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Marisa Livet | all galleries >> All My Galleries >> Minor monographs and divertissements >> The Grinning Cats' Productions >> The Grinning Cats' Book Club > “The Gospel According to Jesus Christ” by José Saramago
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24-OCT-2010 Marisa

“The Gospel According to Jesus Christ” by José Saramago

Here you can read the excerpt from this book I chose to share with you.
It’s the revisited episode of the death of Lazarus, which is traditionally followed by his resurrection, while here an afflicted , conscious and troubled Jesus, who is well aware to have the miraculous power to restore life, realizes that the suggestion of Mary Magdalene is the most merciful and leaves his friend to rest in peace in the long sleep of death, because none deserves to die twice.
I was touched and full of peace at once reading these lines.




.....On reaching Bethany, they noticed that the neighbours who came to their doors looked at them with pity and sorrow, but the disciples thought it only natural, given the lamentable state in which they had returned from battle. However they soon discovered that the real reason for the gloom on everyone’s face when they turned into the street where Lazarus lived and realized that some tragedy had occurred. Jesus ran ahead of the others, entered the yard, and with mournful sighs the people gathered there stepped aside to allow him to pass. From within came the sound of weeping and lamentation, Oh, my beloved brother, Martha could be heard sobbing, Oh, my beloved brother, wailed the voice of Mary. Stretched out on the ground on a pallet, Lazarus appeared to be sleeping, only he was not asleep, he was dead. Nearly all his life he had suffered from a weak heart, then he was cured, as everyone in Bethany could testify, and now he was dead, at this moment as composed as if he was carved from marble, as intact as if he had already passed into eternity, but soon the first signs of putrefaction will begin to appear, causing those around the corpse to suffer even greater fear and anguish. As if strength has suddenly gone from his legs, Jesus fell to his knees, groaning and weeping. How did this happen, how did this happen, words that never fail to spring to our lips when confronted by something irremediable, enquiring of othrs how it happened, a desperate and futile attempt to postpone the awful moment when we must accept the truth, that is it, we want to know how it happened, as if we could replace death with life, exchange what has been with what might have been. From the depths of her despairing and bitter grief, Martha said to Jesus, Had you been here, my brother would not have died, but I know everything you ask of God He will grant you, just as He granted sight for the blind, a cure for the lepers, speech for the mute, and all the other wonders which reside in your will and await your word. Jesus told her, Your brother will be raised from the dead, and Martha replied, I know he will come back to life on the Day of Resurrection. Jesus stood up and felt an infinite strength take possession of his soul, and in that supreme moment was convinced he could attempt and achieve everything, banish death from this corpse, fully restore it to life, give it speech, movement, laughter, even tears but not of sorrow, and truly claim I am the resurrection and the life, he who believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live, and he asked Martha, Do you believe this, and she replied, Yes, I believe you are the Son of God who has to come into this world, and this being so, and with everything necessary disposed and arranged, such as strength and power and the will to use them, all Jesus has to do, looking at that body abandoned by its soul, is to stretch out his arms to it as if offering the path by which it must return, and say, Lazarus, Arise, and Lazarus will rise from the dead because it is the will of God, but at the very last moment Mary Magdalene placed a hand on Jesus’ shoulders and said, No one has committed so many sins in life that they should deserve to die twice, and dropping his arms, Jesus went outside to weep.


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Barry S Moore12-Aug-2013 07:47
I must put this on my list to read. Thankyou for bringing it to my attention.
Blandine Mangin25-Oct-2010 20:40
une très belle nature morte ! v