End Human – Part Two

(This is the final part of this short story, originally published in the book, Parabolas, by Guy McClung)

Snebin left the ruler’s throneroom and went immediately to Security Mount. “I want to know anything that has been reported in the last week, anything, anywhere around the world, the least bit anomalous, the least bit strange,” she told all who had gathered in the main assembly room. “Go, now!” Several hundred of her underlings scurried out to being their searches.

Each feared finding nothing.

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Jesse thought back to that time, so long ago, in what had been named a “camp” in what was then called southern Florida. They had brought in an ancient man on a stretcher. He must have been over a century old, but his eyes burned like fire. When an elderly man next to the stretcher said, “This is Rene Henry,” Jesse leaned over and shook his extended hand.

“My son,” the old man said, “they tell me you are good. They tell me your are tough. They tell me you can fight. They tell me you pray.”

Jesse did not know what to say.

“This is Miguel Augustin,” he said motioning to the elderly man standing at his side. “We are both bishops of the Church. We are both dying. I will probably go first. We do not know if there are any other bishops left anywhere or any priests for that matter. Will you consent to being ordained a priest and then consecrated a bishop?”

Jesse thought for several moments.  “Then what?  If I agree?”

“We do not know, but we cannot leave the world without a shepherd, a shepherd to face the world rulers of this present darkness.”

“When?” Jesse asked.

“Now, here,” said the older man.

Jesse did not speak for a long time. He walked to a window with its screen studded with dead moths, flies, and mosquitoes that had tried to penetrate it in the night seeking the light within. There was one bright, beautiful hummingbird that had impaled itself in the mesh and died there.  Yes, he did pray, and lately he prayed more and more. Finally, he thought “Why not?” and then he realized his “Why not,” instead of an immediate “No,” might just be God’s way of calling him.

“Yes,” he said as he turned back to the old men.

Where the long garment came from Jesse did not know. “This is an alb,” said Miguel Augustin.

They did not know it, but there was a time when Jesse was very familiar with albs. He had been a sacristan some centuries ago in a seminary that now seemed galaxies away.

After they helped Jesse put it on, Miguel Augustin said, “And this is a stole,” as he placed a long garment around Jesse’s left shoulder.

Rene Henry began a prayer as both laid hands on Jesse:

“Almighty Father, we pray that you bestow on Jesse Miltiades, this servant of yours, the dignity of priesthood. Renew in his heart the spirit of holiness, so that he may be steadfast in the priestly office received from you. May he shine in all virtues so that he will be able to give a good account of the stewardship you are entrusting to him and finally attain the reward of everlasting blessedness.”

Miguel Augustin lifted the stole over Jesse’s head and onto his right shoulder.

Rene Henry concluded:

“O God, the source of all holiness, whose consecration is ever effective, whose blessing is ever fulfilled, pour out on this servant of yours, whom we now raise to the dignity of the priesthood, the gift of your blessing.”

Miguel Augustin smiled at Jesse and told him, “Now you say ‘Deo Gratias,’ thanks be to God.”

Jesse thought that they might be surprised to find out they did not need to translate Latin for him. During two different times to a seminary, studying to be a missionary priest, Latin had become a second language to him. He said, “Deo Gratias.”

The two bishops then performed the consecration of Jesse as a bishop. When it was concluded, they told him he was empowered now to ordain other priests. He saw that the two men were at peace.

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“Those words, those strange words,” said Maria, “Those sounded like my grandmother and her friends, so long ago.”

Jesse was curious. “The words I said? They were in Latin, an old language, and they were used to pray to God, for centuries.”

“I have seen them.”

Jesse did not understand. “Seen them? How?”

“I will show you.”

Maria led Jesse and the family to the back of the old cathedral. She went to where some flat stones were laid in a cross pattern on the floor. Lifting one and then another, a plank was exposed. She lifted it away. Beneath it was a metal container, the hermetically sealed kind that was used more than a century and a half ago to hold ammunition. It was labeled “SMALL ARMS AMMUNITION FUNC LOT TWL 82181B”.  A rim around its lid was sealed.

“Open it,” Maria told Jesse.

Jesse pulled on the lid loosening it, revealing a hard plastic box inside. Maria took it out and handed it to Jesse. He pushed two interlocking halves of the plastic box apart. It contained a book wrapped in flexible fabric.  Unfolding the fabric revealed a hard cover, like wood, overlaid in leather embossed with a gold-colored pattern around all its edges.  There were two brass side hasps that had to be released so that the book could be opened. Its spine was labeled ”Missale Romanum”.  He held it like a holy relic.

