Lucilla--NaNoWriMo2014

Chapter Seventeen

The next day was Sunday in Cetraro, Italy, and Mark roused a naked Lucilla out of her sleep.

"Get up, my lovely Augusta (what Lucilla was called in Ancient Rome) because we are going to church."

"Church?"  Lucilla recalled that it was what the early Christians called themselves.  "You mean we have Christians here in Italy too?  What happened to Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Mars, and my own Mithras?  Does no one believe in the gods who made Rome what is was?"

Mark pulled Lucilla out of bed and pressed her against him. "Lucy, I love you so much.  But you have to understand that no one sacrifices to those gods or even keeps their ancient temples in repair.  Almost everybody, except Jews in hiding, is Christian here in Italy nowadays."

"But they were atheists!  Well, that is what the learned men like Seneca called them in his writings.  They devoured humans.  They burned Rome and were punished thoroughly for it.  They even made trouble for my father until he put them down."

"Lucy."  Mark drew her closer. "I am Christian although not a very good one. But today you have a surprise.  Before Jesus came along, Rome and Greece set their unhealthy chidren to die.  But after your father came the Emperor Constantine, who saw a vision.  By the sign of the cross he would have a victory over his enemies.  So he learned that Christians used the cross as their symbol.  He decided to become Christian.  From then on the Emperors made Christianity their official religion."

"It has been that way ever since?"

"There is our Holy Father, Pius XII, who is head of my church around the world.  He lives in the Vatican."

"Mark, did you say the Vatican?"  She looked incredulous.  "The Vatican is nothing but a good for nothing hill that nobody in Rome wanted to live on, much less than built a temple on."

"When you get to Rome, you will see the Cathedral of Saint Peter not far from Hadrian's Tomb, or what we now call the Castle of San Angelo."

"We have another reason for going to church today.  We will meet with some Italian partisans, who will confer with us about our findings."

So Mark and Lucilla set out on foot up the narrow Italian streets that climbed a hill overlooking the ancient harbor. The beach looked so inviting as they stolled past an occasional Citroen auto, which was so small that passengers crammed in with difficulty.  But they were easy on petro as prices were high during the wartime shortages

At last they came to a stone edifice with its name written in Latin.  This surprised Lucilla that it was not written in the Italian she was used to hearing and speaking.  She looked at Mark.

"Oh, Mark the name of the church is Mater Dei.  That is Latin for Mother of God."

"Yes, because Jesus mother was born of immaculate conception, and she gave birth to Jesus after being impregnated by the Holy Spirit from God.  So Jesus is of the same substance as God, so she is said to be God's Mother."

"Isn't that a contradiction, Mark?"

"If religion were all wrapped up in one neat, coherent package, a system of belief, something we could prove, then it would not be faith."

"Well, it is far more beautiful an idea than what I used to see in the Coliseum.  The would have a bull to have sex with an innocent woman in order to portray how Zeus, the head god of Olympus, came down to show how she had a son born of Zeus."

Lucilla was dressed in a top that hid her usual desirable cleavage as she held onto Mark as they entered the church.  In a way it was not too unfamiliar to Lucilla as she expected.  She saw marble statues just like in Juno Monero or the Temple of Saturn in Rome.  Indeed the Sacred Way into Rome was filled with gods.  But the statues were not gods, Mark explained.  They were representations of the church saints.