|
that maybe somewhere in my collection梖orget about Wynken?
that maybe somewhere among all the statues and relics is a centralartifact that can help Dora with her new church. Can you gauge thevalue of what you saw in that flat? YOU have to make Dora touchthose things again, examine them, catch the scent of them! You haveto make her realize the potency of the statues and paintings, that theyare expressions of the human quest for truth, the very quest thatobsesses her. She just doesn't know yet.""But you said Dora never cared for the paint and the plaster.""Make her care.""Me? How! I can conserve all this, yes, but how am I to makeDora love a work of art? Why would you even suggest such a thing, Imean梞y having contact with your precious daughter?""You'll love my daughter," he said in a low murmur.
"Come again?""Find something miraculous in my collection for her.""The Shroud of Turin?""Oh, I like you. I really do. Yes, find her something that'ssignificant, something that will transform her, something that I, her father,bought and cherished, that will help her.""You're as insane dead as you were alive, you know it? Are youstill racketeering, trying to buy your way into salvation with a hunk ofmarble or a pile of parchment? Or do you really believe in thesanctity of all you've collected?""Of course I believe in the sanctity of it. It's all I believe in! That'smy point, don't you see? It's all you believe in too . . . what glittersand what is gold.""Ah, but you do take my breath away.""That's why you murdered me there, among the treasures. Look,we have to hurry. We don't know how much time we have. Backto the mechanics. Now, with my daughter, your trump card is herambition.
"She wanted the convent for her own female missionaries, herown Order, which was to teach love, of course, with the same uniquefire as other missionaries have taught it; she would send her womeninto the poor neighborhoods and into the ghettoes and into theworking districts, and they would hold forth pn the importance ofstarting a movement of love from the core of the people that wouldreach eventually to all governments in power, so that injustice wouldend.""What would distinguish these women from other such orders ormissionaries, from Franciscans or any sort of preachers ... ?""Well, one that they would be women, and preaching women!
Nuns have been nurses, teachers for little children, servants, orlocked in the cloister to bray at God like so many boring sheep. Herwomen would be doctors of the church, you see! Preachers. Theywould work up the crowds with personal fervor; they would turn tothe women, the impoverished and the depotentiated women, andhelp them to reform the world.""A feminist vision, but coupled with religion.""It had a chance. It had as much of a chance as any suchmovement. Who knows why one monk in the 1300s became a crazy? Andanother one a saint? Dora has ways to show people how to think. Idon't know! You have to figure this all out, you have to!""And meanwhile save the church decorations," I said.
"Yes, until she will accept them or until she can turn them tosome good. That's how you get her. Talk about good.""That's how you get anybody," I said sadly. "That's how you'regetting me.""Well, you'll do it, won't you? Dora thinks I was misguided. Shesaid, 'Don't think you can save your soul after all you've done bypassing on these church objects to me.' ""She loves you," I affirmed. "I saw that every time I saw her withyou.""I know. I need no such assurances. There's no time now to gointo all the arguments. But Dora's vision is immense, remember that.
She's small-time now, but wants to change the entire world. I mean,she isn't satisfied to have a cult the way I wanted it, you know, to be aguru with a retreat full of pliant followers. She really wants to changethe world. She thinks somebody has to change the world.""Doesn't every religious person believe that?""No. They don't dream of being Mohammed or Zoroaster.""And Dora does."f'Dora knows that that is what's required."He shook his head, took another little bit of the drink, and lookedoff over the half-empty room. Then he made a little frown as ifpondering it still.
"She said, 'Dad, religion doesn't come from relics and texts. Theyare the expression of it.' She went on and on. After all her studying ofScripture, she said it was the inner miracle that counted. She put meto sleep. Don't make any cruel jokes!""Not for the world.""What's going to happen to my daughter!" he whispereddesperately. He wasn't looking at me. "Look at her heritage. See it in herfather. I'm fervent and extremist and gothic and mad. I can't tell youhow many churches I've taken Dora to, how many priceless crucifixesI've shown to her, before turning them around for a profit. Thehours Dora and I have spent looking at the ceilings of Baroquechurches in Germany alone! I have given Dora magnificent relics ofthe true cross embedded in silver and rubies. I have bought manyveils of Veronica, magnificent works that would take your breathaway. My God.""Was there ever--with Dora, I mean梐 concept of atonement inall of this, a guilt?""You mean, for letting Terry disappear without explanation, fornever asking, until years later? I thought of that. If it was there in thebeginning, Dora's passed it a long time ago. Dora thinks the worldneeds a new revelation. A new prophet. But you just don't become aprophet! She says her transformation must come with seeing andfeeling; but it's no Revival Tent experience.""Mystics never think it's a Revival Tent experience.""Of course not.""Is Dora a mystic? Would you say that?""Don't you know? You followed her, you watched her. No, Dorahasn't seen the face of God or heard His voice and would never lieabout it, if that's what you mean. But Dora's looking for it. She'slooking for the moment, for the miracle, for the revelation!""For the arigel to come.""Yes, exactly."We were both quiet suddenly. He was probably thinking of hisinitial proposition; so was I, that I fake a miracle, I, the evil angel thathad once driven a Catholic nun to madness, to bleeding from herhands and feet in the Stigmata.
40/163 首页 上一页 38 39 40 41 42 43 下一页 尾页
|
