'Thank you. I'm pleased that you got something out of my sermons.'
'Sundays are not going to be easy from now on,' she said. 'But what I actually called you for was to let you know that I have a small role in a television play tonight. It's being shown on Channel One at ten past eight. But maybe you don't watch television.'
'Not usually, but I would certainly watch you. But I won't be home this evening.'
'Please don't be offended — I don't know what came over me. I just had the feeling I was somehow indebted to you.'
'I'm sure you aren't. On the contrary, I'm the one indebted to you — for that lift. I regret we won't be able to watch it, but we're having a birthday celebration today.'
'It's your birthday today?'
'No, my wife's.'
'So, do please wish her from me lots of love in her life. I expect it's just as well you won't be watching — it might have put you off me. You see, it's not a particularly attractive little role. Anyway, I'm sorry for taking up your time.'
'You haven't. And I look forward to your finding a moment to come and join us some Sunday.'
'Yes,' she said, 'I'll do my best, I truly will!'
8 Letters
Dear Reverend Vedra,
Everyone is asleep here at home, except that you don't know where my home is (where else but Hanspaulka?). I can't get to sleep, I'm down in the dumps. It could be the rotten weather or the fact that Samuel told me that I ruin his life, even though I do everything I can to make him feel contented at home. Samuel is my husband, in case you'd forgotten.
I've decided to write to you because you strike me as wise and kind, and I have the impression that you're someone who is capable of listening sympathetically not because it is in your job description but because you really are someone fired by the love that you preach about so fervently in your sermons. Of course it's possible just to talk about love and most people are capable of jabbering on about it ad nauseam. But one can feel that you mean it, which is why I looked forward to hearing you every Sunday. Now I miss your words and your voice. There are so many things I'd like to ask you about. Such as what one must do to live in love and freedom, when one is
surrounded on every side by something else entirely: the pursuit of money, self-advancement and an awful lot of violence or at least selfishness, as well as male conceit and vanity, and men's craving to assert their own ego at the expense of their closest companions?
Now I'm astonished at my own effrontery, not only in writing to you but in burdening you with these questions, as a result of which I'm actually taking up your time. As if I couldn't make do with hearing you in church.
But if you could spare me a couple of lines I'd be eternally grateful.
Best wishes,
Yours admiringly,
Bára Musilová
Dear Mr Houdek,
Regarding our recent conversation about that young lad Petr Koubek, who has just been released from prison where he was baptized and who, I firmly believe, underwent a profound change of heart. You were so kind as to mention that he might be able to work in your splendid garden centre. He will therefore be coming to see you about a job next Monday. Working outdoors will do him good, after spending almost two years cooped up in prison. I am sure he'll show willingness, but I would entreat you none the less to be patient with him, in the beginning at least. When someone is in prison for such a lengthy period, his personality is bound to be affected, his reactions are often unpredictable and above all unreasonable. It is sometimes hard to take, but it is understandable when we consider the sort of surroundings he has moved in and the sort of people he could not help mixing with.
I do hope that Petr won't create any difficulties for you, but should any arise, don't hesitate to call me and I will try to intervene.
Please convey my best wishes to your wife and accept once again my thanks for your singular readiness to assist someone in need.
Yours sincerely, Daniel Vedra
Dear Mrs Musilová,
I do not merit the praise you heap on me. When I speak about love I do no more than pass on the most important thing about Christ's message.
The aim of what we do is to find real love. This was said most beautifully by St Pauclass="underline" love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. These three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.'
What is one to do, you ask, in order to live in love and freedom, when there is so little of it around one? Do not expect me to speak as one possessed of understanding or capable of handing out prescriptions for how to live.
A life of love is, I suppose, the desire of anyone whose heart is in the right place. What was so terrible about the old regime was that hatred and struggle were regarded as so fundamental to life. To many this seemed to make sense because at first glance a life of love seems virtually unattainable. It is enough to turn on the television or read the newspaper headlines: terrorism, robbery, fraud, and all those killed in Bosnia or the Caucasus. And that is leaving aside our everyday life. Could we really hurt each other and quarrel the way we do every day if we lived in love? Could we hate people just because they have a different faith, or look different?
Our desires and expectations are often disappointed, however. Instead of striving once again to find love and put it into practice we invent all sorts of alternative goals. We build careers for ourselves and compete with each other, or on the contrary we waste time and fail to fill it with something that reaches out beyond ourselves. We often look for someone to blame for our dissatisfaction with our lives, not looking inside ourselves, but outside ourselves. We fetter our hearts with many injunctions, taboos and prejudices. Often they are so choked with these things that when an opportunity arises to fulfil something we've yearned for, we don't even notice it. So we just live, become cold, and replace love with apathy or even rancour.
You write about a world that is full of selfishness, money-grubbing, violence;ind male arrogance. That's what the world looks like to me sometimes. I've noticed that when people start a conversation with me it is in order to express some bitterness, not to say something kind. If I offer to carry a woman's shopping bag she becomes alarmed. She thinks that I want to rob
her not lend a hand. But these are only superficial observations. Sometimes we can become outraged with those who are actually suffering.
I have no illusions about how difficult it is to live in today's world. Life has never been easy for those who expect it to fulfil their desires. Therefore every morning I try to reflect on what is really important for my life. If it continues to be a life of love then I will have to act and behave accordingly. It is not easy to enter the hearts of others. But wanting to love and to live in love means trying to do precisely that. Whether or not we try is solely a matter of our own determination, and this is precisely where our inalienable freedom lies: our inner freedom to determine our own actions.
I see I've gone on a bit — it's a preacher's failing, and yet I doubt whether I've said anything you didn't know already. I ought to add that real love should reach out somewhere. To Jesus, as I believe. That splendid theologian Karl Barth once wrote that "human life has no meaning without belief in transcendental truth, justice and love which mankind is incapable of creating alone…'
My wish is that you will manage to live the way you would wish.
With best regards, Daniel Vedra
Dear Reverend Vedra,
You can't know how pleased I was to receive your letter and how much it helped me. For me, love has always been the most important thing in my life even though I have seldom received much of it from others. No, that's unjust. My mother has always been marvellous and maybe the others would have treated me better if I hadn't messed things up myself.