O.k.—this is one of those moments when a monk needs to really pay attention to what another person is saying. Our Brother James is twenty nine, he is one of the more promising and fervent candidates to monastic life I've seen in a while, and he has chosen this afternoon to confide in me a crucial moment in his journey from belonging to no Christian church in particular to passionately embracing membership in the Catholic church. So—here goes. James is fifteen years old and he's reading a fantasy novel. In this novel, the world is a disc. The disc sits on top of four elephants who are standing on a giant turtle that "swims" through space. In this world are dragons, trolls, and "gods" whose power is entirely dependent upon how many people believe in them. "Faith" is an expression of the best that is in humanity and "gods" are . . . sort of—the product. Good. So, "Om" is one of these "gods" by popular assent. Now, the "church of Om" is hierarchical, dogmatic, rigid and not very nice to people. "Brutha" belongs to this church and is a member of some sort of "monastic" order, not very bright, but absolutely faithful. Faithful to what? James explains: Faithful to—the best that is in humanity. O.k. So, Brutha believes in Om. But he's the only person in the world who does! That's bad for Om. One vote means he has basically no power. But Brutha is a cut above most people. They don't believe in any god. They believe in the church, maybe because the church scares them out of their wits. So, naturally, at this point, Om becomes a turtle. The turtle descends to earth, hits "Vorbis" right on top of his head and kills him. "Vorbis" is sort of . . . the pope. So, that's the end of the pope. Then, Brutha becomes the new pope. Now that means Om becomes very powerful because Brutha believes in Om and he's the pope and so Om has lots of new believers and that's what makes a god powerful. Om likes being powerful and decides to initiate a crusade. But Brutha tells Om: "No." O.k. wait a minute. Brutha tells god—no, you can't have a crusade? "Yeah", James says. "Brutha tells Om, there will be no crusade. We will make new believers through teaching and not at the point of the sword." "But something lovely and unexpected happens at the end", James says. In this "disc" world, when you die, you have to pass through a desert to be purified. At the end of the story, Brutha comes upon Vorbis who died years ago, and he is still standing at the edge of the desert! "Why haven't you crossed the desert?" Brutha asks him. "I'm afraid." Vorbis mutters. "Come", says Brutha, "You and I will walk across the desert together." End of the book. So, how does the fifteen year old James get from the land of Om to the Roman Catholic church? Here's what happened. Having finished the novel, he closes the book and says to himself: "O.k. I want to learn more about Christianity." He goes to a nearby church where, it seems to him, "faith" is nothing more than maintaining one's reputation as a decent sort of guy. He is crushed. The people at church have less faith in absolutes than the people in the fantasy novel! He can't believe it. He is so disgusted he stops going to church and ends up rejecting Christianity. But this only sets him up for the big reversal. His flight from Christianity is like a man walking into a huge rubber band. The further he pushes away from the church, the tighter the rubber band gets until, in college, he slips, loses his footing, and is suddenly moving at high velocity back toward Christianity, and right through the front door of the Roman Catholic church where, at last, he finds people whose lives are actually inspired and guided by a God who is Love and who reveals to us truths that are absolutes. At age 29 James enters a Trappist monastery. Good. So, what's the lesson here for a cloistered monk? What if God has decided to initiate a crusade "at the point" of fantasy literature? Yeah, well—a monk doesn't say "No" to God.

Father Raphael