7th Day 3 - The Devil and Miss Prym by Paulo Coelho

Author:Paulo Coelho
Language: eng
Format: mobi, azw3
Tags: Devil
ISBN: 9780007116034
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

The Devil and Miss Prym

'Like you, for example.'

°- I rebelled against something that happened to me and don't care whether others like my attitude or not. You, on the other hand, believed in your role as helpless orphan, someone who wants to be accepted at all costs. Since that doesn't always happen, your need to be loved was transformed into stubborn desire for revenge. At heart, you wish you were like the rest of Viscos' inhabitants - in other words, deep down we'd all like to be the same as everyone else. But destiny accorded you a different fate.'

Chantal shook her head.

'Do something,' said Chantal's devil to his colleague. 'Even though she's saying no, her soul understands and is saying yes.'

The stranger's devil was feeling humiliated because the new arrival had noticed that he wasn't strong enough to get the man to shut up.

'Words don't matter in the end,' the devil said. 'Let them talk, and life will see to it that they act differently.'

'I didn't mean to interrupt you,' the stranger said. 'Please, go on with what you were saying about God's justice.'

Chantal was pleased not to have to listen any more to things she didn't want to hear.

'I don't know if it makes sense. But you must have noticed that Viscos isn't a particularly religious place, even though it has a church, like all the villages in this region. That's because Ahab, even though he was converted to Christianity by St Savin, had serious reservations about the influence of priests. Since the majority of the early were bandits, he thought that all the priests cabitallts with their threats of eternal damnation, would be woed back to their criminal ways. Men who have to show nothing to lose never give a thought for eternal life.

'Naturally, the first priest duly appeared, and Ahab knew what the real threat was. To compensate for it, undersiL»u instituted something he had learned from the Jews n v of Atonement - except that he determined to establish a ritual of his own making.

'Once a year, the inhabitants shut themselves up in their houses, made two lists, turned to face the highest mountain and then raised their first list to the heavens.

'“Here, Lord, are all the sins I have committed against you,” they said, reading the account of all the sins they had committed. Business swindles, adulteries, injustices, things of that sort. “I have sinned and beg forgiveness for having offended You so greatly.”

'Then - and here lay Ahab's originality - the residents immediately pulled the second list out of their pocket and, still facing the same mountain, they held that one up to the skies too. And they said something like: “And here, Lord, is a list of all Your sins against me: You made me work harder than necessary, my daughter fell ill despite all my prayers, I as r°hbed when I was trying to be honest, I suffered more than was fair.”

After reading out the second list, they ended the ritual I have been unjust towards You and You have been towards me.

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