Its first page bore the words “ANTVERPIAE EX TYPOGRAPHIA PLANTINIANA  M DCC XIX.” Jim read them: “Antwerp By the Printer Plantin 1719.”  Jesse turned the first pages to one entitled “Festorum Mobilium,” which he knew meant “Movable Feasts” and he saw that, in the Year of Our Lord 1719, the Ascension occurred on May 18 and Pentecost ten days later on May 28.

“This book is over four hundred years old,” he told Maria. “I cannot believe it is here.” He continued to page through the book until he got to a central section of the Mass entitled “Canon Missae,” Canon of the Mass. He read out loud the words, “Hanc igitur oblationem servitutis nostrae sed et cunctae familiae tuae, quaesumus, Domine, up placatus accipias.” He said to himself what the words meant, “We therefore beseech you to accept, O Lord, this offering of our worship and that of your family.”

Again the earth heaved and Jesse’s family and Maria looked around in fear until he stopped speaking and the earth was still.

Jesse closed the book, thinking about all those priests over the centuries who had opened it, and, with it open as a guide, had  consecrated the bread and wine, and then proceeded with the Mass, with the Body and Blood of Jesus on the altar, next to this very book. He said aloud from memory, “Domine, non sum dignus.” He thought how these words of the Centurion so long ago now described him.

“My grandmother told me that it is a treasure,” said Maria. “She got it from her grandmother and she got it from her mother who got it from an old priest at a monastery in the mountains near her town. He told her to guard it. Not long after that, they came and killed all the priests, everyone there, and burnt the monastery to the ground. Only this book remains.”

Jesse placed the book on the altar. “We rise before dawn.”

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When Jesse said “Domine,” the pain again coursed through the Ruler’s arms and hands and then down his torso. He held his arms out from his sides and, standing erect, shuddered until the pain was gone. Then for the first time in centuries, he was afraid.

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Snebin had analysed a very curious report that included satellite video from a peninsula in Central Earth and records from two new drobots that had recorded something unusual, but had ceased operation in mid-transmission. A quick check told her they had not returned to their main stockade.

Whether or not this was what the Ruler wanted, it was infinitely more than nothing. So she could tell him that the mission was underway, she dispatched a platoon of drobots to the settlement, each of them one of the newest model Trip F droidbots, and two human commanders before reporting back to the Ruler. They would arrive right before dawn and whatever was there that was so fearful would be annihilated. The Ruler, in all his Rulerness, would be pleased. She would tell him when the mission was a success.

She still could not understand the uncaring look on the man identified as “Jesse Miltiades Carter” as he was about to be ended in the street in front of the two Trip Fs. She wondered, was he smiling? Had he been ended?

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Jesse woke before dawn. He knew what he had decided to do, what he had to do. He got two candles and put them on the altar with some of the flatbread and the wine Maria had found. He kissed the stole and placed it over his shoulders and then opened the book to page two hundred thirty-five which bore the title “ORDO MISSAE,” the Order of Mass, and the Latin words of instruction saying “The priest, prepared, and having come to the altar, does the required reverence, signs himself with the sign of the cross on his forehead and on his heart, and says in a clear voice In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti, Amen.”

Maria and the family were awakened by his words.

The Ruler, far away, was awakened by the pain. He screamed for his minions. “Get me Snebin now!”

Jesse continued with the Mass, saying the prayer before the Gospel reading.

“Munda cor meum, ac labia mea omnipotens Deus, qui labiae Isaiae Prophetae calculo mundasti ignito,” Cleanse my heart and my lips as thou didst cleanse the lips of the Prophet Isaiah with a burning coal.

Snebin walked into the throneroom as the Ruler felt a searing fire in his mouth that flowed down to his stomach and then lower in his body.

“What have you found out?” he yelled at her. Then to those near him, “Bring me water!” The pain was crushing him.

“As we speak the troops I sent are beginning their assault on what we think is their hiding place.” Snebin knew her life now hung by a slender thread. She had seen so many killed for so much less.

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Panthera and Pup heard it first, the sounds of machines and drobots outside the mound. Then a bombardment of e-pulses made the mound shake and great masses of the roof fell in around the altar. The faint light of an unseen dawn began to illuminate the cathedral’s interior through holes everywhere. Harp flew up and out of one of the newely-created skylights.

