trans_9 | Mmm, good Bible.

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Mmm, good Bible.

Daimon had chosen the location ahead of time. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre was sacred, perhaps more so than the Vatican. It was the place where Jesus Christ was crucified and buried. It had also not been descrated.

Many months had passed since Daimon spoke before a group of people. His palms sweat and he wiped his brow. Silently, he asked God for the strength to not simply speak but to speak on behalf of the Lord.

When the time came, he walked up before the assembled, Bible in hand. While he was nervous, perhaps on the verge of a panic attack, his words were strong and passionate and grew surer the more he spoke.

“I recognize that the people on board this ship come from various walks of life. Some of you, perhaps, are not familiar with Christianity. If this is the case, you may ask whatever questions you have and offer me any comments or insights after I have spoken.” Daimon then gave what he called a “brief summary” of Christianity. It was, in fact, very lengthy and detailed and contained heavy praise of Jesus and the love of God. He then moved on to give a similarly “brief summary” of the context behind the Old Testament.

“Some of you are perhaps aware of the book of Job. Job was a prosperous man. He had seven sons and three daughters. He had herds of animals and acres of land. He was a devout worshipper of God. In the story, the Adversary speaks with God and tells him that Job only praises God because he has no reason to blame him. He says that if God takes away from Job all of his blessings, his animals, his land, even his children, then Job will curse God’s name. God answers that Job will retain his faith and permits the Adversary to strip away everything from Job save his health.”

“A series of disasters befall Job. He loses everything, his land, his herd, and even his children.” Daimon paused. “Job is distraught. Throwing himself upon the ground, he cries:

“‘Naked I came from the womb,
naked I shall return from whence I came.
The Lord gives and the Lord takes away;
Blessed be the name of the Lord.’

“The Adversary spoke with the Lord God again. He tells him that Job continues to praise God only because Job himself has not been afflicted. God allows the Adversary to take from Job his health.

“Robbed of his health, bereft of hope, Job laments. He cries out to God, begging for relief, begging for death, and questioning his justice. Each of Job’s friends berate him and encourage him to have faith but Job refuses. Job’s lament continues until God himself answers him. The Lord says:

“‘Brace yourself and stand up like a man;
I shall put questions to you, and you must answer.
Would you dare deny that I am just,
or put me in the wrong to prove yourself right?
Have you an arm like God’s arm;
can you thunder with a voice like his?
Deck yourself out, if you can, in pride and dignity,
array yourself in pomp and splendour.
Unleash the fury of your wrath,
look on all who are proud, and bring them low,
crush the wicked where they stand;
bury them in the earth together,
and shroud them in an unknown grave.
Then I in turn would acknowledge
that your own right hand could save you.’

“At these words, Job kneels and asks for forgiveness. The Lord grants it and Job prospers greater than ever before. He lives to see his grand children and his great grand children and his great great grandchildren. To the end of his days he sang the Lord’s praise.”

Daimon gazed into the eyes of the people before him. “You may ask, as I have, why the Lord would cause a blameless man such grief. You may, as I once did, come away with the sense that God is not just, that he is fickle and cares not for man but this could not be further from the truth. To ask why God could and does allow such horrible events to transpire to such good people would be folly, for it is as the Lord says: we cannot judge him. We cannot know why the Lord acts as he does, nor can we hope to know. We can only have, nay, we must have faith in his actions. For the Lord is greater than all of us. He sculpted us with his hands and breathed into us our souls. The Lord knows more than we can possibly imagine and has our best intentions in his heart, even if it seems to us that he has caused us nothing but misery.

“Why, you may ask, have I told you this story? ‘What meaning could it have on my life?’ And this, I shall tell you. Every one of us on this ship is lost. We have been stripped of our most precious comforts- our home, our friends, our family. We do not know what lies ahead of us. We may despair, we may weep, we may beg for the mercy and guidance of our Lord. On board this ship, even surrounded as we are by each other, we may still feel, as Job felt, alone and abandoned.

“But I tell you that this is not so. You are not alone. The Lord sees you. In your darkest hour, at the hardest time of your life, you must remember that you are loved. You must remember that there is hope, no matter how dire your future seems. Furthermore, I tell you that though you have listened to every word I said and still do not believe, I tell you this: you are still not alone. For though we come from different worlds, cultures, and beliefs, we stand before each other as equals. We stand here together and so I tell you: we are not alone.”

