Salome: The Secret Love Story of The Third Maria: (Book; Part IV)

 

 

 

Heaven away from earth

The Apocalypse of Heaven

 

I know —-there are people in this day and age who think that Oliver Twist was a tornado in Kansas and Moby Dick is a venereal disease, and others who have read Oliver Twist and Moby Dick think they are intellectuals, so I regret to say that I shy away from talking to both of those classes, therefore at times I feel lonely for I believe that most of the people belong to one of these classes. These are the people in today’s world who think that Jesus was a myth, his miracles and his parthenogenesis (born to a Virgin) and the Amazonian women, are all myths,” said Socrates, looking at Dimitri as if he were expecting a response or a comment, but when none came, Socrates asked in a low voice. “Was the escaping of the German hostage a miracle, if it happened the way I’ve described to you?”

Dimitri still maintaining his silence roamed his eyes around, as if he were looking for any answer to the question, not only for Socrates but to also satisfy himself, but there were no offerings or suggestions from anywhere in sight or hearing.

“These same people who have doubts about Jesus,” continued the sexton, assuming he had placed Dimitri in an awkward position, “believe, admire and worship Arnold Swarznegger, thinking of him to be the real terminator and made him a governor in California and Sylvester Stalone is the First Blood hero able to kill hundreds with a fake and empty machine gun, but they find it difficult to believe in something good like Jesus being the Son of God and some feel offended and use their political power to have the nativity removed from the municipal grounds, but the statues of many fake so-called heroes are still standing. I’ll stop here,” said Socrates “There goes to show you a great number of people cannot tell the difference between winners and losers and truth and lie. This is far enough,” he said, still with a searching glance. “I will not suffer you to listen to me any further. Many people would have lost track and eventually their interest by now and would have gone. As you see, I ran away with my thoughts seeing a strong interest painted on your face, Dimitri. I must admit that I find it very difficult in speaking to many people.”

“Please sir, even though I live in the times of speeding cars and fast food restaurants, I am not a child of this era,” replied Dimitri, rather anxiously. “I still think a meal is more pleasing when it is eaten leisurely and it is garnished with speaking and listening about things that are still here but have long been forgotten. So, sir, I beg you to go on.”

“Having some obvious doubts in the legendary truth and miracles, as most do,” begin Socrates, going back to his original story, without manifesting much emotion now, “I went on looking to rule out science. I went to Astakos to inquire about the German soldier. I was told that there was a German left over and had been living in town making a living by doing errands for the local merchants and in his spare time was working in the minefields digging up mines and selling the powder to the fisherman to blow up fish. I somehow relieved to have found my man. One thing I learned that nobody knew why he stayed behind, because according to the townspeople, he did not speak Greek, but he spoke Greek with me. I was told that he was seen two hours earlier working in the antipersonnel minefield in the swamps called Varca, the place outside of Astakos. On my way there I heard an explosion of a mine. I was not alarmed like most of the townspeople weren’t because those explosions were very common. Heavy dogs, foxes and wolves would set them off. Arriving at my destination, I saw him stretched out motionless in the middle of the minefield. Working my way into the minefield, I found him with his face blown up. Evidently the mine went off when he was on his knees pulling it up. I must tell you that I had noticed that his fingers were chubby. The German I had captured had thin and bony fingers plus the fact that German who was lying dead was wearing full size boots and not like the other who had cut the tops of his boots to sole them. The other thing I noticed was a wallet sticking out of his pocket. I picked it up, opened it and saw the same picture in the wallet which I had confiscated from the other soldier, with only one great difference. The man in the picture was not the same man I had captured. The woman and the boy were exactly the same, wearing the same clothes and standing in the same manner. I took the wallet and left. When I came back here I went and took out the wallet that I had taken from my German hostage, I opened it and the face of the man in the first wallet had faded away and there was an empty spot in his place.” said the old man, running his hands around his face as if to refresh it.

“From that day forth there was another man within me whom I did not know and it took me a long time to accept him. I kept on remembering the Alter, the Bible that fell off my hands, the pistol. You know what I saw between those images? It was the face of the German soldier who stood before me in the rain looking at the bread I held. But the image changed and the image of Jesus was more visible. And then it was the sight of the imprudent man looking straight at me seeing his end but showing no signs of fear. It was empty science beating against my head which was filled with frenetic obsession.”

