The Maltese Messiah

By John D. Loscher

Upon discovering the Maltese Order possesses the Holy Grail, God will be revealed to Cardinal-Archbishop Conor O’Griffin, Papal Nuncio to the Knights of Malta, in a laboratory of science and technology specializing in genetic engineering. Learning how the cup used to celebrate the first communion ultimately served as a receptacle for the blood of Jesus of Nazareth, the Vatican ambassador witnesses DNA extraction. Via cloning, the Second Coming of Christ is at hand. For Cardinal-Archbishop O’Griffin, this scientific achievement creates a moral dilemma: yes, the use of technology in order to create life makes science, not God, the creator; but, with all of man’s genius, can science also successfully replicate Jesus of Nazareth’s spirit? Is spirit part of human DNA or is it something else? Seeking answers for these questions compels the Holy See’s diplomat to answer a far more basic question: How will he answer to God?

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Nov 30, 2021
• ISBN: 9781665545884

John D. Loscher

John “J.D.” Loscher holds a Masters Degree in Public Administration and is a Certified Teacher. He served in the United States Air Force and is a veteran of the 1991 Persian Gulf War. His novels, Three Cheers For Father Donovan, along with the epic two-volume narrative, The Bolsheviks, put him at the forefront as an author of historical fiction. He authored the novels The Heart of the Matter, The Pontchartrain Connection, and The Maltese Messiah. He is the dramatist for a highly successful double trilogy. The first trilogy: Coming Out of the Dark, The Black Madonna, and In the Hands of the Gods. The second trilogy: To Slay a Dragon, The Unholy Family, and The Run for the Roses. Writing under the penname of J.D. Cooper, he wrote the novel Window to the Soul. He is currently hard at work researching and writing his next novel.

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© 2021 John D. Loscher. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 11/25/2021

ISBN: 978-1-6655-4587-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6655-4586-0 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-6655-4588-4 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021924115

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the Holy Bible, King James Version (Authorized Version). First published in 1611. Quoted from the KJV Classic Reference Bible, Copyright © 1983 by The Zondervan Corporation.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

CONTENTS

Author’s Note

God So Loved the World That He Gave His Only Begotten Son

Is This How Jesus Christ Got His Start?

He Is Risen! He Is Not Here! Come, See the Place Where He Lay!

To Testify to the Truth

Epilogue: Closer To Heaven

Afterward: There, But For the Grace of God, Go I

List of Sources Consulted: My Brother Up In Heaven

AUTHOR’S NOTE

I t is universally recognized as a process we dub the miracle of life: A blending of perfect opposites…one is a male, ejaculating sperm from a penis into the vagina of the other; a female, with eggs secreted from ovaries to grow within the protective confines of a uterus. It is this union by which the spirit of humanity replicates itself in order to ensure survival of our species. We label it as conception. The intercourse allowing mankind to exist. Take away that intercourse? Humanity’s existence ceases. Pretty basic indeed. Yet, do we not strive to develop an alternative? Has not this biological process successfully been hijacked by modern science? As if we would dare to think of ourselves as gods, we mere mortals strive to create mankind in our own image. We extract. We implant. We inseminate. Ultimately, we clone. For our own genius—for better or worse—can now adjudicate this wonder into a mesmerizing parlor trick. Definitely not as it was in the beginning. Our ability today to use genetic engineering technology in order to replicate definitely makes us the creator. But with all our genius, can we also successfully replicate the soul? Is the soul merely a part of our DNA? Or is the soul something else? Is the creation of the soul immaculate? Something only capable by the intercession of God? How does any child come to be? Is it mere cellular division which causes a fetus’ heart to beat? Is it the biological consequence of male and female intercourse? Is it the work of a divine hand? Is it a mysterious unanswered prayer? Is it really a true miracle? Or is it a wonder of human knowhow? The by-product of anthropological hands? How will mankind reconcile itself with the consequences of these questions? How will we answer to ourselves? How will we answer to God?

For Father

James Brodie. You were the first priest

EVER to be truly merciful to me, a sinner.

Considering the plotline, I think it’s fair to say that

the characters and situations described within these

pages exist only in the author’s imagination.

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GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD THAT HE

GAVE HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON

H e was a Man of God, in fact, a Prince of the Roman Catholic Church, but he was still a man. By all rights his immortal soul should have been in tumult because of his calling. Yet that was not the case. Oh yes, he often did experience turmoil. However, the cause for his unrest was worldly rather than spiritual. In fact, as he traveled the streets of the Eternal City by chauffeured limousine, this so-called Holy Man was quite content. Bored, but quite content with his lot. For he was the type of priest who viewed his ordination to be nothing more than a job rather than a divine or holy calling. As such, for this cardinal-archbishop, theology revolved around his profit and loss statement from various banks in Brussels, Luxemburg, Switzerland, Lichtenstein, or the Cayman Islands…definitely not the Holy Scriptures.

{Hey, why risk losing everything in just one crash!}

While yes, the cardinal did find the Bible story of Creation as told by the Book of Genesis to be the most beautiful piece of literature ever written, it remained just that: an enlightened work of literature. Nothing more. For him, creation began lacking the least bit of beauty. The outcome of a supreme act of violence. A mass of cosmic energy which underwent a big bang to expand ever-outward throughout the cosmos ten billion years ago. Nothing more. The thought or reason for that audacious explosion ten billion years ago remained elusive to the cardinal. It always would. After ten billion years of evolution, physical existence for this man of God would be no different from any other member of the human species. Thus, the cardinal lived life in accordance with the song, In the Passage, by the late Dan Fogelberg: he merrily took part in that mad dance from the cradle to the grave without any consideration for what came before. History was for fools. Events dead and buried in the past? Why be concerned with trivia?

