your servants.”

(5) He [King Rehoboam] answered them, “Come back to me in three days,” and the people went away.

(6) King Rehoboam asked advice of the elders who had been in his father Solomon’s service while he was alive, and asked, “How do you advise me to answer this people?”

(7) They replied, “If today you become the servant of this people and serve them, and give them a favorable answer, they will be your servants forever.”

(8) But he ignored the advice the elders had given him, and asked advice of the young men who had grown up with him and were in his service.

(9) He said to them, “What answer do you advise that we should give this people, who have told me, ‘Lighten the yoke your father imposed on us’?”

(10) The young men who had grown up with him replied, “This is what you must say to this people who have told you, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy; you lighten it for us.’ You must say, ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s loins.

(11) My father put a heavy yoke on you, but I will make it heavier. My father beat you with whips, but I will beat you with scorpions.’”

(12) Jeroboam and the whole people came back to King Rehoboam on the third day, as the king had instructed them: “Come back to me in three days.”

(13) Ignoring the advice the elders had given him, the king gave the people a harsh answer.

(14) He spoke to them as the young men had advised: “My father made your yoke heavy, but I will make it heavier. My father beat you with whips, but I will beat you with scorpions.”

(15) The king did not listen to the people, for this turn of events was from the LORD: he fulfilled the word the LORD had spoken through Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam, son of Nebat.

(16) When all Israel saw that the king did not listen to them, the people answered the king:

“What share have we in David?*

We have no heritage in the son of Jesse.

To your tents, Israel!

Now look to your own house, David.”

 

So Israel went off to their tents. (1 Kings 12:4-16)

Notice the King Rehoboam’s receives two sets of advice.  From the elders he is advised: “If today you become the servant of this people and serve them, and give them a favorable answer, they will be your servants forever” (7).  He is first advised to be a servant king.  Who today on Maundy Thursday do we celebrate in a liturgy replicating His actions as a servant King?  Jesus Christ in the washing of the feet.  Does King Rehoboam take this advice to be a servant king?  No as we see in the very next line (8).  He goes on to ask advice from his childhood buddies, and they advise him to put on an even heavier yoke than the heavy yoke his father had put on Israel (10-11).  And this is what he tells Jeroboam (14) and Jeroboam and Israel break away and divide the kingdom (16).  So King Rehoboam is an anti-archetype to King Jesus, negatively foreshadowing Christ’s foot washing.  Notice to the language of “heavy yoke” Rehoboam uses.  Notice how that contrasts with Jesus speaking about His yoke in Matthew eleven:

o

(28) “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened,* and I will give you rest.

(29) Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves.

(30) For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.” (Mt 11:28-30)

 

Meditation: “Do you realize what I have done for you?”

 

Sunday Meditation: At the Procession with Palms

We finally come to the Passion Week, and of course we start with Jesus entering Jerusalem in triumph on what has become to be called Palm Sunday.  Mass starts with the short narrative of the entry into the city.

 

When Jesus and his disciples drew near to Jerusalem,

to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives,

he sent two of his disciples and said to them,

“Go into the village opposite you,

and immediately on entering it,

you will find a colt tethered on which no one has ever sat.

Untie it and bring it here.

If anyone should say to you,

‘Why are you doing this?’ reply,

‘The Master has need of it

and will send it back here at once.’”

So they went off

and found a colt tethered at a gate outside on the street,

and they untied it.

Some of the bystanders said to them,

“What are you doing, untying the colt?”

They answered them just as Jesus had told them to,

and they permitted them to do it.

So they brought the colt to Jesus

and put their cloaks over it.

And he sat on it.

Many people spread their cloaks on the road,

and others spread leafy branches

that they had cut from the fields.

Those preceding him as well as those following kept crying out:

    “Hosanna!

        Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!

        Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that is to come!

    Hosanna in the highest!”

~Mk 11:1-10

The Gospel passage continues with the long Passion narrative starting with the Wednesday evening at Bethany to the arrest, the torture, the crucifixion, and the burial of Jesus.  It is too long a narrative (Mk 14:1 to Mk 15:47) to quote, so I’m only going to provide the scene with Mary anointing Jesus.

 

The Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread

were to take place in two days’ time.

So the chief priests and the scribes were seeking a way

to arrest him by treachery and put him to death.

They said, “Not during the festival,

for fear that there may be a riot among the people.”

 

When he was in Bethany reclining at table

in the house of Simon the leper,

a woman came with an alabaster jar of perfumed oil,

costly genuine spikenard.

She broke the alabaster jar and poured it on his head.

There were some who were indignant.

“Why has there been this waste of perfumed oil?

