became a din, as though they were on Golgotha at the hour of the crucifixion. Then said Zakariya with a cunning simplicity: “Alas!—the rice was there, and the spoons were lost. Had Our Lord lived in the days of our master Father Timothaos, the Jews would have been taught their worth.”
The priest felt the barb a little, but swallowed it. And he said gravely: “Hear, shidyaq: this was the will of Our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory. Had He wished, He could have blotted out every trace of the Jews. You heard the word of the Gospel yesterday: His saying ‘I am he’ threw them flat on their backs.”
And the priest so admired his own eloquence that he stirred with a mighty stirring, and his silken beard gleamed under the light of the moon. Zakariya's band laughed, and the priest kept them company in laughing, without cause; nor did he stop there, but turned upon the company the turn of a logician who has laid down a two-edged proof; and heads swayed in admiration, and many a lip curled in disdain. And the priest saw Tabitha staring fixedly, eating him with her eye; and he remembered the days when his body was not yet a temple of the Holy Ghost, and took refuge in grace, and put Satan to shame. And he craned his neck and swelled with dignity.
As for Zakariya, he sat clasping his knees in his hands and said: “Right is with Bl—... with the priest. By God Almighty, had he been present at the fray, he would have blown Caiaphas and Yuhanan to pieces.” The priest wagged his head and said: “Such is our portion—how sweet is what God ordains!”
The talk pleased the priest, and Zakariya grew expansive and said: “But the apostles' fear is plain, my master. There is Mar Yuhanna, the beloved of Christ—he was the first to run. Then observe how many times they took fright after the resurrection. I remind you: they used to start at their own shadow... poor souls.” The priest knit his brows and said: “It cannot be denied there was something of that in them. Had they been as they ought, Mar Boulos would not have said of them: And He chose the weak things of the world, to shame the strong.” Zakariya cried out eagerly: “That is the very truth, my master!” Father Jirjis heard this talk and gathered and braced himself, but his son quieted him. As for the people, they listened to the pair of them, admiring their priest's eloquence and their shidyaq's address.
One of them asked why Christ appeared first to the women, and then
to the disciples. The sly Zakariya answered: “So that the news might spread at once—women's tongues are long.”
Tabitha muttered a word which her neighbors understood, and they laughed; Zakariya paid it no heed, for he was preparing a fresh cast. He said: “My master—tell me: if Christ appeared to you, would you take fright at him like the disciples?”
The priest smiled like a man on his guard and said: “What do you say?”
Said Zakariya: “What I say is... O mountain, no wind can shake you.”
The priest answered: “That grace is far from me—I am a sinful servant.” Then he heaved a great sigh and rose to prayer, saying: “Ah, would that it were! Would that it were!”
And he entered the church with Zakariya at his side, saying within hearing of the people: “Who knows? Who can tell? God's wonders are many.”
As for the ancient priest, he heaved himself up and rose, saying: “Ay—we have become a plaything.”
His son twitched the edge of his jubba, and he shouted: “Let me be! A plaything and worse. Were it not for shame and modesty, I would mow off my beard. An ignorant priest!”
***
On Saturday afternoon the church put off her black garments and decked herself in rejoicing at the resurrection of Him who gave life to those in the tombs. They prayed a light prayer that pushed the nightmare from their breasts, and went back to their houses rejoicing, after their chant: Christ is truly risen.
But Father Jirjis stayed on in the church, praying and awaiting the midnight mass; and certain old men and old women would come to visit the tomb. No sooner had midnight come than Father Timothaos returned and rang the bell with a ringing that reminded them of the youth of the illustrious (Blayq); and the people hurried to the church, and the deacons divided into two choirs to serve the mass. And at the very hour in which the stone was rolled from the tomb that the Lord might rise, Father Timothaos came forward to the right door of the apse, censing and chanting in Syriac, magnifying Him who conquered death by death and asking His mercy for all the faithful.
Then there rose up before him, from behind the altar—where the tomb was—an old man wrapped in a white sheet. The priest fell back in terror; and the old man advanced and stood in the doorway. The children and the women screamed, the men were seized with dread, and everyone raced for the door.
Father Jirjis woke from his doze
at the uproar and got up to inquire, and found before him the shidyaq Zakariya. He said to him: “What has happened, shidyaq? Where have they gone?”
Zakariya answered him: “They fled—Christ appeared to them.”
The priest marveled and said: “And where is Father Timothaos?”
Said Zakariya: “He went with them.”
The priest struck his hands upon his thigh and said: “Yah, yah, yah, yah—O the disgrace of us! They took fright at the Lamb of God!!”
Then he pondered a little and said to Zakariya in disgust: “For shame, shidyaq, for shame. You are a good man. God was angry with the village, and so ordained him a priest. A mistake was made—infallibility belongs to God alone.”
Zakariya mumbled some words, and the priest hobbled off to bring the people back; and he heard his wife—the khouriyeh—say: “If we had any luck, Christ would have appeared to our priest.”
The priest shouted at her: “Right you are, you addled woman! Go pray, go! Is this a face to which Christ would appear?”
And he had not taken more than a few steps when Father Timothaos and the flock came back, shamefaced. Father Jirjis said to him with all composure: “Finish your mass; deliver us.”
As for Zakariya, he remained standing at the right of the altar of incense, like the angel... his eyes saying to his friend Father Timothaos many things...
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