Tuesday Tales: From the Word BREAD

Halfway through July! How are you doing? Has the weather been kind in your part of the world? I hope so.

This week’s word prompt is BREAD. I’m continuing with Listen to the Stones.

James reached for her hand. “I realize that some of what I’ve told you today was unsettling, but to me, it’s all quite logical. Almost all of our Christian traditions have their origins in pre-Christianity. Think of it. A missionary arrives here to find a fierce, pagan tribe. Why wouldn’t he use whatever he could to his advantage? The stones were here, older than the island’s current occupants. No one knew who’d built them, so why not strike a little terror into the hearts of the savages occupying this land by implying that his God had turned their non-believing ancestors to stone? Within a generation or two, he’s given the credit in the folktales of the day. History is recorded by the victors.”

She frowned, not at all comfortable with the way he was twisting things. The idea that a man of God would deceive people that way in an effort to save their souls didn’t seem right.

“I suppose it makes sense, but that seems more like a twenty-first century rationalization to me.”

He shook his head. “Is it? The Bible itself lays the groundwork for such a thing by recording the way God turned Lot’s wife into a pillar of salt for daring to disobey him and look back. Take Jesus. He’s a man, whose not only the son of God but God himself—the very belief depicted in St Ronan’s cross. He turned water into wine, fed thousands with just a few loaves of bread and some fish, cured the sick, raised the dead, and rose from the depths of Hell to rule at the right hand of God, who is himself. You call them miracles. Do you not see how some would see that as akin to magic and the energies wielded by a powerful sorcerer?”

Marina nodded. “You’re well-versed in the Bible.”

“My Aunt Mary was a believer, a deeply … committed woman. We are all products of our environment, our thoughts and beliefs fed to us by what we’re told and what we learn on our own. Those lessons are often brutal and hard to ignore. Perhaps I’m a bit cynical, but in my life and profession, I’ve learned not to trust my senses and believe in only what I can prove, what I can control. We’ll make a great team, Marina. I know it.”

She smiled. Would they? Suddenly, she wasn’t quite so sure.

That’s it. Come back next week for more. Don’t forget to check out the other Tuesday Tales.