It could have been sold for more than three hundred days’ wages

and the money given to the poor.”

They were infuriated with her.

Jesus said, “Let her alone.

Why do you make trouble for her?

She has done a good thing for me.

The poor you will always have with you,

and whenever you wish you can do good to them,

but you will not always have me.

She has done what she could.

She has anticipated anointing my body for burial.

Amen, I say to you,

wherever the gospel is proclaimed to the whole world,

what she has done will be told in memory of her.”

~Mk 14:1-9

Fr. Geoffrey Plant provides an understanding of the narrative.

 

Second, Bishop Robert Barron provides the more theological implications of the passage.

 

I think between Fr. Geoffrey’s and Bishop Barron’s homilies one understands the fullness of the Passion Week.

 

Meditation: “She has anticipated anointing my body for burial.”

I close with a musical antiphon for the day.

 

“Palm Sunday Entrance Antiphon" by Sarah Hart, Curtis Stephan and Steve Angrisano.  Happy Palm Sunday.

Quo Vadis: A Narrative of the Time of Nero by Henryk Sienkiewicz, Part 6

This is sixth post of Henryk Sienkiewicz’s historical novel, Quo Vadis.

You can find Post #1 here.  

Post #2, here: 

And Post #3 here.  

And Post #4 here. 

And Post #5 here. 

 

Chapters 35 thru 41

Summary

On returning home, Vinicius finds Petronius sleeping in the tent of Petronius’s entourage.  Petronius tells him that Caesar and the aristocracy will be going to Antium in a couple of days.  He tells him how Nero is composing poetry and music, and how bad it is.  They go inside to have dinner and talk.  Vinicius tells Petronius that he is engaged to Lygia.  Petronius is astonished but wishes him happiness.  He warns him about Poppaea’s crush on him that could turn vindictive.  But Vinicius tells him the Apostle Peter has said not a hair on his head will be harmed.  Petroinus asks him if he’s become a Christian, and Vinicius says not yet.  He still has to undergo instruction from Paul of Tarsus.  Tired, Petronius leaves and Vinicius writes a letter to Lygia that he will have to go to Antium.

Nero’s huge entourage travels up to Antium in luxury and glittering opulence, including wild animals.  The locals look on in awe.  In the crowd was the Apostle Peter, Lygia, and Ursus who wanted a gaze at the emperor.  Nero drove up in a chariot and loved the adulation from the crowd.  Some voices in the crowd ridiculed Nero.  As Nero perused the crowd his eyes were locked with that of Peter.  At the end of the long retinue was Vinicius who seeing Peter and Lygia sprang from his chariot to greet them.  Vinicius invites them to his home and they walk through the opulence of the city.  Peter offers a humble prayer.  Lygia observing the sunset over the city, Lygia thought it seemed like the city was on fire.  Peter said the wrath of God was upon it.

Sometime later, Vinicius writes a letter to Lygia.  He tells her about Caesar and the goings on at Antium.  He writes about their future and living away on a shore.  He writes about an event on a boat where Poppaea flirted with him again but Petronius redirected the attention.  He tells her that Paul is there to instruct him in the faith.

Later, Vinicius writes another letter to Lygia.  He tells her about his lessons with Paul.  He tells her of his talks with Nero, and how Nero speaks about the burning of Troy and how a spectacle the burning of Rome would be.  He warns her to be on guard and to go stay at the house of Aulus.

With Caesar shutting himself up for days to compose songs, Vinicius makes his way down to Rome to spend time with Lygia.  Being with her on a beautiful evening, Vinicius feels total happiness.  She returns his love with complete joy.  He tells her that Paul has not finished with the lessons, and so not baptized yet, but he looks forward to it.  He reiterates the fundamental Christian teachings and finds it convicting.  In Christ’s love their love flourishes.  Vinicius relates an exchange between Paul and Petronius, both philosophers of their worldviews.  Paul points out the deficiencies of Petronius’s Epicureanism, and Petronius points out the pleasures of moderate sensuality.  Vinicius suggests once he and Lygia are married they move down to Sicily to get away from Rome’s politics.  Lygia welcomes it.  As they are about to depart, they hear a series of what appear to be thunder but then recognize it as the roar of lions who are held captive for the games.

Back in Antium, Petronius is gaining Nero’s trust more and more, especially over his aristocratic rival Tigellinus.  Petronius has the right touch of wit to praise Nero’s poetry and song without appearing obsequious.  From the flattery, Nero’s ego swells even larger than before.  Nero’s poetry tries to describe the burning of Troy, but Nero feels it falls flat because he has never seen a city burning.  Tigellinus offers to burn Antium, but Nero says Antium is too small a town to simulate a burning city.  Later, Petronius talks to Vinicius about Nero’s poetry and his growing madness.  He tells of how Paul’s philosophy would bore him.  Vinicius responds that Petronius doesn’t understand the joy that Christianity brings.  

