Chapter CX
We stayed there for two months and the sheep grew fat on the excellent grazing and I was able to hire out the donkeys to carry firewood from the nearby forest to the monastery and the convent. In addition we were able to sell milk and cheese in the village, so we were quite well off and did not need to draw from es-Sid's treasure.
I was surprised, however, that in all that time no one from the world outside came near us, neither travellers nor soldiers nor government officials. Brother Basil, the monk we had met that first day, was the only one to have contact with the outside world when he went once a month to the nearby town to buy a little salt and one or two other things the village could not produce. He always came and went by a different route so that there was no path to betray us and because we were far from any city or village not even hunters came to the area.
Each morning and evening I would hear, faint in the distance, the knocking sound I had heard that first morning. After several days I went to find out the cause and eventually discovered a monk in the courtyard of the monastery, beating with a wooden hammer on a wooden plank.
"What is this?" I asked him when I found him.
"We do not have bells," he replied, continuing to knock on the wood. "Instead we use this sematron to call the faithful to church."
"May I come also?" I asked.
He shrugged. "Why not?"
I entered the building to find that it was very similar to the Greek churches I had seen elsewhere, with many icons on the walls and a screen at the front. There was the smell of incense and a black-robed priest reading from a large book while a deacon stood by and waved the censer and chanted responses. A number of people stood in the church, monks, men and women, and I joined them, for by then I was willing to make the sign of the cross and only needed a little thought to see whether they followed the Greek custom with three fingers or the Latin custom with two.
After the service Brother Anthony came and summoned me to the abbot's room again.
"My son," the man said, "I was surprised to see you in our church, for I understood that the Muslims did not pray as we do."
"Kurios," I told him, "most Muslims would indeed not enter a Christian church, for we do not pray and worship as you do. I, however, have been in Jerusalem and spoken to many Christians there and I am willing to worship with you. If I have given offence I ask your pardon."
"There is no offence," the abbot smiled. "Come when you will."
Trudy, however, was angry with me for going to worship in a church of those she considered heretics, but after I described the service she became less angry and on Sunday, because there was nowhere else to go, she took baby Mariam and came with me to the church, though I noticed that she did not join in any of the prayers and responses.
At the end of two months Trudy's labour began and she sent me to the convent to bring Sister Charite. The old woman came at once with two other sisters and bade me boil a great cauldron of water, but once that was set on the fire she sent me to the monastery, saying that she would let me know when Trudy was delivered.
Brother Anthony met me in the courtyard and when I told why I had come he smiled and invited me into the library where there were many books in a language I could not understand and a writing I could not read. In the books there were pictures and he told me the stories of these pictures, stories about Jesus, stories about the saints and apostles, stories about the martyrs.
"Tell me, brother," I said after a story about how the Prophet Isa had walked on water and commanded a storm to cease, "what is the truth concerning Jesus? Is he a man or a god?"
He looked at me for a long moment and then closed the book. "Fuad, I know that this is confusing for you; to tell you the truth, it is confusing for me also. The problem is that in the Holy Gospels it is not written plainly what we should believe in this matter. However if you will come with me into the church I will show you something that has helped me greatly."
I followed him out of the library and across the courtyard into the church. At the front of the church there was a great book lying closed on a stand beside the altar. He opened it and turned the pages until he found what he was looking for.
"Listen to the words of the Holy Apostle John, the disciple who was loved most of all by Jesus."
He read something in a sing-song chant and I understood not one word in ten, but then he turned from the book.
"These are the words of Jesus himself: he says that the Father has commanded that all men should honour the Son - that is, Jesus - even as they honour God himself. For me, that is enough. Whether Jesus is God or man, whether he has one will or two, one nature or two, one essence or two, this can be a matter for dispute between the learned. For simple ones like you and me it is sufficient that we give honour to Jesus as we honour God."
"But how can we honour Jesus as we honour God?" I demanded. "Surely that is to take honour from God?"
"I think not," Brother Anthony shook his head. "If the Basileus sends a governor, does he not expect the people to honour and obey the governor even as they would the Basileus? Sometimes the governor is the son of the Basileus, sometimes he is a stranger, but if we show disrespect to the governor, are we not dishonouring the Basileus who sent him?"
"But if the Basileus was here, the governor would be nothing," I objected.
"But the Basileus is not here," Brother Anthony said with a smile. "Or rather, seeing as we are talking about God and Jesus, God is not here but Jesus is, for God has not walked on earth like a man, but Jesus has. However let me show you something else."
He turned once more to the book and searched for another passage which, when he found, he read in the same sing-song voice. When he had finished he translated it for me.
"These are the words of St Paul, the man who brought the Christian religion into this part of the world and who wrote many things for our instruction. He says that God has put all things under the dominion of Jesus and when all things are fully under his control, then Jesus himself will bring them to God and thus God will be all in all."
He closed the book.
"Is that not how a governor will behave, whether he is a son or a stranger? If there are rebels in a province and the Basileus sends him out against them with full authority, will he not fight against the rebels until they are defeated and then, when the victory is complete, does he not lay the province at the feet of the Basileus again?"
"By God," I said. "It is even so."
"Do not, from these words, understand that Jesus is either more or less than he should be," Brother Anthony cautioned me. "Rather, leave aside these questions, that those who are skilled in such matters may dispute about them. For you and me it is enough that we give honour to Jesus even as we give to God."
