The Gospel According to the Son (19 page)

But the Jews were much divided by my death. Many went forth with my disciples and became new followers, calling themselves Christian; others remained close to the Temple and argued among themselves for a hundred years over whether I was or was not the Messiah.

The rich among them, and the pious, prevailed; how could the Messiah be a poor man with a crude accent? God would not allow it!

Still, it must also be said that many of those who now call themselves Christian are rich and pious themselves, and are no better, I fear, than the Pharisees. Indeed, they are often greater in their hypocrisy than those who condemned me then.

There are many churches in my name and in the name of my apostles. The greatest and holiest is named after Peter; it is a place of great splendor in Rome. Nowhere can be found more gold.

God and Mammon still grapple for the hearts of all men and all women. As yet, since the contest remains so equal, neither the Lord nor Satan can triumph. I remain on the right hand of God, and look for greater wisdom than I had before, and I think of many with love. My mother is much honored. Many churches are named for her, perhaps more than for me. And she is pleased with her son.

My Father, however, does not often speak to me. Nonetheless, I honor Him. Surely He sends forth as much love as He can offer, but His love is not without limit. For His wars with the Devil grow worse. Great battles have been lost. In the last century of this second millennium were holocausts, conflagrations, and plagues worse than any that had come before.

Yet it is believed by most that God gained a great victory through me. And it may be that the Devil was not clever enough to comprehend the extent of my Father's wisdom. For my Father knew how to recover from debacle and disaster. Some fifty or more years after my death, the Gospel According to John was composed, and the work of this John (unknown to me) may have been illumined by my Father, because John's words proved unforgettable. They said: "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son that whosoever believed in him should not perish but have eternal life." So powerful is the force of this message that no other prophet has ever been followed by as many who were ready to die in his name. Of course, I was not only a prophet but His son.

Nonetheless, the truth is more valuable even than the heavens. Thereby, let it be understood: My Father may not have vanquished the Devil. Less than forty years after I died on the cross, a million Jews were killed in a war against Rome. The Great Temple was left with no more than one wall. Still, the Lord proved as cunning as Satan. Indeed, He understood men and women better than did the Devil. For my Father saw how to gain much from defeat by calling it victory. Now, in these days, many Christians believe that all has been won for them. They believe it was already won before they were born. They believe that this victory belongs to them because of my suffering on the cross. Thereby does my Father still find much purpose for me. It is even by way of my blessing that the Lord sends what love He can muster down to that creature who is man and that other creature who is woman, and I try to remain the source of love that is tender.

Yet I must also remind myself of Pontius Pilate, who said that in peace there was no truth, and in truth, no peace. For that reason I do not bring peace but a sword. I would wage war on all that makes us less than we ought to be, less generous. I would not want the Devil to convince me that the quarries of our greed are a noble pit and he is the spirit of freedom. But then, who but Satan would wish to tell us that our way should be easy? For love is not the sure path that will take us to our good end, but is instead the reward we receive at the end of the hard road that is our life and the days of our life. So I think often of the hope that is hidden in the faces of the poor. Then from the depth of my sorrow wells up an immutable compassion, and I find the will to live again and rejoice.

END

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to give an acknowledgment to my wife, Norris; to my assistant, Judith McNally; to my friends Michael Lennon and Robert Lucid; to Veronica Windholz; and to James and Gaynell Davis, who all offered signal contributions to this work. And not least, to Jason Epstein, Joy de Menil, and Andrew Wylie.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Norman Mailer was born in 1923 in Long Branch, New Jersey, and grew up in Brooklyn, New York. After graduating from Harvard, he served in the South Pacific during World War II. He published his first book, The Naked and the Dead, in 1948. The Gospel According to the Son is his thirtieth book. Mailer won the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize in 1968 for Armies of the Night and was awarded the Pulitzer Prize again in 1980 for The Executioner's Song. He has directed four feature-length films, was a co-founder of The Village Voice in 1955, ran unsuccessfully for mayor of New York in 1969, and was president of the American PEN from 1984 to 1986.

ABOUT THE TYPE

The text of this book was set in Aster, designed by Francesco Simoncini in 1958. Aster is a round, legible face of even weight, and was planned by the designer for the text setting of newspapers and books.