 After singing a number of his compositions, Nero makes Petronius and Vinicius go for a walk with him.  Nero wants to talk about his talents, and Petronius continues to respond in the vein of flattery and yet not obsequious.  Nero just loves this, pointing out how different Petronius is from Tigellinus.  In trust of Petronius, Nero whispers the bizarre reason for having his mother and first wife murdered.  Petronius, feeling that he is in Nero’s total trust, suggests that Nero publically approve Vinicius’s marriage to Lygia.  Nero agrees, and going inside in front of his court with Poppaea present, asks for a valuable necklace.  He gives it to Vinicius as a wedding gift and tells him to go to Rome to Lygia.  Directly thwarted, Poppaea is angered.  Just then a servant comes in telling that Rome is ablaze in fire. 

###

My Comment:

I finally looked up Nero's Wikipedia's entry.  He only lived to thirty years old.  So he's thirty when the events of the novel occur and he has been emperor for 14 years.  So he was very young when first made emperor.  There were some accomplishments during his reign but he was not regarded as a stable man.  His mother, the wife of the Emperor Claudius was suspected of killing Claudius so that her son could become emperor, and given his youth she expected to be the real power ruling the empire.  It did work out for a time until Nero had her killed to be in complete control.  He also had his stepbrother killed and then had his first wife killed to marry Poppaea.  The Wikipedia entry summarizes what his contemporary historians thought of him:

 

Most Roman sources offer overwhelmingly negative assessments of his personality and reign. Most contemporary sources describe him as tyrannical, self-indulgent, and debauched. The historian Tacitus claims the Roman people thought him compulsive and corrupt. Suetonius tells that many Romans believed the Great Fire of Rome was instigated by Nero to clear land for his planned "Golden House". Tacitus claims Nero seized Christians as scapegoats for the fire and had them burned alive, seemingly motivated not by public justice, but personal cruelty. Some modern historians question the reliability of ancient sources on Nero's tyrannical acts, considering his popularity among the Roman commoners. In the eastern provinces of the Empire, a popular legend arose that Nero had not died and would return. After his death, at least three leaders of short-lived, failed rebellions presented themselves as "Nero reborn" to gain popular support.

 

The most shocking thing I read in his bio was that he was born on December 15th!  That's my birthday...lol.  We share a birthday.  What is shocking is that no one famous is born on that day.  I have no one to look to for a bond of a birthdate.  There isn't even a saint's feast day for me to identify with for December 15th.  There are some obscure historical people born on that day and there are some obscure saints who are given that day as a feast day, but really no one of any note.  Except now Nero!

Kerstin’s Comment:

What is also made clear now is that Petronius enjoys the daily thrills in staying on Nero's good side when he knows full well that one faux pas can mean his death. Being at this high level and in the near constant presence of the Caesar Petronius has no life of his own left. So he tries to be the best of Nero's advisers and at the same time gets his kicks for besting him on a regular basis. Converting to the Christian faith is really no option for him, for the personal demands of the faith would not allow him to operate successfully at the place where he is at. It would mean certain death. Staying a Pagan means he has a fighting chance.

My Reply:

Yes, one stumble will mean Petronius's death.

###

Some of Sienkiewicz’s best writing is of the Roman pageantry.  Here is a description of Nero’s entourage traveling up to Antium.  Excerpt from Chapter 36. 

 

Early on the morning of that day herdsmen from the Campania, with sunburnt faces, wearing goat-skins on their legs, drove forth five hundred she-asses through the gates, so that Poppæa on the morrow of her arrival at Antium might have her bath in their milk. The rabble gazed with delight and ridicule at the long ears swaying amid clouds of dust, and listened with pleasure to the whistling of whips and the wild shouts of the herdsmen. After the asses had gone by, crowds of youth rushed forth, swept the road carefully, and covered it with flowers and needles from pine-trees. In the crowds people whispered to each other, with a certain feeling of pride, that the whole road to Antium would be strewn in that way with flowers taken from private gardens round about, or bought at high prices from dealers at the Porta Mugionis. As the morning hours passed, the throng increased every moment. Some had brought their whole families, and, lest the time might seem tedious, they spread provisions on stones intended for the new temple of Ceres, and ate their prandium beneath the open sky. Here and there were groups, in which the lead was taken by persons who had travelled; they talked of Cæsar's present trip, of his future journeys, and journeys in general. Sailors and old soldiers narrated wonders which during distant campaigns they had heard about countries which a Roman foot had never touched. Home-stayers, who had never gone beyond the Appian Way, listened with amazement to marvellous tales of India, of Arabia, of archipelagos surrounding Britain in which, on a small island inhabited by spirits, Briareus had imprisoned the sleeping Saturn. They heard of hyperborean regions of stiffened seas, of the hisses and roars which the ocean gives forth when the sun plunges into his bath. Stories of this kind found ready credence among the rabble, stories believed by such men even as Tacitus and Pliny. They spoke also of that ship which Cæsar was to look at,—a ship which had brought wheat to last for two years, without reckoning four hundred passengers, an equal number of soldiers, and a multitude of wild beasts to be used during the summer games. This produced general good feeling toward Cæsar, who not only nourished the populace, but amused it. Hence a greeting full of enthusiasm was waiting for him.