“Their hiding place?” the Ruler asked as the pain increased. “Who are they?”

Snebin replied, “An old structure in the western central continent. And it appears to be just one man, a half-half, Jesse Carter.”

“One man?” screamed the Ruler. “One man? No single man can do this to me. No one! There is no such man! Unless . . .” the pain again overwhelmed the Ruler and he sank to the floor.

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Jesse, calm, undeterred, with the e-pulses striking all around him, proceeded with the Mass. Maria moved to the base of the pedestal supporting the altar, a laseblade in one hand and her machete in the other. The  mound had been pierced on all sides, and through holes made by the e-pulse attack, she could see drobots waiting for the entrances to be enlarged. In moments, they would be inside.

The attenuated residue of an e-pulse passing through the mound struck Panthera and crippled her, breaking her rear legs and rendering her unconscious. Pup rushed out through one of the holes and was instantly hit by a full e-pulse. His body lay on the ground, unmoving. Harp circled above, wary, and not knowing which of the numerous drobots to attack.

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In the throneroom, the Ruler and Snebin now had real time video feed from the assaulting force.  Snebin watched, fascinated by Panthera and Pup.  The Ruler was now on his knees, clutching his throat with one hand and his torso with the other.

Jesse finished the Preface prayer and began the Canon, the central part of the Mass. As he said the words before the Consecration, the mound was opened in three places and the drobots poured in.

The Ruler, in agony now, watched as Jesse bent over the bread which he had fashioned into a host. “No, no, no, no,” he screamed. Snebin wondered why the Ruler was now so fearful when it clearly was almost over.

An e-pulse struck the floor behind Jesse, and he was showered with stone and debris. Unfazed, he went on with the Mass. As dozens of drobots raised their weapons to fire at him, Jesse finished the introductory words, “ . . .he blessed it, broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, accept and eat, all of you,” and went on with the words of Consecration: “Hoc est enim corpus meum.” This is my body.

At those words, Jesus Christ, God the Son, God Almighty, body, blood, soul and divinity, God and man, returned to earth. Jesse raised the consecrated Host high and held it there.

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The Ruler collapsed. His intestines began to flow out of his body in a torrent of blood. Snebin herself now staggered as she felt pain like she did not know existed. Many in the throneroom had already fallen to the floor, their bodies wrenching spasmodically in agony.  Almost instantly, they were all dead.

Light and power went out from the raised and now-consecrated Host and, as the force of it touched them, each drobot crumpled into an immobile pile of black ash. The two human commanders were unconscious, breathing their final breaths.

A pillar of coruscating light, like a river of fire, brighter than the sun, seemingly alive, pulsating, rose from the altar, through the roof of the cathedral and above the mound. It passed through the fog and then spread across the sky, until the entire peninsula was aglow in its brilliance. From there, the light began to branch out and, as it did, minions around the world, blinded by it, fell where they stood and then died. Those who had sup[ported the Ruler in silence, without fighting back, dropped dead without a sound.  The fog lifted and dissipated.

The light shone on Panthera and she stood up, shook her legs, and walked to the altar. Pup walked in and did the same. Harp flew around the mound several times, and, seeing no moving drobot,  flew down the pillar of light and landed next to Maria at the foot of the altar as Jesse went on with the Mass. Maria stood in awe and listened to Jesse’s words. She had not moved since the drobots breached the mound.

As Jesse began the Communion rite, people from the settlement who had come into the mound peered around in amazement and then approached the altar. Although they did not know what was happening, they were drawn to the power and light that now surrounded Jesse.

With the altar flanked by the people and sunshine streaming in, Jesse consumed the body and blood of Jesus. Then he intoned the Last Gospel, from the first chapter of the Gospel of John. Its words about the true Light were not lost on him:

“In ipso vita erat, et vita erat lux hominum, et lux in tenebris lucet, et tenebrae eam non comprehenderunt . . .Erat lux vera, quae illuminat omnem homninem venientem in hunc mundum.,” In Him was life, and His life was the light of men, and the light shone in the dark shadows and the darkness did not comprehend Him. . . . He was the true light which illuminates all men coming into the world.eHew”

Jesse bowed and turned around from the altar to face the people. He knew what had happened.

He raised his right hand and gave them the final blessing, “May the blessings of Almighty God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit descend upon you and remain with you forever.”