THE OLD MAN
The tour bus stopped at an obscure church in a tiny, well-kept village in rural Germany. We only had a quick break here as some of the passengers deemed it too far to get to the next scheduled comfort stop. Most went to the public facilities; I went to the church opposite. I’m not a regular church attendee but I love to visit different ones when I travel.

The familiar smell of incense welcomed me as I entered, candles lit the side stone walls and the ubiquitous cross took command on the wall of the altar at the front of the church where the proest usually stood. Apart from an old man sitting at the aisle of one of the rows, this place of worship was empty. His head was slightly bent forward, and his body relaxed in his seat. He seemed at home here, legs astride, oblivious to the possibility of anyone encroaching on his solitude.

I wanted to go forward and investigate the intimate parts, the front with the holy candle, the reverent book, the holy water urns, but I didn’t want to risk disturbing him. Instead, I sat two rows behind.

The pulpit seemed too far forward for the priest not to have his back to some of the parishioners when he shared his words of blessing and comfort unless that was not its permanent location.

Although it was supposed to be a Catholic church, there were no Stations of the Cross on the side walls, strange, perhaps a sign of the times.

Since the discovery of the Gospel of St Thomas at a riverbank of Nag Hammadi in upper Egypt in 1945, there had been a change in emphasis from the suffering, crucified Christ to the joyous, resurrected Christ.

The reasoning goes, that as Christ had attained enlightenment, his death was not of his enlightened self which had no form but only that of the body, the human form, from which he had long relinquished any importance. Being able to perform deeds, called miracles, he was able to let die this body with which he no longer identified and reappear in another body at his resurrection so that his faithful could recognise him.

This was apparently not understood when the other gospels were written, all from the same sources, many decades after the event.

The old man seemed encased in this mystery. Many worshipers now sought answers, not from the Old Testament which had so long caused confusion and was to all intents and purposes just a rehashing of antiquated thinking, but now leaned towards Thomas’s and modern thinkers of the discovery of the true teachings of Jesus and not the fabricated ones of 2500 years ago.

Surprising is that Catholic hierarchy is now coming out and openly professing these new modes of thought and giving them credence over the old.

I sat and watched the old man who would be familiar with the old teachings and possibly now the new as nothing stayed hidden anymore from public scrutiny.

Whatever the leaning of this church whether conservative or modern, more than ever, people need a sanctuary of peace and quiet for introspection and personal meditation unfettered by another’s philosophy or religion. This man and I were making use of this space for the short time we had it at our disposal.