“The rest I shall leave up to you to form your own judgment, my dear Dimitri, but I must confess what I really felt then and still feel now,” began the sexton in a very reverent voice.

“It was my Guardian Angel. I do believe in Guardian Angels. Every religion and every civilization has them, but they have turned them into metaphors,” said Socrates turning his away from Dimitri as if he wanted to hide some thoughts. “They all have turned them into metaphors, but they are real. They are very real and around us. They  come to us from Heaven in our desperate times, we don’t know it and we don’t see them. I saw mine as clear as I see you,” continued the old man,” turning his face back at Dimitri. “Now I shall go and make coffee as I have promised, after you help me to bring out the two chairs and the table.”

Dimitri stood there and looked at Socrates as if he had something to add. He didn’t seem to be surprised, humored or saddened by his new friend’s eccentric disposition: He just looked upon him as the sole and chief actor in the play of his most uncommon life, where he had reached the point where there was no one to give him an opportunity for displaying his abilities.

 

The Life ofTHere the sexton  the Sexton

Always alone                    View from Prophet Elias Monastery

 

After a little while the two new friends sat on blue and green vinyl chairs around the small round steel table and drank their coffee.

“If General Custard would have drunk this coffee before he started his battle with Sioux Indians in Little Big Horn, he would still be standing up till today,” said Dimitri, after taking a sip of the coffee and rolling his eyes in surprise.

“I told you I make some mean coffee and cookies and I see you pigged out,” replied Socrates. “Yes, sir, this is good and mean coffee and if God created anything better he kept it for himself,” mumbled Dimitri, taking another sip. “Who do you think was the hostage who escaped, if he wasn’t the one who was killed by the land mine?” asked Dimitri. The question was neither challenging nor interrogatory but out of true desire to learn the real feelings and Socrates’ state of mind.

“You will not believe me if I’ll tell you”

“Try me.”

“That was like a miracle,” said Socrates, as though reluctant to go on.

“You still haven’t answered my question,” said Dimitri.

“It was Prophet Elias who escaped,” returned Socrates, without taking the time for any consideration.

“I must admit that is hard to swallow.”

“I know,” said Socrates. “Let me go on step further and simplify things by asking you one or two questions.

The sudden storm that made the roof creak, the ringing of the bells, the deafening sounds of every noise combined, the presence of Jesus, the sunrays poking in from the cloudy sky. Can you explain any of those events?”

“Coincidence?” remarked Dimitri with a degree of uncertainty.

“Oh, no. Coincidence you said? I am surprised at you. You could have said illusions.”

“But you are not a man of illusions. So coincidence may be the answer.”

“How about a miracle?” asked Socrates. “I know a miracle to be believed would have to be a miracle in itself. But coincidence is a fact or event that takes place without planning or any interference, beyond anybody’s expectations.”

Dimitri thought for a moment, “Prophet Elias, hem?” mumbled Dimitri as if he were talking to himself.

“The man that I captured knew he was about to die, but all along he was trying to make me see the light,” continued Socrates. “When I mentioned, “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth”, he told me that I was troublesome for misinterpreting the Bible. That rang something in my ear, which I didn’t know then but I found it later,” said Socrates in a very fervent manner. “Please allow me to go off the telling of the story and clarify something,” the sexton went on. “The Old Testament prescription, “An eye for an eye,” has been interpreted, notably in Judaism, to mean an equivalent compensation for providing hope to the hopeless and monetary help to the needy and should not be taken as a mirror punishment. Eye means vision and came from the Hindu, commonly known as the third eye. Tooth means money because the first monetary currency in the world was the tooth. The Bible did not intend to say in one page “Turn the other cheek” and on the other to justify mirror punishment or the punishment should fit the crime or the Latin term Lex Talionis. If we follow that, the world will be in chaos. If you kill my son I have the right to kill your son. The interpreters of the Holly Bible wrongly connected this tort to the Code of Hammurabi the Babylonian king in the year of about 1750 BC and from which some passages of the Mosaic Law were taken from there. Do you know that the Code of Hammurabi is posted on the walls of ten federal courts? That is the way of justifying the punishment the judges impose on the defendants.