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A boy whispers to them,

It's actually said rather pleasantly, though. He gets those questions, he really does, but at the same time, he wouldn't go trouncing into one of their temples and being disruptive, even if he disagreed with something in one of their religions or something. Unless, like, human sacrifice was involved, maybe.

Roxie's gaze slides over to Jaime, and then back to Katara.

Her expression is mildly dubious, but she doesn't say anything.

Katara turned around. She could be pleasant too, but she was feeling far from it right now. She was just as free to visit this place as anyone, and just as free to express her point of view. If that weren't the case, the Sensorium could be locked tight.

"I thought we were in a ship where we were all from different worlds, and so something like this is bound to happen. And just for the record, they don't teach me to be heartless in my culture, family is kind of important, we don't want them dying because of spirits meddling around. Sorry my bias is interrupting your story about making some guy suffering. My bad!"

Katara sat down in a huff.

Jaime is quiet for a moment, then leans over, and still whispers:

A pause.

"He has a point," Roxie says softly, and adjusts her glasses a little.

Not that she doesn't still think it's all a crock.

Katara realized that, and her faced still burned. She knew it was rude- hadn't she been the one who said she should learn about other people's beliefs? Hadn't she even talked with someone who's belief structure resembled something like this? Yes, that was all true, she knew it. So why was she so upset now, so angered by all of this? Why was she losing it?

She closed her eyes, clenching her fist. Aang would have understood why she was upset, he would even have had his own observations of why this religion had its merits. He would never have done this. The boy was right.

Katara walked off, closing her eyes. This was frustrating, feeling like this. She hoped Roxie wasn't far behind.

The idea of people suffering for a God...that bothered her. Because nine times out of ten, more than anything, Katara's instinct was to people, was to the faith in their goodness, more than any intangible person. And that was what brought her out of the church, her eyes stinging with angry tears.

Daimon was observing the children from a distance and walked over when he saw Katara's reaction. He stepped behind her and nearly put his hand on her shoulder.

"I am sorry you feel uncomfortable, that was not my intent."

Katara sighed. "It has nothing to do with you. Getting up there and speaking like that takes courage, and evven I know it isn't easy. My brother had to do something similar right before a war. I think I'm having more of a problem with the person that's God in that story. Where I'm from, there are spirits in my world, and they coexist with humans: it isn't a question, just a fact, and people can choose to try and understand it or ignore it. Either way, the spirits in my world seem to exist to keep the world in balance, and make sure humans are put in their place when they threaten that. The spirits never cause strife, they don't go out to intercede unless the world faces a threaten that could hurt both them and those living there."

Katara looked at those in prayer. "I can't really undestand your God, because where I''m from, family is sacred, and losing one of them isn't something you recover from. So what happened to Job...I can't see how gaining new livestock and new family makes you forget what you've lost."

"There are spirits, or rather demons, that exist in my world but not all choose to recognize them. As for Job, the loss of his family- that is a deep loss in my world as well. I too struggled with the story in my younger years. There are several interpretations. One is that the Adversary is Satan, the deceiver, is the one who killed Job's family and inflicted great suffering on him and that God is not responsible. It may also be that the exchange between God and the Adversary is not what truly happened and God did not play as direct a role as it is recorded."

Roxie adjusts her glasses a little, again. "But if you really believed one of those, shouldn't you have told the story that way? If you're just going to offer alternative interpretations as soon as it gets questioned, then you shouldn't be giving just a single one from the position of authority." Perceptive little annoyance, isn't she?

If looks could kill...

Well, Roxie wouldn't be dead but she would be maimed.

"I am not accustomed to dealing with people who are not familiar with the Bible, nor am I accustomed to giving sermons. I am hardly perfect."

Katara listened to the both of them. This story was weird: so it was possible that the person who afflicted and killed the family was this adversary guy? She was confused.

"If I believe that this Satan killed Job's family and made him suffer, isn't that still the version where he and God still have their discussion? And if that happened, doesn't that mean God still it happen? That's still troubling..."

"The problem of evil is not easy to resolve. Satan exists to sow evil and discontent, to draw people away from God. He is a powerful force."