 

Meanwhile came a detachment of Numidian horse, who belonged to the pretorian guard. They wore yellow uniforms, red girdles, and great earrings, which cast a golden gleam on their black faces. The points of their bamboo spears glittered like flames, in the sun. After they had passed, a procession-like movement began. The throng crowded forward to look at it more nearly; but divisions of pretorian foot were there, and, forming in line on both sides of the gate, prevented approach to the road. In advance moved wagons carrying tents, purple, red, and violet, and tents of byssus woven from threads as white as snow; and oriental carpets, and tables of citrus, and pieces of mosaic, and kitchen utensils, and cages with birds from the East, North, and West, birds whose tongues or brains were to go to Cæsar's table, and vessels with wine and baskets with fruit. But objects not to be exposed to bruising or breaking in vehicles were borne by slaves. Hence hundreds of people were seen on foot, carrying vessels, and statues of Corinthian bronze. There were companies appointed specially to Etruscan vases; others to Grecian; others to golden or silver vessels, or vessels of Alexandrian glass. These were guarded by small detachments of pretorian infantry and cavalry; over each division of slaves were taskmasters, holding whips armed at the end with lumps of lead or iron, instead of snappers. The procession, formed of men bearing with importance and attention various objects, seemed like some solemn religious procession; and the resemblance grew still more striking when the musical instruments of Cæsar and the court were borne past. There were seen harps, Grecian lutes, lutes of the Hebrews and Egyptians, lyres, formingas, citharas, flutes, long, winding buffalo horns and cymbals. While looking at that sea of instruments, gleaming beneath the sun in gold, bronze, precious stones, and pearls, it might be imagined that Apollo and Bacchus had set out on a journey through the world. After the instruments came rich chariots filled with acrobats, dancers male and female, grouped artistically, with wands in their hands. After them followed slaves intended, not for service, but excess; so there were boys and little girls, selected from all Greece and Asia Minor, with long hair, or with winding curls arranged in golden nets, children resembling Cupids, with wonderful faces, but faces covered completely with a thick coating of cosmetics, lest the wind of the Campania might tan their delicate complexions.

 

And again appeared a pretorian cohort of gigantic Sicambrians, blue-eyed, bearded, blond and red haired. In front of them Roman eagles were carried by banner-bearers called "imaginarii," tablets with inscriptions, statues of German and Roman gods, and finally statues and busts of Cæsar. From under the skins and armor of the soldier appeared limbs sunburnt and mighty, looking like military engines capable of wielding the heavy weapons with which guards of that kind were furnished. The earth seemed to bend beneath their measured and weighty tread. As if conscious of strength which they could use against Cæsar himself, they looked with contempt on the rabble of the street, forgetting, it was evident, that many of themselves had come to that city in manacles. But they were insignificant in numbers, for the pretorian force had remained in camp specially to guard the city and hold it within bounds. When they had marched past, Nero's chained lions and tigers were led by, so that, should the wish come to him of imitating Dionysus, he would have them to attach to his chariots. They were led in chains of steel by Arabs and Hindoos, but the chains were so entwined with garlands that the beasts seemed led with flowers. The lions and tigers, tamed by skilled trainers, looked at the crowds with green and seemingly sleepy eyes; but at moments they raised their giant heads, and breathed through wheezing nostrils the exhalations of the multitude, licking their jaws the while with spiny tongues.

 

Now came Cæsar's vehicles and litters, great and small, gold or purple, inlaid with ivory or pearls, or glittering with diamonds; after them came another small cohort of pretorians in Roman armor, pretorians composed of Italian volunteers only; then crowds of select slave servants, and boys; and at last came Cæsar himself, whose approach was heralded from afar by the shouts of thousands. In the crowd was the Apostle Peter, who wished to see Cæsar once in life. He was accompanied by Lygia, whose face was hidden by a thick veil, and Ursus, whose strength formed the surest defence of the young girl in the wild and boisterous crowd. The Lygian seized a stone to be used in building the temple, and brought it to the Apostle, so that by standing on it he might see better than others.

