Each of the four people picked out spots in the studio, redolent of oil paint, sitting on the boxlike bed or pulling chairs from the bedroom, settling down to listen to Patron's words.
"Since moving to the Hollow," Patron began, "everyone here, includ- ing the Technicians and the Quiet Women, has been steadily making prepa- rations for the future. As I watched all this, I felt it was urgent for me to settle on a schedule for officially rebuilding the church. As I said to Professor Kizu just before he fell ill, quite honestly I've felt, at times, driven into a corner.
"This is not just a spiritual question; it has surfaced in a physical way as well. The wound in my side-the one you call the Sacred Wound-has re- mained unchanged for the past ten years, but recently it took a turn for the worse. I came down with a terrible fever and felt the kind of pain I haven't experienced in a long time.
"I'd never thought of comparing the two, but the notion occurred to me not long ago that the physical pain I suffered was similar to the agony I felt when I used to fall into a trance. The question is, This time did I bring back a vision from the other side, as in the old days? And if I did, with Guide dead, who was going to interpret it?
"My thoughts hit the usual dead end, but suddenly an idea struck me: No, things are different this time. I not only brought back a vision but was able to translate it into the language of our side. The one who played the role of Guide this time was Morio. I'd like to thank him for all his efforts while I was suffering.
"I'll get to the details of how this came about in a moment, but what I brought back to this side, and was able to put into words with Morio's aid, is something I didn't comprehend until quite recently. I wasn't able to see it for what it is: a message directed at the founding of our new church.
"As recently as this afternoon, while Professor Kizu was sketching me, I told him the problems I've had restarting the church after declaring that I'm an antichrist. Professor Kizu captured that aspect perfectly in the trip- tych. It's still a rough sketch, but he's done a wonderful job of depicting me as the Old Man confronting Jonah, the New Man, and the world they are about to create. The painting helped me envision how my revelation would take shape, a revelation, as I said, that Morio helped me interpret.
"The painting portrays the confrontation between the antichrist spon- soring the church, the Old Man, and Jonah, representing the New Man, and the two of them facing the body of believers. The painting boldly depicts the basic misconception I had up till now about the difficulties I've been facing.
My mistake lay in thinking that I should be the one to build the new church.
But now I know that's wrong.
"Right after Guide's death, I asked Professor Kizu to assume the role of Guide for me. And as an artist, he has fulfilled those duties admirably. Just as Morio, in his own way, has done the same.
"Getting back to where I started: The night before my wound started to ooze, I came down with a fever; the pain hadn't yet made itself fully known but was beginning. I woke up in the darkness and felt an excitement in my chest-whether from pain or joy I wasn't sure. I don't drink, but I wondered if that was what being drunk felt like. Very soon, I became obsessed with this thought-that for the first time in ten years I was about to fall into a deep trance. But Guide wasn't here. I would suffer, and after all that pain there would't be anyone to interpret the vision I brought back from the other side.
It would be lost forever.
"I was desperate. I remembered the story Guide told me of the drowning child grasping at a straw. I reached out my hand in the darkness and my fin- gers brushed the Bible by my bedside, Guide's old Bible. Morio noticed some- thing amiss in the dark, and I passed the Bible to him. I don't care where, I told him, just open the Bible and mark a passage with your fingernail. Morio took the Bible and did as I said, but it was dark; he fumbled with it and dropped it under the bed. This bothered him, so he picked it up again and marked a sec- ond passage. I was already coming down with a fever, and could only sense Morio moving about in the dark. The next morning the fever was worse and I couldn't get up; later that day there was all that fuss about my Sacred Wound, so I couldn't very well check out what I'd asked Morio to do the night before.
"Time passed. I noticed that Morio seemed concerned about the Bible, and finally I remembered the exchange we had had the night my fever began.
I immediately looked through Guide's Bible. There were two passages Morio had marked, and as I carefully read through them, I discovered that they both contained the expression new man. I had Mrs. Shigeno check into it for me, and can you imagine-in the entire Bible, Old and New Testaments, those are the only places where that expression appears!
"Ever since my Somersault, what I've been thinking about is something along the following lines, not exactly verbatim from the Bible, but something like this: As this world approaches its end, a savior must appear who will make one the two that stand opposed, destroying in his flesh the dividing wall of hostil- ity, abolishing the law with its commandments and regulations. And I believe that such a savior will surely come.
He will create in himself one new man out of the two, making peace, and in this one body reconcile both of them to God through the cross, putting to death their hostility. This too, I believe, will come to pass.
"That being the case, what role will an antichrist play? Precisely this: He is the Old Man who acts as herald for the savior. All sorts of antichrists will appear-strange, comical types of heralds who clown around and make fun of God. All antichrists, though, are united in the role they play as Old Man and all that term implies. They are the ones who pave the way for the savior. I am firmly convinced of this, which is precisely why I want to con- struct my new church as an antichrist.
"I also appeal to you through the second passage Morio marked in the scriptures: Put off your old self which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; be made new in the attitudes of your minds; put on the new self created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. I appeal to you as an antichrist, as one who will forever remain an Old Man. Even though I'm such an Old Man, one thing I can do is challenge each of you to become New Men! As the paint- ing shows us, the time is ripe for our new church. Morio handled the Bible in the dark and fulfilled the role of Guide, and Professor Kizu, through his own pain, has done the same.
"To commemorate the start of our Church of the New Man, let us pray for Professor Kizu's speedy recovery!"
2
Ogi found it too difficult to ask Patron directly about the two quotes, so he searched the Bible himself. He pored over scripture, searching in vain, until Mrs. Shigeno pointed out the passages. Some of her fellow Quiet Women, and some of the Technicians, had come to her with the same question, so she went over to the main office to make copies of the selections and distribute them. There, Ogi along with Dancer, learned about the passages.
Mrs. Shigeno gave Ogi and the others their own copies of the passages, which turned out to be from Paul's letter to the Ephesians. She couldn't under- stand, though, she told them, why Patron chose the term New Man from this letter of the apostle Paul. When she used to attend meetings of the Non- Church Movement and there were talks on Ephesians, they always dealt with such topics as predestination and the role of the church, never anything to do with the expression New Man.
The lecturer in her former church, a famous economist, began his talk with the question of why Paul, who was imprisoned at the time, would write a letter to the Ephesians in the first place. He explained that the reason lay in the fact that among the Christian believers in this Gentile land there were those known as Judaizers, who wanted to maintain the Jewish nature of Christianity. There was even some influence from the East, from Persia.