4

Patron hung his large head down and began silently praying, and Dancer and Ogi closed their eyes and followed suit. The people in the audi- ence shifted in their seats and began to pray silently; the sound of this mass movement of bodies was surprisingly peaceful. Kizu closed his eyes, too, and prayed. Filtered through an image of Guide in his mind, he prayed for Pa- tron. Lord, please help this person. And give me strength.

Just as at the farm along the Odakyu Line, Kizu found the lengthy prayer a little too much to take, and he opened his eyes to find Ikuo standing by the door Patron had used. Ikuo stood with legs apart as if he were about to start a fight, facing the quiet, praying crowd, all them with their eyes closed.

If intruders had wanted to throw the service into chaos, it would have been easy and now would have been the time. So Ikuo had a very good reason for not joining them in prayer. Kizu could sense in Ikuo, standing there like a rock that could at any moment swing into action, something menacing that outweighed the usual affinity he felt for him.

Please help this young man too, Kizu thought; I don't really know much about who he is, but he's in the grip of something that took hold of him when he was a child, that propels him forward--toward something. Kizu bowed his head and resumed his fervent prayers. I don't know what Ikuo is so fired up about, he prayed, but if this is, as Patron said, a small part of Your con- sciousness of the world, isn't that something to smile about? I pray that You help this young man so busily moving in that direction.

Here I am calling out to You, Kizu prayed, yet truthfully I'm not sure about You. But through this young man I am leaving my whole life up to You.

I know that I have, inside me, an incurable illness that's fairly common for someone my age. But as long as this doesn't come to the surface and steal away my ability to participate in the movement, please help me contribute in some fashion-lor the sake of this young man who doesn't care what means he uses to realize this strange idea of his. I suspect the physical love he allows me might just be one more means to an end for him, though even my suspicion is sweet.

When Ogi announced the end of the silent prayer time, several hands shot up in the row of reporters-a show of hands from those who wanted to question Patron about his sermon. Patron was standing behind the podium, gathering himself together, and Dancer leaned toward him to ask for instruc- tions. Patron gave a short reply. Reconfirming this, Dancer told Ogi what Patron had said.

"This is the time when we'd like to hear your responses to the sermon,"

Ogi said in a high voice, "and Patron said he would like to select the speak- ers. The person Patron has selected is Mrs. Shigeno, from the women's group that during these ten years was independent of the church and organized a communal life of faith. Mrs. Shigeno is also the person who, on the death of her husband, contributed the large hospital her family ran, as well as the land, to the church, as a special contribution to commemorate the church's becom- ing a religious corporation.

"In the early period of the church, Guide was in charge of finances, and he was not inclined to accept contributions from followers who had renounced worldly possesions, which meant the church's financial situation was unstable.

It was Mrs. Shigeno who convinced Guide to accept these monetary dona- tions, and it was through her that the church finally got on firm financial ground."

The old woman whom Kizu had noticed before, working despite her bad legs, was dressed the same as the other women around her, though her upper body, especially with the light gray scarf she had wrapped stylishly around her neck, took a backseat to none. Being careful of her legs, she rose serenely to her feet and took the wireless microphone that Dancer brought over. Her dignified face was full of tension, but the way she started her speech was appealing.

"That introduction is a bit overblown, I'm afraid. My money was going to be taken away in taxes anyway, so it's different from those follow- ers who give up everything they own. Though I must admit that at my age having such a handsome young man say nice things about me isn't a bad feeling at all!

"I do have a few things I'd like to ask about the sermon, but I don't want to take up too much valuable time so I'll just touch on the one basic thing I've been thinking about these past ten years.

"When Patron and Guide turned their Somersault, to use the names you use now, I had the feeling that I'd already experienced that before.

"This happened at the time of our defeat in World War Two-an- cient history, I'm afraid, for the young people here today. I was a student in a girls' school in a provincial town and was mobilized to work in a para- chute factory. The representatives from each class were called to the main office and told that work would stop a half hour before lunchtime that day.

We were to assemble with our teachers in the auditorium to listen to the radio.

"What really shocked us students was that the Emperor spoke in an entirely human voice, just like ours. This was the era when pictures of the Emperor and Empress hung like pictures of God in the chapel next to the auditorium.

"We learned about Patron and Guide's Somersault, too, through reports in the media-which reminded me of hearing the Emperor on the radio so many years ago.

"For us members of the church, Guide was like someone special selected from congregation. But Patron was different-he was directly connected to God. During the Somersault, though, here was Patron saying that all the mystical things he'd said and done were a joke. It was less like God's son becoming human than finding out he was, from the beginning, just an ordi- nary person. Wasn't this Patron's equivalent of the Emperor's speech, this time not on radio but on TV, with Patron adding all these comical gestures as he renounced his divinity?

"Wanting to understand Patron's Somersault, I took another look at the Emperor's renunciation speech. After the Somersault the young people be- came quite emotional, but I was too old for that. And after giving it a lot of thought I arrived at the following conclusion.

"The Emperor certainly did renounce his divinity then, but for the people of this country, in the hearts of its citizens, he didn't change at all, did he? It's a long story so I'll leave out the details, but what I ended up thinking about Patron is something similar. He announced that he's not directly con- nected with God, and there's not much we can do about that. He'll have to live the rest of his life cut off from God, but that doesn't affect my faith in him, or the faith of my companions. We are still fully prepared to follow him.

"It's been years since I heard his sermons, but it brings back many memories. We heard rumors about how Patron and Guide were living, and it was painful to hear him speak today about the ten years he suffered in hell. How awful this must have been for Patron, alienated from God, shut up day after day with Guide, with whom he still had such strong emotional ties. I can only imagine how ghastly this must have been. And Guide, still fallen in hell, was murdered, unable ever again to help Patron with his vi- sions. How dreadful!

"When I think about it, isn't Patron even now pushed into a corner, suffering every day? Though my image of him is still that of a younger man, I'm so happy he didn't make some frivolous statement in today's sermon about how he'd regained his connection with God. The ever-suffering Patron has returned to us and has put out the call for a new movement. After ten years of suffering, there is no better master of the church to welcome back. Patron is fine just the way he is.