###

In almost in complete contrast to that raucous spectacle of the Romans on the trek to Antium, we have in Chapter 39 a serene moment between Vinicuis and Lygia, where they profess their love and Vinicuis expresses his desire to be a Christian.

 

The charm of the quiet evening mastered them completely.

 

"How calm it is here, and how beautiful the world is," said Vinicius, in a lowered voice. "The night is wonderfully still. I feel happier than ever in life before. Tell me, Lygia, what is this? Never have I thought that there could be such love. I thought that love was merely fire in the blood and desire; but now for the first time I see that it is possible to love with every drop of one's blood and every breath, and feel therewith such sweet and immeasurable calm as if Sleep and Death had put the soul to rest. For me this is something new. I look on this calmness of the trees, and it seems to be within me. Now I understand for the first time that there may be happiness of which people have not known thus far. Now I begin to understand why thou and Pomponia Græcina have such peace. Yes! Christ gives it."

 

At that moment Lygia placed her beautiful face on his shoulder and said,—"My dear Marcus—" But she was unable to continue. Joy, gratitude, and the feeling that at last she was free to love deprived her of voice, and her eyes were filled with tears of emotion.

 

Vinicius, embracing her slender form with his arm, drew her toward him and said,—"Lygia! May the moment be blessed in which I heard His name for the first time." "I love thee, Marcus," said she then in a low voice.

 

Both were silent again, unable to bring words from their overcharged breasts. The last lily reflections had died on the cypresses, and the garden began to be silver-like from the crescent of the moon. After a while Vinicius said,

 

"I know. Barely had I entered here, barely had I kissed thy dear hands, when I read in thy eyes the question whether I had received the divine doctrine to which thou art attached, and whether I was baptized. No, I am not baptized yet; but knowest thou, my flower, why? Paul said to me: 'I have convinced thee that God came into the world and gave Himself to be crucified for its salvation; but let Peter wash thee in the fountain of grace, he who first stretched his hands over thee and blessed thee.' And I, my dearest, wish thee to witness my baptism, and I wish Pomponia to be my godmother. This is why I am not baptized yet, though I believe in the Saviour and in his teaching. Paul has convinced me, has converted me; and could it be otherwise? How was I not to believe that Christ came into the world, since he, who was His disciple, says so, and Paul, to whom He appeared? How was I not to believe that He was God, since He rose from the dead? Others saw Him in the city and on the lake and on the mountain; people saw Him whose lips have not known a lie. I began to believe this the first time I heard Peter in Ostrianum, for I said to myself even then: In the whole world any other man might lie rather than this one who says, 'I saw.' But I feared thy religion. It seemed to me that thy religion would take thee from me. I thought that there was neither wisdom nor beauty nor happiness in it. But to-day, when I know it, what kind of man should I be were I not to wish truth to rule the world instead of falsehood, love instead of hatred, virtue instead of crime, faithfulness instead of unfaithfulness, mercy instead of vengeance? What sort of man would he be who would not choose and wish the same? But your religion teaches this. Others desire justice also; but thy religion is the only one which makes man's heart just, and besides makes it pure, like thine and Pomponia's, makes it faithful, like thine and Pomponia's. I should be blind were I not to see this. But if in addition Christ God has promised eternal life, and has promised happiness as immeasurable as the all-might of God can give, what more can one wish? Were I to ask Seneca why he enjoins virtue, if wickedness brings more happiness, he would not be able to say anything sensible. But I know now that I ought to be virtuous, because virtue and love flow from Christ, and because, when death closes my eyes, I shall find life and happiness, I shall find myself and thee. Why not love and accept a religion which both speaks the truth and destroys death? Who would not prefer good to evil? I thought thy religion opposed to happiness; meanwhile Paul has convinced me that not only does it not take away, but that it gives. All this hardly finds a place in my head; but I feel that it is true, for I have never been so happy, neither could I be, had I taken thee by force and possessed thee in my house. Just see, thou hast said a moment since, 'I love thee,' and I could not have won these words from thy lips with all the might of Rome. O Lygia! Reason declares this religion divine, and the best; the heart feels it, and who can resist two such forces?"

 

Lygia listened, fixing on him her blue eyes, which in the light of the moon were like mystic flowers, and bedewed like flowers.

 

"Yes, Marcus, that is true!" said she, nestling her head more closely to his shoulder.

 

That is from the 2001 film version, I believe filmed in Polish.