Jesus is arriving by boat at Capernaum. The sunset is very near. The whole lake is a yellow-red swirl. While the two boats are maneuvering to get close to the shore, John says: "I am going at once to the spring to fetch water so that you may quench your thirst.
And Andrew exclaims:
-The water here is good.
-Yes, it is good, and your love makes it even better for me.
-I'll take the fish home. The women will prepare it for supper. Are you going to talk to us and them afterwards?
-Yes, Peter.
-Now coming home is more pleasant. Before we looked like a bunch of nomads; now, with the women, there's more order, more love,
And besides... seeing your mother immediately takes away my tiredness! I don't know... Jesus smiles and keeps silent.
The boat is already grazing on the gravel of the shore. Juan and Andrés, dressed only in their short shirts, jump into the water and, helped by the waiters, pull the boat to the shore, and to lower it they put a board as a bridge. The first to do so is Jesus, who waits for the second boat to reach the shore to join all his companions. Then they walk slowly towards the spring: it is a natural spring, a spring that is a little outside the village. A fresh, abundant, Argentinian water gushes out and falls into a stone basin; it is very crystalline and invites them to drink. John, who has run ahead with the amphora, returns and offers Jesus the pitcher, which is still dripping. Jesus drinks copiously.
-How thirsty you were, my Master! And I, stupid of me, did not get water.
-It doesn't matter, John; it's all over now," and he caressed him.
They were about to turn back when they saw Simon Peter, who had gone home to bring his fish, arriving with all the speed he could muster.
his fish.
-Master! Master! -The people are in an uproar because the only grandson of Eli the Pharisee is dying.
Pharisee is dying. He has been bitten by a snake. He had gone, precisely with his grandfather - although against his mother's will -, to the olive grove they have. Eli was watching some work while the boy was playing by the roots of an old olive tree; he reached into a hole hoping to find a lizard and found the snake. The old man is like a madman. The boy's mother - who, by the way, hates her father-in-law, and rightly so - accuses him of being a murderer. The child is getting colder by the minute. They are related, but they did not like each other; and closer than they are...!
-It's a bad thing, the hatred between relatives!
-Master, I say, in any case, that the snakes did not love the snake, that is, Eli, and killed his little snake. I am sorry that he saw me, because he shouted behind my back asking me if you were there. I am also sorry for the little boy; he was a beautiful child, and he is not to blame for being the grandson of a Pharisee.
-Yes, it is not his fault....
They turn their steps toward the town. At this, they see many people coming towards them, shouting and crying, led by the old man Eli.
-He has found us! Let's go back!
-Why? That old man is suffering.
-Remember that old man hates you. He is one of the first and fiercest accusers of yours before the Temple.
-What I remember is that I am Mercy.
The old man Eli, disheveled, deeply troubled, with all his clothes in disarray, runs towards Jesus, with his arms stretched out in front of him, and he
arms stretched out in front of him, and collapses at his feet, crying out: "Mercy!
-Mercy! Mercy! Forgive me! Do not take revenge for my hardness on the innocent, only You can save him! God, your Father, has brought you here.
I believe in you! I worship you! I love you! I love you! Forgive me! I have been unjust, a liar.... But I have already received my punishment. These hours are punishment enough. Spare me! He is the son, the only son of my deceased son! And she accuses me of having killed him - and she cries while repeatedly banging her head against the ground.
-Courage! Don't cry like that, do you want to die? You won't be able to take care of your grandson's growth.
-He's dying! -He's dying! Maybe he's already dead. Don't be against me dying too. Anything but living in that empty house. Oh... how sad my last days!
-Eli, get up. Let's go...
-Are you coming? Are you coming? But do you know who I am?
-A wretch. Come on, let's go.
The old man stands up and says..:
-Run, run, don't delay! -And he hurries away because of the despair that pricks his heart. -But, Lord, do you think you're going to change him with this? Oh..., it's a wasted miracle! Let that little snake die!
that little snake die! The old man will die of a heart attack too, and... ...so one less will cross your path. God has resolved... -Simon! Truly I tell you, now the serpent is you.
Jesus sternly rejects Peter, who remains crestfallen, but continues walking.
In the largest square of Capernaum there is a beautiful house, in front of which there are many people producing a real din.... Jesus goes to this house. As he is about to arrive, the old man comes out of the door, which is wide open, followed by a disheveled woman who is carrying a dying baby in her arms. The poison already paralyzes the organs, death is near. The wounded hand hangs with the sign of the bite at the base of the thumb. Eli can only cry out:
-Jesus! Jesus!
And Jesus, squeezed, surrounded by a crowd that is materially on top of him, almost impeded in his movements, takes the little hand and takes it to his mouth, sucks on the wound, blows lightly on the waxy little face with half-closed and glassy eyes; then he straightens up and says:
-Now the child is waking up. Don't scare him with those unhinged faces, he will already be afraid because of the memory of the snake.
That's right. The little boy, whose face is flushed, opens his mouth with a prolonged yawn, rubs his little eyes, opens them and... he is stunned to see himself in the midst of so many people. Then the memory comes to him and he tries to run away, jumping so suddenly that he would have fallen if Jesus had not been ready to receive him in his arms.
-What are you afraid of? Look how beautiful the sun is! There's the lake; there's your house; here's your mother and grandfather.
-And the snake?
-He's not there anymore. There's me.
-You. Yes...
The boy stops to think for a while. Then - voice of innocent truth - he says:
-My grandfather was telling me to call you "damned", but I don't want to; I love you.
-Me? Did I say that? This child is delirious. Don't believe this, Master. I have always respected you. (The fear disappears and the old way
(Fear disappears and the old way of being re-emerges).
-The words have and have not value; I take them for what they are worth. Farewell, little one; farewell, woman; farewell, Eli. Love you, and
love me, if you can.
Jesus turns and goes to the house where he resides.
-Master, why didn't you perform a spectacular miracle? You should have commanded the poison to come out of the child,
show yourself to be God. However, you have limited yourself to sucking the poison like a poor man - Judas of Kerioth is not very happy; he wanted something spectacular.
Others are of the same opinion.
-You should have crushed that enemy with your power; did you see how he immediately began to secrete poison again?
-It does not matter about the poison; consider, rather, that if I had acted as you wanted me to, I would have said that Beelzebub was helping me.
I would have said that Beelzebub was helping me. That soul of yours in a calamitous state may admit my power as a physician, but no more. The miracle leads to faith in those who are already on that path, but in those who have no humility - faith always proves the existence of humility in a soul - it leads to blasphemy; better, therefore, to avoid incurring in this danger by resorting to forms of human showiness. It is the misery of unbelievers, the incurable misery; no coin removes it, because no miracle leads them to believe or to be good. No matter: I, my mission; they, their adverse fortune.
-And then why have you done it?
-Because I am Goodness, and so that it cannot be said that I have used vengeance on enemies or provoked provocateurs. I heap coals upon their heads, and they give them to me to heap. Be still, Judas of Simon. You try not to do as they do, that's enough. And that's enough. Let us go to my Mother; she will be happy to know that I have cured a little one.