Seven Miracles to Save the World

By Andrew B. Louis

Seven Miracles to Save the World combines ecumenical mysticism and physical world realities. The three heroes unwittingly become modern-day prophets: three students enrolled in a program to learn about and foster interreligious dialog in Rome. Two are ordained religious, one a Catholic priest, the other a Jewish rabbi, while the third, a woman, is a devout Muslim. Their friendship is cemented with regular monthly dinners, discussing anything and everything, frequently ending in commiseration about the problems facing the world. During one of these dinners, Archangel Gabriel-revered in all three religions-appears to them and makes them an offer: "God has heard you and will give you seven miracles to make the changes you're hoping for…"

Initially mere observers of the world, the heroes are suddenly faced, in a moment of shock and disbelief, with a life-changing decision. And then comes the hard part: boiling everything down to seven messages and seven miracles. But the trio does not give up. They forge ahead in their mission. Though successful in some instances, they also encounter major resistance in others. Can the world really be changed?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Newman Springs Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: May 4, 2021
• ISBN: 9781636921358

Book preview

1

Meeting Gabriele

Father Emmanuel O’Connor, Rabbi Jacob Adler, and their friend Melek Tiryaki were deep in thought after the gelato had been finished, the first two rounds of espresso coffees drunk, and the first round of limoncello swallowed for Emmanuel and Jacob. Melek had stuck to lemonade. They were happy, replete, and full of energy, ready to solve the problems of the world.

As usual, they had started discussing the recently completed course work. They wondered how it influenced their thoughts on their own religions. They also touched on the impact of their courses on the world. But they quickly veered off that topic, as they so frequently did, turning to current events.

That week had been particularly depressing for all three, and this was unusual. They were all normally passionate but also decidedly optimistic about the future. They were quite religious, but they lived in the present, with great anticipation of the future. Whatever mysticism they possessed was mixed with a serious case of loving life, with a special attention paid to food for all and drink for the two guys. That they all were still quite trim was a tribute to their commitment to exercise, a commitment that was made that much easier by the fact that they could virtually walk everywhere in a typical European city like Rome.

Melek had started them off on the evil of terrorism. She had just read about yet another suicide bombing in Egypt. Many Coptic Christians had been killed. A Muslim native of Turkey, she felt that the Eastern end of the Mediterranean basin was her home. Jacob, a rabbi, had talked of political correctness. Emmanuel, a Catholic priest, had gone on his favorite topic of the day: the loss of basic human values. It was, in truth, a real medley of serious and light issues, just as any three young students who have excess energy and a strong desire to remake the world might discuss in any coffeehouse, anywhere in the world.

Though nobody had noticed it at first, Gabriele, one of the waiters, had joined in the conversation. They hadn’t seen him before in the restaurant, and he wasn’t even their original waiter. He had simply started helping them. He had delivered the drinks they had asked for when coffee ran out. He was charming and had offered his point of views, as many waiters are wont to do in Latin Europe, preferably, but not always, in an understated manner. He had made a number of good points. In fairness, though, he was mainly keeping the conversation going. He was not stating a lot of personal views. What he had seen in the three of them were three kind souls. They had had enough to eat and drink. They were relieved at the end of a semester, and they could not stick to a topic for more than a few minutes. Today, they were not going to solve anything. At best, they were taking inventory.

Gabriele came by the table to ask the group to have a last espresso or limoncello, adding, Before we close the place.

Looking around, the three students noticed that they were indeed the last patrons. In truth, the room had been semi-empty for quite a while, but they had been so deep in their conversation that the only thing they had noticed was when a couple of friends had stopped by to say goodbye as they left. The trio had started their evening late, but their conversations had been so intense that they’d simply lost track of time. Responding to Gabriele’s prompt, they ordered the same three drinks they had been having the whole evening.

As Gabriele returned with two glasses of limoncello, a glass of lemonade, and a few last biscotti, Jacob was the first to notice that something was different. Gabriele’s appearance was changing as he was getting closer to the table. His face became brighter and projected an unusual radiance. His shirt was getting whiter than the normal uniform of the restaurant, almost as if it were being lit by black light. His demeanor was calmer than before. There was less excitement but a lot more intensity. Love oozed from every pore of his skin. His smile was irresistible, and his eyes were saying, Trust me.

Hey, wait a minute…what’s going on? Jacob managed to say hesitantly and in a bit of a raspy voice.

Emmanuel and Melek couldn’t believe their eyes either, but they were too shocked to say anything in reply.

After a few seconds, which felt like minutes, Emmanuel appeared to wake up and exclaimed in an excited tone, Remember the Transfiguration…

He was referring to a Gospel passage. Jesus had gone up Mount Tabor with apostles Peter, John, and James. When he got to the top, he was transfigured before them and appeared with Moses and Elijah. Three of the four Gospels report that his face was shining like the sun and his garments became white as the light. Christian scholars have long maintained that the point of Jesus’s transfiguration was to show his godly nature to his apostles so that they would know he was both man and God. Peter, the only apostle who is reported to have spoken to Jesus while Jesus was conversing with Moses and Elijah, was somewhat at a loss for words. He was stunned and mumbled a question: Lord, should we build three tents here?