"Weasel words," Roxie says cooly. "You're just avoiding the question."

"I am not avoiding the question." Daimon snapped. "But it is not for me to answer. We must all come to our own conclusions. What do you want me to say?"

"Why wouldn't you answer it?" Katara asked. "You know your world better than we do."

"..." Roxie glances over at Katara. "... and, if we're supposed to come to our own conclusions, it seems strange to give any to start with."

Yeah, this is not working.

"Mr. Hellstrom, I can take this if you want." Because Damon looks kinda pissed. "I used to be an altar boy annnd I think it'd be easier if I explain it when I'm both the same age and kinda a skeptic."

Thank you, God.

"Yes, please." Daimon motioned to the girls and took a step back.

Katara noticed it was that same boy from before. She thought she had moved far away enough to not bother him, but apparently he was over here now. She was curiosu as to what an altar boy was, but that question could wait. If he was going to try and explain what they'd just heard. She didn't see why him being as young as they were made a difference, but who knew? Maybe adults and kids just spoke a different language.

"We're listening. Sorry about bothering you before," Katara added.

Roxie glances between Daimon and Jaime, waiting expectantly. Her face is still quite flat, though.

"Ah, it's okay. I'm kinda surprised we haven't had more culture clash already," Jaime says, leading them away, and gesturing for them to follow. He did know his way around a bit--at one point he'd been curious about here, and about the Vatican.

The service had been in the chapels in the Church, of which there are many, and when Katara had stormed off, she hadn't gotten far, but he led them to the Rotunda, where--depending on this place's authenticity and depending on if the real thing were actually authentic--Christ's tomb rested.

"The Jesus guy you were talking about earlier is kinda what Christianity is all about. It's kind of hard to explain but it's like even with all the bad stuff and the harsh God in the Old Testament, Jesus is sort of the punctuation mark at the end of the sentence for the whole religion."

Katara regarded him. "I thought that. In fact, right before the sermon, I was already thinking that this particular religion sounded a little like someone I know back home. He didn't die, like your Jesus did, but people definitely thought he was dead, and the world seemed to be headed to a dark place. He didn't go around healing the sick, but he may as well have: people in my world were becoming sick of a war eating at them, and a hopelessness that was very real. What he was able to do for them, for me, was nothing short of a miracle, and I understood that."

Katara narrowed her eyes. "So before this conversation goes further, I want you to understand something. How I feel has nothing to do with my culture: it has everything to do with ME. I'm the one that kept in time with the Avatar, along with my brother. I'm the one that saw his compassion, a compassion I had too, and strived to understand like him. I'm also the one that helped him when even he was frustrated, when he felt lost even with a strength unrivaled by anything in my world. You could say he was the closest we have to a God, but he was to me a person who loved the world by being in it, living with it. Can you honestly say that the God in the sermon just given sounds like that, like a person who'd move from the mountain he watches from to be with the people he helped create? Can you say, from that story of Job, that he showed him compassion and love like you would your own neighbor?"

Katara realized she wasn't angry anymore. She'd been frustrated at the lack of parallel between Jesus, who she saw as Aang, and God: who she saw as another version of the past Firelords.

Roxie nods a little, but she doesn't say anything. Now that the context isn't just needling Daimon, she's actually lost a little of the comfort that she had—so she's left awkwardly glancing between Katara and Jaime as they talk, repeatedly skipping chances to speak up.

"Here's the thing. The Old Testament is called Old because it is old. God was harsher in it. Colder. Kinda angrier. But even then, Christians believe that death isn't the end, that when someone dies, if they've lived a virtuous life, that they live on somewhere else, somewhere without all the pain and suffering of Earth. We're afraid of it, and it hurts when we lose who we love, but we believe where we go in the end is a reward. God taking Job's family away is horrible, but if that's true, if there's a better place, then Job's family went there, and Job learned to be even more grateful for the gift he was given...life."

Jaime raises up a finger, before they can interrupt. "Buuut, it's cruel. It is. I think so too, and some Christians think they're not really supposed to question it, but I still do because my parents taught me to and God gave me a mind that questions and a heart that can't stand injustice and it seems unjust. But that's why I look to the New Testament, where Jesus showed up."

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