He woke sometimes during the night, and for some reason the first thing he thought about was Easter.446Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLFsjCRFs85
As he lay on the hard ground, staring up through the clear air of the highlands at the enormous crystal stars, he remembered the time three years ago when his father had taken them all to church at Easter season.
There was no church in the village, nor even one in the nearest market town, so they had had to walk for more than six days over forest and mountain roads to the city of Zlenica, where there was a beautiful cathedral.
It was Easter of the year before the twin boys had been born, so there were just the four of them to make the pilgrimage---Aloj, Borburo (older and quite superior, of course) and their mother and father. Aloj had been about nine years old.
They carried mats and blankets to sleep on, and some food and water, and there were many people on the road to talk to, who were also going to Zlenica for the Easter observance. Aloj's mother, Libenka, and his father, Milo, seemed so much younger and stronger then---he remembered that they sang songs along the way and told stories. his mother's hair was still brown-black then, not dried out and gray as it was now, her pointed face was gentle and loving, and her colored skirts swished around her pink legs as she urged him and Borburo to walk faster.
"Hurry! Hurry!" she cried gaily. "We must get to Zlenica in time to see the procession!"
"What is a procession?" Borburo asked.
"A great parade. They will carry statues of Mary and Jesus through the streets and they are so beautiful that your heart will melt when they are carried past you."
"What is a statue?" In those days Borburo liked to keep a conversation going by any means she could find.
"A statue is a thing of great beauty, carved or made somehow out of wood or stone or plaster. It is made in the form of someone whom all must think about. If the statue is of Mary, we must think about how good she was so that God chose her to be the mother of His Son. And if the statue is of Jesus, then we must think about the glory of God, who sent his Son, and how perfect our Lord was to come and be crucified to redeem us."
"What is 'redeem us'?" asked Borburo again.
"Redeem means..."
And so the days went, and though all of them got tired, it was a wonderful journey. There had been no real outbreaks of the endless ethnic violence for several months, so the people of the villages had felt fairly safe to make the pilgrimage.
They had arrived at last in Zlenica late in the day on Good Friday, camped in the fields outside the city, and on the following day, along with countless others, had packed the streets and the plaza of the city to watch the great procession.
Wonderful and glorious as it was, Aloj remembered only bits of the procession. There were musicians, the Bishop, and many priests, and the great statues borne on some kind of truck decorated with ribbons and flowers. By the time the procession had come, however, he was tired, his stomach ached from the excitement, and even though his father held him up, he could not see very well.
What he did see, and would remember forever, was when their mother and father took the children to the cathedral that night to see the statue of Christ in Bondage.
The church had been almost dark, and the statue stood where the only light fell over it. It was the size of a real man, standing with head slightly bent and hands clasped before it. The figure was draped in something like white satin, and around the wrists were garlands of paper flowers made to represent bonds. The bonds, like chains, stretched from the figure to a wooden cross behind it. And although the bonds were made of flowers, Aloj felt, looking up at the statue, that they must cut that guiltless man like the cruelest steel. Even then, he understood that bonds you didn't deserve were the worst kind. Standing there, he had felt the pain of the oppressed Christ.
When their parents led the children away, Aloj noticed something else. In a small pen next to the statue was a magnificent black and white rooster. His comb and wattles glowed red, and his yellow feet were so clean they looked like yellow gold.
"What is the rooster for?" asked Aloj.
"The rooster is there to remind us about St. Peter. You see, Peter asked Jesus what the disciples could do to save Him from the crucifixion. And Jesus told Peter that he had come to be crucified for us. And Jesus told Peter that even he, Peter, would deny knowing Jesus 'before the cock crows thrice.' And Peter did. He was afraid---he failed. But after our Lord was risen, Peter became his great apostle. Every one of us---like St. Peter---will commit sins and betray those who trust us, and the rooster is there to remind us of that."446Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaugz5Pazk2
"What is an apostle?" asked Borburo.
And so it went. But Aloj still remembered the force of the sorrow he had felt at seeing the captive Christ and the strange sickness that crept over him when he thought of the rooster crowing to announce that St. Peter once, twice, three times denied knowing the Lord. It shouldn't have happened that way, he had thought that day so long ago. St. Peter and all of them should have listened to the Lord and done what he told them to do. And why did Peter do such a thing? I wouldn't have betrayed anyone who trusted me, if I'd been there....446Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLIXJW9kTHv
And then he slept again.
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