Likewise, the biblical command to be fruitful and multiply so as to replenish the Earth remained elusive…Celibacy is a job requirement when taking Holy Orders as a priest serving the Roman Catholic Church. Having no heirs, the cardinal, like the earth, would come to an end one day. He would be another one of the countless numbers of species to have gone extinct. Indeed, a true cause for sadness.

How could this have come about? How could things have gone so terribly wrong? How should we mere mortals pride ourselves by allowing the hand which lit the flame ten billion years ago burn out?

Like transubstantiation, this remained a mystery for the priest. An unholy one. Having grown sensible rather than cynical, the cardinal accepted the reality that mankind decided now how best to tend the flame. Whoopee-doo! A Holy Fire left to the guise of man. That had been tried before. The result as recorded in the Book of Leviticus? Aaron’s two eldest sons, the irresponsible and negligent Nadab and Abihu, allowed that fire to burn out. Would humanity, like Nadab and Abihu, use Unholy Fire to reignite the spark when that fire grew weak? He believed the answer to that question was as follows: more than likely. The human species would do whatever was required for the fire to burn on. Piety, sanctity, and spirituality for the human race was no longer an issue. Profit, not prophesy ruled. So this man of God believed. For he was a realist. He held no illusions. Mankind had no intention of resting on the seventh day. Hell no! Man would simply do what he did best…add an eighth day to the week!

Yet even the cardinal believed it was not supposed to be this way.

In rare moments of spiritual optimism, the cardinal harkened to the Holy Bible’s opening chapter. For the pronouncement as set down by the ancient scribes made things perfectly clear: It was good. At the very least it was supposed to be. Even a corrupt churchman like the cardinal recognized that much.

To be good, God purposefully divided the light…that which is sacred…from the darkness…that which is profane. Unfortunately for humanity—our Vatican prelate included—this bit of philosophy had long been forgotten by his own free will. Like almost all of humanity, the Papal Nuncio…ambassador…to the Knights of Malta chose to live in the darkness. Only this eternal black void was not divine, but one of his own making. Just like the rest of humanity, the constant day-to-day strife which constituted life on Earth blinded him long ago. As such, our Vatican prelate viewed himself as just another insignificant, mortal man who traveled through time and space without the least bit of thought for the unseen world around us. For him, God, this unseen Eye In the Sky, represented some omnipresent spirit he dared to imagine, but feared to accept. He cared nothing about how this invisible Holy Trinity knew our deepest secrets because he did not want to know theirs. So alas, he too went through life living a fantasy that we term reality. Unlike the hymn, Yahweh, I Know You Are Near, in the eyes of this scarlet-clad Vatican prelate, Elohim remained some far-away…thing. A concept. An imperceptible spirit he would never shake hands with.

Only the historical record could say otherwise.

God appeared to Abraham in a dream; God negotiated face-to-face with Moses from the fires of a burning bush; God allowed manifestation in the form of a dove to commission Jesus of Nazareth after immersion from the waters of the River Jordan; God came to Mohammed in a cave; God enlightened Buddha while he sat under a tree; God showed himself to St. Francis of Assisi in a pew of an abandoned church. And, although he could never have guessed it, God would be revealed to the likes of Cardinal-Archbishop Conor O’Griffin, Papal Nuncio to the Knights of Malta, in a laboratory of science and technology specializing in genetic engineering…

If the popular saying, "The bigger they come, the harder they fall," is somehow true, then Cardinal-Archbishop Conor O’Griffin was the living testament to that avowal.

He had once been the powerful and influential Archbishop of St. Louis: a churchman clearly going places, groomed for one of the top slots within the hierarchy of the world’s oldest multinational corporation.

That is, until his fall.

Officially, it began with his promotion by being elevated to the sacred crimson as a Prince of the Roman Catholic Church when the pope designated him Ecclesiastical Chief Justice of the Signatura. It was a sensible posting for any Roman Catholic clergyman who had a Jurisprudence Doctorate from Georgetown University and was an attorney licensed to practice law.

But this was just a cover-up and everybody knew it.

The demise of the Titular Head of the Archdiocese of St. Louis began far earlier. To place Archbishop O’Griffin on the Roman Catholic Curia by consecrating him a cardinal was the aftermath of his fall from grace among his peers. In fact, the only reason the Holy Father did so was in order to keep one of his bishops from having a mugshot! To become Ecclesiastical Chief Justice of the Signatura was the Vatican’s clever way of sending a wayward priest into exile. Doing so allowed Cardinal O’Griffin to escape indictment from U.S. Department of Justice for racketeering, tax fraud, mail fraud, embezzlement, larceny, misappropriation of funds, bribery, blackmail, obstruction of justice, witness tampering, and contract murder…all felonies which turned out to be the consequence of hiring good Roman Catholics from Sicily who also happened to be on the payroll of a guy named Guido; and Guido, it turned out, was none other than the Boss of Bosses for the crime family of St. Louis! Yes, bringing La Cosa Nostra into the Archdiocese of St.