“I must say that the code is the first example of legal concept. It is unbendable. It was written to protect the people from the blood thirsty law enforcing authorities even kings, to confine punishment in the equal measure and  not to be able to impose sentences beyond the crime and in Latin it is call mirror punishment. The Hammurabi code read “An eye for an eye or an arm for an arm” .That is the Non-Biblical code. 350 years later when the Mosaic Law was put together it took statutes that bear at least passing resemblance to those in the Code of Hammurabi and other codices from the same geographic area. So, in the Old Testament, which is a biblical code it was changed. They removed “An arm for an arm” and replaced it “A tooth for a tooth”. By doing that it was removed from the mirror punishment and has been interpreted, notably in Judaism, to mean equivalent monetary compensation, due to the fact the tooth is the first monetary currency in the world.

“The Biblical code means to say is that if you help someone, you also help yourself. In April of 1985 I heard on the radio that science has confirmed that people who help other people live longer,” said Socrates with a deep sigh. “So, my friend, to me that hostage was Prophet Elias. Whether it was an illusion or a fantasy, I do not know, but I know I touched him with my hands. I was desperate to speak to somebody. I believe that he heard my silent pleas and he came and helped me.”

“I must admit that’s very interesting but very hard to swallow. It is out of the ordinary and people are used to the ordinary, and anything out of the ordinary becomes hard to swallow or to even think about it.” said Dimitri again as if he were just talking to himself.

“Just to change the subject, may I ask what kind of work you do in America?”

“I am a writer; a novelist I would say,” returned Dimitri. “I am trying to be anyway.”

“Oh, yes we are all trying for something,” returned Socrates with a sigh.

“Yes, we are all trying, but some appear to be better than others because they succeeded,” said Dimitri almost sullenly,  “I am still a trier.”

“You sound as if you had some failings in life,” remarked Socrates. “Don’t let you failings to take the best of you, if you’ll do, that will make you a loser. A man must walk on the fence that divides the good and the bad. Anyone who stands in the middle of the road of the good or in the middle of the road of the bad is taking too much space here on earth and his vision is limited. You see, Dimitri, I know that you are going to succeed, because as I’ve said, I knew your father well. You father left you with a lot of love,” said Socrates, “If I were to go on with the poem for the next generation, I would describe the birth of the children of the breast or the children of Passion. I would add that Agapi (Love) mated with Kronos (Time) and had a son named Tharros (Courage) and two daughters name Pistis (Faith) and Elpis (Hope). Tharros and Elpis mated and had two daughters, Euthokimia (Succes) and Erini (Peace). You have plenty of love. Your father has handed you love you will do the rest. My father knew no love, so the two daughters Euthokimia and Erini were never born for me.”

“Very interesting observation,” said Dimitri. “That is why I have paid you a visit. I heard you are a well-read man and you might be a lot of help to me. I really want to write about Prophet Elias.”

“The monastery or the Prophet himself?” asked Socrates. “About the monastery, I can’t provide you with much help. I know it was built during the Byzantine years, almost a thousand years ago. I also know as the delivery of the story goes from mouth to mouth that this here monastery was a place of exorcism. Every 20^th of July, we celebrate his name. Visitors from all over Greece would come with their devil-possessed loved ones, hoping for Prophet Elias to chase the devil out of them. This didn’t take place hundreds of years ago, this had taken place as recently as one hundred and twenty-five years ago.”

“Devil possessed, you said?” asked the writer, as if it were the first timehe had heard the phrase.

“Yes, devil possessed,” replied the old monk, as if he had just heard the unexpected. “If you believe there is God you must believe there is the devil, if you don’t believe any of this, please tell me to stop. We will have, after a little while, colatso (mid-morning repast) and you’ll be on your way back to Astakos or America. But before you go I will ask you one question, if you don’t believe in God tell me how and why are you here on earth?  Once you know how, then you will know why. I don’t want you to just be polite with me and listen; I want you to hear me, to listen and to understand, if you are not in the mood to do that, let us have our colatso and you’ll be on your way, my dear Dimitri,” uttered the sexton firmly.

