Famine

Chapter Twenty

    Michelle’s letter to Jonah didn’t tell the half of what was in his supposed grave at Rose Hill.  The entire vault was crammed with material.  Whenever possible they used real books.  Further Michelle has reasoned during her time information stored in computers of her time would be un-retrievable someday as computers became more sophisticated.  Therefore she convinced church leaders to use the older microfilm technology.  Along with hundreds of rolls of almost irreplaceable Biblical research she stored a microfiche reader.  If cells in the future did not have one, they could make them without much trouble.

   Michelle had stored enough information for a theological school if they dared to gather in those numbers.  There were special Bibles, even translations of the Old Testament in Hebrew and the New Testament in Greek.  There were church histories of both Protestant and Catholic traditions.  There were writings from St. Augustine to Billy Graham. Hymn books, and even the little-known, extra-Biblical works, those ancient texts that were rejected by early church fathers.

   Michelle has insisted that future generations of Christians, like the monks of the Middle Ages, have as much of the whole corpus of the past Christian experience at possible.  That included worship and intellectual traditions.

   Michelle had sought out Rabbis, liberal and conservative ministers and university professors not long before they were forced to retire.  Similar bonanzas of Christian and Jewish works existed in caches all around the country.  Michelle and others realized that some of these troves of Christian works might be lost by future generations.  But by storing so much material assured them that enough of it would survive.  She advised leaders never to make a master list of their locations.  That would make it easy to destroy all their hidden works at one time.

   From time to time Jonah and Sonny would remove the material to share with local cells when the need arose.

   Sometimes Sonny disagreed with the opinions by writers.  They were too liberal for him.  They insisted the Bible could be read much like any other book.  They explained that some of the miracles were hard to believe, given the way the events are written in the Bible.  Jonah insisted that the material had a right to exist, no matter what.  It came from sincere Christian thinkers and scholars.  Let others read them and decide if they were right for them.

   “This material is to learn from, to make you appreciate your own opinions, not to undermine your faith.  Michelle believed much like you do now, but she wanted us to have all of the past opinions.   If God has a secret file up in heaven, we are not going to learn it from what someone wrote down here on earth.  The whole of heaven is not going to tumble down to earth.”

   Michelle said that we have to depend on discipline as we balance the intellectual with the spiritual.  If our faith doesn’t burn within us, it is useless.  But we have to be careful that our feelings do not dominate our thinking.”

   Jonah’s messenger duties led him to contact with a whole range of Christian practice.  In Olive Hill, Kentucky, he was invited to a cell in which a man in bib overalls went into a trance and spoke in an unknown language.  His wife, hair pulled back and wearing a print dress stepped forward and held onto him to make sure he did not injure himself.  He was so loud that they were concerned about being discovered.

   Jonah had not heard anyone “speaking in tongues,” they called it in his college days at the storefront church. “What is he saying?”  Jonah asked the man’s wife.

   She listened a while longer while holding his hand.  “He keeps saying over and over that ‘we are going to be delivered from persecution soon.’ ”

   “Let’s pray that what he says comes true.”

   Then his wife picked up a poisonous snake and passed around among the congregation.  One offered it to Jonah.  It was their test of faith.  Jonah declined.  When asked why, Jonah answered, “It is not right to put your life in deliberate danger just to see if God will save you from your own foolishness.”

   The local cell invited Jonah not to return to them.

   In Lexington, Jonah met with a Catholic cell.  They had altered their Rosaries to confuse authorities.  Although they still contained the same number of beads, they resembled jewelry instead of an aid to prayer and meditation.   When they met in their cells, someone always had the more traditional Rosaries with traditional crosses.

   Ireland still continued its strong Catholic heritage, and they provided a modest few priests, who traveled on business.  A Father Murphy was holding Catholic Mass in the cell the night Jonah was invited to a cell in Lexington.  He had heard their confessions in like manner as they did in the churches for centuries.  Jonah was allowed to worships with them.  When the priest in full vestments place the consecrated hosts to the cell members, he surprised Jonah.  “Will you receive the host, Jonah?”

   “But I’m not Catholic.”

   “During this crisis the Holy Father in Rome has given you and other Protestants a special dispensation.  I minister to non-Catholics so long as they have no minister.  Besides, you have volunteered to carry consecrated hosts for use in other Catholic cells.  I cannot be there to place them on the tongues of the faithful, but they are blessed just the same.”

   Catholic and Protestant cells cooperated with each other for mutual security.  Persecutions always blur modest differences form one church to another.  It had been over five hundred years since the Thirty Years War (1618-1648), said to be between Protestants and Catholics.  Although the Pope made it clear to other Christians that he would not compromise and change his doctrine, but they would cooperate during the crisis.  Catholics and Protestants often met for worship in common cells.  Church divisions were only on paper in these times.  They were united in spirit and love, something not achieved for centuries.

   Back in Owensboro, Jonah was to lead his cell when they got together.   After they read the Bible aloud, he began to speak.

   My friends, we have just read a letter by the early missionary Paul, who has the title Apostle.  He had a vision of the risen Jesus.  He was humble, considering himself the least deserving of those who proclaimed the Christian Faith.”

   “Paul says we are to be holy, but that does not mean that we take out a list of things we are not supposed to do, and start not doing them.  In his words, ‘Why submit to regulations: not touching things, no tasting things, no handling things.’ He says that those who keep score of the things they do just look like they are wise.”

   “Although there are many decent people among the non-believers around us, some are so self-indulgent that nothing will satisfy them:  not long life or riches.  But we have one humble thing they do not have: hope.  They look for nothing after the grave.  If their lives have not been fulfilling, they face death feeling so empty, in desperation to hold onto life.”

   “We are not really better acting than so many around us.  We are counted as righteous because we are Christians.  We still have an obligation to look to their needs.  But that makes us vulnerable.  We could get arrested.”

   “Would that mean that we would have to reveal our faith to someone else?”

   “We have to depend on God.  He will make a way for us to get to others.  We have to listen, watch for an opportunity, and the sea may not part for us next time God talks to us.”

   Before they broke up Jonah said, “I will be lecturing in the historical society in Berlin, Germany, soon.  While there, I will meet in secret with a member of the Vatican.”

   “Italy has a majority of atheists nowadays, but there are still  enough Catholics that the Pope in Rome has made sure his faithful are never harassed.  You will not see me for months.  I have to work out meetings with Protestant and Catholic leaders when I return.  By and by, I will share the news with you.  We are still in a lot of danger, and in spite of signs of things easing up, it can change overnight.  We are always in danger.”

   They sang a hymn and prayed.  Jonah spent extra time with Sean that day. He had become as an uncle to him.