Living Only by Faith: Part 2

Erasure of the True Self

Levi was a priest during the time that all of these stories happened and he lost his faith in God since he thought that God would never do these things to remind people of His justice and power. He abandoned his vocation and lost an arm in the process as it fell off and turned to ash. With the loss of his arm came the loss of his memory.

“Where am I? What am I doing in a place like this?” he asked himself before leaving the monastery.

The chaos of the present time made unstable and sinful people turn to violence. When God took what they had, they would take back what that thought was rightfully theirs from the innocent. Levi saw one person being robbed and he felt the push in his heart to do something.

“Why should I be bothered with them? There’s nothing I can do.”

As he said this to himself, another arm of his turned to ash. Levi continued to wander the world without a reason until he stopped and realized this.

“What’s the point of living? There’s no reason for me to continue on when there are others who can take my place?”

One of Levi’s legs then turned to ash.

“Wait, who am I again? What am I? What is my worth? Does it matter?”

His body then disappeared into ash. Now, the only part of him that was left was his head that still managed to live.

“Who decides what I’m worth? Who is that person? Who is that living truth again? I see Him. Hello, how may I serve?”

Levi’s body was restored to him and his memory was regained.

“Oh. I’m sorry that I thought that I knew better than you. I’ll try not to make this happen again.”

This was the third time this week that this happened to Levi and he would continue to do similar things like this until the day he died and went to Heaven.

 

Extraordinary Gift

Linda was a poor girl who lost everything. She was a girl faithful to God and knew that whatever happened to her, it was God who willed that this happened for a greater purpose. There weren’t any guesses in her mind as to this purpose, but she trusted God nevertheless. A rich man found her on the streets and offered her a warm place to live. He had tattoos and an eyepatch as if he were an antagonist straight out of the movies. There was a feeling in Linda’s stomach not to trust him, and yet, she went with him.

This feeling became justified as it turned out that he was part of a mafia within the city and he tried to turn the woman into one of his wives that he would sell for profit. Despite her weakness and the man’s goons beating Linda into submission, she managed to escape with two broken legs. She ran as fast as she could to the nearby police station for help until the man caught up with her.

He told her, “Your strength is admirable. There’s no use going to the police for help. They’re in my pockets even if there are a couple good ones left who might help you. Tell me, do you still reject my offer?”

Linda nodded her head.

The man then took a fork out of her pocket and threw it to her.

“You have about a one-percent chance of defending and getting yourself away from me if you use that fork. Will you do it?”

Linda picked up the fork and tried to make the best defensive stance that she could.

“Haha! I like you! You can come back to me whenever you want and you’ll be treated with the utmost respect.”

Before walking away, Linda watched the man walked away to make sure that he wasn’t going to pull anything. She then walked towards a nearby church hoping that they would help her, however, they made the excuse that they couldn’t because of how many people that they were really helping. In truth, the church declined her because she didn’t look like the other people who had a miraculous trait like the stories previously told. Sure, she managed to walk with broken legs and a bruised and beaten body, but this wasn’t enough for them. Because of this, they assumed that she was a sinner who still had to be humbled and didn’t want to be around her when God gave her next punishment.

Linda began to think this as well. She wasn’t a perfect person like everyone to be sure, however, she wasn’t like the other sinners who were stuck in their ways. Her doubts began to eat away at her mind until she looked up at the cross near the church to see the statue of Jesus gently smiling at her. In this, she found her answer. She was given the ability to suffer for others just as Jesus suffered for the sins of the world similar to those who had stigmata. People with the lesser ability to see God’s gifts won’t be able to see this, which is why she has it. Because of this, she suffered and did penance with joy as she now carried her cross with God.

Conflicts in Love

Paul and Donna were a couple married for years and like all couples, they sometimes fought over the most trivial things. This fighting escalated to the point where they considered divorce. To remind them that they are supposed to love and be together, God attached an invisible and unbreakable line between them so they couldn’t leave each other’s side. This irritated them and they hated that they were punished like this. Paul and Donna argued and loathed each other more and more with each passing day and because of this, the invisible line pulled them closer and closer to one another to remind them of their lifelong bond.

One night, they woke up and saw that their bodies were pulled so close that they now shared a body. Paul and Donna visited a doctor to see if he could fix this and he told them that this rare condition, which was getting less and less rare with this treatment being given to other people by God, was untreatable. The only cure was to fix their broken relationship. They tried for hours to work out their problems and seemingly got nowhere until they saw that their children were missing. They called out to them and heard no response that is until they felt the tugging at their legs. Neither of them understood what was tugging at them until they realized that it was their children. This was then that they understood why their children were invisible and why they couldn’t hear them. During their fights, they didn’t bother with their children nor their feelings or thoughts. It’s as if they didn’t exist.

Paul and Donna then vowed to take care of their children and never ignore them again. This made their children visible and able to speak again. Little by little, they managed to understand each other better by letting the other talk and explain themselves better. This along with the grace of God lead to them finally remembering why they married each other and before they knew it, their bodies became separate again, however, this is the closest they’ve felt to one another in a long time.

Guilty Conscience

God bent the rules of reality so that the worst of sinners confessed their evil deeds to get them humbled. This happened in many ways with Patricia having one of the most unique ways of confession. For each sin she committed, a copy of her head would grow on her face or the back of her head and loudly confess what she did.

“I cheated on my best friend’s boyfriend because he liked me more than her!”

“I took money from a sleeping homeless person!”

“I refused to go to church on Sunday!”

“I refuse to submit to the teachings of God and His Church!”

“I hate people who I think are better than me!”

“I put words in people’s mouth and accuse them of what I think they’re saying!”

This would go on daily until she fell asleep then picked up the next day. No doctor could help her nor could she get the many heads to shut up. Duct tape didn’t work and trying to cut off the heads only caused her pain without any bleeding to emphasize the fact that these heads wouldn’t come off. By this time, she had lost her mind since so had committed so many sins that her heads towered so high that they were as tall as a tree. Patricia didn’t want to confess her sins to God because she hated Him for doing this to her. Several priests tried to convince her to confess, but she denied them. She then secluded herself to hide her shame.

While she hid, she argued with her heads and used every excuse she could to justify her actions as being right so they could stop making her feel guilty. This didn’t work as it added more heads to her growing tree of heads as she was now being accused by her own heads of making excuses for her actions and not being strong enough to confess them and do penance. Because of this, Patricia finally went to a priest and honestly confessed her sins. With each sin confessed, a head disappeared and because they kept talking, she knew exactly what to say. Every extra head of hers disappeared by the end of the confession and a heavy weight was lifted from her soul.

This freeing made her realize the gift that this punishment of hers really was and she submitted herself to God and became a better person as a result. Even though she continued to fall to sin every now and then as most people do, she got to confession as quickly as possible even though she never grew another head that accused her. Instead, roses grew on her head instead of hair that she cut and used to even eventually make a beautiful dress made of roses that reflected the beauty of her purified soul.