Dimitri stood up, gazed at Socrates for a short moment, he then walked away and sat on the nearby four foot high stone guard that served as a retaining wall, and casting his eyes upon the ground as if he were trying to collect his thoughts or put the answer in proper and understanding order.

After a few minutes of that meditation, he walked

and stood in front of Socrates and stared at him for a long moment before he began, “I do have my beliefs and I do have my doubts, fortunately my beliefs are stronger than my doubts,” replied the Greek American, with an unmistakable interest to hear a comment from the old sexton.

“That’s it! That’s it! That’s it!” shouted the old man, hammering the table with his fist to cast emphasis on what was said. “I wanted to hear nothing else from you other than that excerpt I just heard. For the love of God, Dimitri, do you realize that the reason we avoid death is because it is really unkown to where we go after death andthat is because of the uncertainty of God’s existence? Do you realize that the mystery about God is that he has never allowed Himself to be seen? Do you realize that if we were certain about God’s existence and the existence of heaven, we the people of the world would allow ourselves to die rather than suffer on this earth as we all do?” said Socrates solemnly, “Look what Zeus, the smartest of all the gods of the ancient Greek religion had done. He had Atlas to hold away from the mortals the existence of heaven. Atlas is not holding the earth on his back as most believe; he is holding heaven away from the knowledge of the people.”

“If they knew there was heaven the earth would be empty, for everybody would have gone to heaven. All the years that I lived on this earth and all the books that I have read, I am now very near upon the verge of death and one may say that there is no more hope for abstaining that unpleasant event, I don’t know where I am going. Will I be tucked away somewhere to wait for the Judgment Day or will I be a jackrabbit roaming the fields in Kansas, in your country or a lonely wolf in Veloutsa behind us? That is why I called my death “Unpleasant Event” I am inclined to say at this point that your visit here is God’s will. I am not saying that you are going to tell me where I am going, but you might, by an accident, show me another way of viewing and accepting death.”

“I am afraid, Socrates, I know no more about death than an illiterate person, but I will write what I think and feel, my writing will not be accepted nor praised by a lot of people, but I will do it,” said Dimitri, getting onto his feet and taking his original place by the table.

“I know, I know; people are not wise enough to know that our doubts of God’s existence and purpose, are keeping us here alive. Even, Jesus, who was told that he was the Son of God, had his doubts about God’s intentions. Before he was crucified he went into a secluded area in the Garden of Gethsemane, and prayed, and according to Luke “His sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground”, from the stress of thinking of death, and medically speaking, sweat has turning to blood has taken place to six persons since then and doctors certified that the phenomenon was due to tremendous stress,” said Socrates, so excited he never took the time to pause or feel his lungs with fresh air as most elders do, but he kept on going.

 

At  Garden of Gethsemane ..   Church of the Agony was built

called the Agony

“Why was Jesus so stressed out if he knew and believed the existence of God, not along he was The Son of God? Please, somebody tell me why.” At that point Socrates stopped for a moment. “I know why, and I will tell it to you later on.” he stopped again  as if he had just said enough for Dimitri’s ears and breast, and he just eyed him as if to read a comment. “The Garden of Gethsemane,” continued Socrates with a calm tone in his voice now, not hearing or seeing a response. “The Garden of Gethsemane is at the foot of the Mount of Olives and there is where the church of All Nations was built and also known as the Church of the Agony. The Garden is also known as the Garden of Agony. Agony means mental struggle.  Evidently Jesus struggled with his thoughts, as you will see later in our gathering.

Digging up the truth can be very disturbing to people who have learned to live comfortably with a lie for such a long time not believing it was a lie, but also not believing it’s the absolute truth. I know what I will tell you will  strengthen your belief in in God, something since the beginning of life everybody wishes to discover; to believe in God,” said Socrates, in a very solemn tone and voice, placing his hand on the Bible reverently.“I told you what I know about the monastery, but the story of Prophet Elias is more interesting,” said Socrates sipping his coffee.

Prophet Elias has returned as John the Baptist