The Second Messiah

And then the pope’s medical team came back in and the meeting was over. Ryan rose to leave, still clutching the pope’s hand, and Becket said, “I need you to deliver a message for me, Sean.”

“Of course.”

“Tell the deputy camerlengo that he is to convene a special meeting of the Curia.”

“When, Holy Father?”

“Just as soon as the doctors allow me to walk out of this room. I have important words to say. There is a revelation they must hear. Not just the Curia, but all the world.”

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The place John Becket had chosen for his meeting with his cardinals was the Sistine Chapel. Not because it was the place of his election or on account of the beauty of Michelangelo’s artwork, but because of all the other papal elections that had taken place there.

It was an anchor to the church’s past.

There was no more suitable a place to end that past.

That morning, the sun spilled through the Vatican’s stained-glass windows, the air in the Sistine Chapel tense and expectant.

John Becket had chosen not to sit in his magnificent canopied chair but to stand in the center of the chapel. He wore his plain white cassock and a cross around his neck. Unlike the night of his election, this time his voice didn’t falter as he stood to make his address. All eyes in the chapel were fixed on his towering figure.

“My brothers in Christ, I am happy to be alive and to see you all assembled here today. You are all aware of my intention to open our archives. What you are not aware of is the news that I am about to reveal to you.”

The majestic chapel was silent, every pair of eyes focused on the pope.

“But first, I will address the matter of the scroll. The historical evidence it discloses of a second messiah is true. Other such secrets have been kept from many of you in the past. These secrets, once revealed, will gravely wound the church. They will make skeptics of priests and lay alike, and create an enormous test for all of us. For some, it will shake the very core of their beliefs, or crush them entirely.

“How will we answer our critics? How will we rectify the lies that were told, the seeds of doubt that will be sown, the wrongs that were done? Yet we know that this scroll, by revealing the existence of a false messiah, also confirms the reality of the true Jesus. We who walk in His footsteps need no such confirmation. We have willingly given our lives to the work of delivering His message.

“But this message has become corrupted. The church has been embroiled in scandals. It has too often failed to practice what it preached. It has quoted God’s words, and yet too frequently failed to live up to them.”

Becket paused, but only long enough to draw breath. “We all know this, just as we all know that we cannot ignore our legacy from Christ—to plant the seed of His kingdom in the hearts of all men, that they may create an earthly order based on love and truth, charity and justice, and an ethical law.

“As human beings, our senses are acutely aware of the memory of the echo of a voice, as if someone is speaking to us, whispering in our ear, reminding us that we and this world are made for a greater purpose. But we have too often ignored that voice.

“Recently I met with a woman, a prostitute like Mary Magdalene. When I asked her what she thought of those in the Vatican, she said, ‘Half the world starves and they live like princes in their ivory towers.’

“My brothers, I know that she spoke the truth. I know that what she said is thought by many. And I know that what I am about to say next will shock many of you. But I believe God has sent me here for a greater purpose, and that purpose is to prepare this world for a second coming.”

Gasps filled the Sistine Chapel, cardinals exchanged glances, with questions written on their faces as if to say, Is this man insane?

Becket carried on. “Yes, I see the questioning stares. But before each of you begins to doubt my sanity let me say this. The last night Jesus broke bread with his disciples, he left us a solemn legacy. But often I have to ask myself: Did we ever correctly interpret that legacy? Did we remain true to Jesus’ words?

“And many times, I have to answer that I feel we did not. The world suffers and starves, and yet still we sit here in our gilded prison and pray. Our scientists have conquered the moon yet we cannot conquer the wrongs that crush men’s spirits.

“In two thousand years it is true that we have achieved much. But is the symbolic pinnacle of our achievement meant to be a city of beautiful chapels and priceless works of art with walls around it? Truth and love do not need walls. Christ did not build walls. He tore them down. And he prayed, not in lofty, beautiful churches but in people’s homes, in the countryside, in the streets. He led by example, and now so must we.