Surrender

Saki rushed into the chapel, his hands covering the face that was wet with tears. He sobbed loudly as he settled upon a kneeler.

Furumaki entered the chapel as well, his face grave.

"Depart from me, Monseigneur," wept Saki, facing not his patron of four weeks, "for I now know who I was."

"I shall not. Besides, if anyone needs to leave this place, you do, for this is my church." He sat beside Saki.

"I do not know what to do. I have wanted to enter the Lord's service, but this revelation of my past is so overwhelming..."

"He does not let this without a reason, my son."

"If the Lord wants to take this son-of-a-bitch into his holy orders, I am most grateful, but no wise man can agree to such a foolish intention."

"Shut up, boy!" bellowed the bishop. "First, the Good Shepherd takes no son-of-a-bitch for his representative on earth. You should stop calling yourself that."

For the first time Saki looked into Furumaki's eyes. It was the glare of a middle-aged man alright, but there was something else. It was an anger he had never seen before, even among the most savage of his enemies in battle, whom he now was starting recall. This made Saki all the more scared.

"Second, even the foolishness of God is wiser than the most learned of human wisdom. So, you fool, stop judging the Lord's intentions!"

Now the man was really mad.

"Do you think that I did not know your past? Of course I did. I did not become bishop of this place without the knowledge of men, for all its frailty and frivolity. I knew that the Roseman was missing when you suddenly emerged upon that doorstep down there, and the stories that I've heard made me suspect that I was harboring a criminal. And yet, I am a fisher of men, not of gods; and if even a king knocks upon my doorstep asking for either the priesthood or a glass of water, who am I to refuse? "To become all things to all men, that at least some might be saved," this is what the Lord asks of me, and I, his priest and vicar over this diocese, cannot but serve his wishes.

"You may have killed hundreds of men, probably even women and children, but they may have already served their purpose by both living their lives and dying their deaths. As much as you have to atone for what you did to them, to atone for their demise does not mean being dead with them. They are signposts to remind you that you have to live for and serve the same number of people now, even more.

"I am not the best judge of character in this town, but I am its bishop, and I am asking you to serve as priest of the Church. Do not hesitate... be prudent with what God has given you and make the best of it."