Our three friends were just as stunned today as the apostles had been then. And, in contrast with St. Peter then, they initially hardly said anything, other than Jacob’s first question.

Gabriele broke the silence. Don’t be afraid. You’re right… I’m not a man, but I’m not God either.

Melek blurted out, Who are you then?

Matter-of-factly, Gabriele simply said, I’m Archangel Gabriel.

The trio looked even more startled. Archangel Gabriel is indeed recognized as a very important individual in all three of their religions.

Gabriele explained that he had been sent to them by God. He was to offer them a mission. He said that God had heard them and listened to their concerns. He agreed with their general diagnosis that the world could implode if it did not change direction.

Only God knows when it might, and if it did, what would follow…

Gabriele told them that God knew that they were sincere. He was ready to help them get something done. But there was a condition: the trio, on its end, had to be ready to take on the issues they had been discussing among themselves.

By the way, Gabriele said, this is not a deal or a bargain with God. God will simply help you do something you want to do, something he agrees is important.

Our three friends remained transfixed. They were still totally speechless. The vision and the words were beyond their imaginations. Gabriele finished his short speech.

The idea is simple. God will grant you up to seven miracles…and a personal grace. For your part, you must try to make a difference and help return the world to a saner place.

Not terribly surprisingly, the first of the three to react was Jacob, and his first question was, What do you mean? What’s a miracle?

Gabriele replied to Jacob with so much love in his voice that Jacob immediately and uncontrollably smiled. He argued that miracles were pretty much the same things in each of the three Abrahamian religions. He said he therefore meant exactly what miracle meant in a Judaic context. But he added that the question was an excellent one but in a bit of a different way.

He said that God loved man so much that he wanted him to retain his full free will. He would rather not force any person to love Him if that person freely decided to ignore Him. He would do this, even if that doomed the person for eternity—or until she changed her mind and God forgave her. Forcing someone to love Him, and so earn eternity with Him, was not His way if this was not what that person truly wanted. God has always taught a religion of love, not a religion of submission. Christ didn’t come with flashes of lightning and armies of angels. He was born a small child. A baby in a poor family that could not even get into a hotel. He was born in a stable with the cattle. People eventually followed him, not because they were forced to, not because He wowed them with kindness more than sheer power. They followed him because they came to believe He was both God and man.

Turning more directly to Jacob, Gabriele continued his explanation. Moses was an elder of his tribe. He is described in a way that suggested he attracted more visible respect than Jesus in several passages of the Old Testament. But he explained that this was partly because of a difference in the times. Pivoting to Melek, Gabriele added that Mohamed might have been a bit of an exception. He was also a tribe leader, but first and foremost he had always been described as a warrior. His military successes might have been the reason why he was honored and followed.

Realizing that he had gone on for a while, Gabriele went back to the basic question: what’s a miracle? He simply said that miracles are exceptional events that are meant to teach, not to compel or impress for their own sake. So in practice, it meant that whatever the trio would ask God to do for this mission, if they eventually accepted it, God would do. Again, there was a condition: they were never to force anyone to do anything they did not really want to do. The point would be to try to use love and example rather than menaces and orders to inspire people.

He concluded, Sure there’ll be exceptions here and there, but you must be quite careful. Don’t veer too far away from the path of love.

Emmanuel asked about the special grace that Gabriele had also mentioned. Gabriele explained that he did not need to tell them that there was a huge difference between the spiritual world and the earthly world they knew. Spirits lived in a world where time and space did not matter. On earth, individuals occupied some space and lived in reference to time. The special grace he promised was that the trio would be freed from time and space constraints for as long as they were on the mission.

If you need to travel to a place, just wish you were there, and you’ll get where you wish to go. Also, you’ll be protected against any harm. People won’t be able to seize you. You’ll be able to vanish from their sights and grasps. Time also won’t be a constraint. I know you have a two-week holiday coming. This mission, if you take it, will feel like an instant. You can’t go back in time, but you can bring yourselves to events that aren’t scheduled to take place until weeks or months from now.

His final warning caught their attention.

Your mission is to serve God…not to promote yourselves. So remember, the grace will disappear, and the mission terminate if you ever try to use any aspect of it for your own personal benefit.

Before disappearing from their sight, he suggested to them, Take some time to think about the proposal. He added that they would meet again the next day.

Showing that he, for one, had not fully understood the essence of Gabriele’s message, Emmanuel, who always was the one to think of practicalities, asked how that would be arranged.

Gabriele, with the same love in his voice and his eyes as when he had replied to Jacob’s first question, simply said that he could see them wherever they are and whenever he wanted. So he told Emmanuel, I will hear you if you call. I’ll know when you are ready.

And with this, Gabriele vanished from their sight, leaving them shocked and wondering.

2

The Birth of an Unusual Team

Well, guess it’s up to us now.

Father Emmanuel O’Connor was thus concluding the most bizarre and exciting episode in his short thirty-five-year life. It is fair to assume that Rabbi Jacob Adler and their friend Melek Tiryaki were just as shocked and, in some ways, exhilarated. They were both marginally younger than Emmanuel, at thirty-four and thirty-two respectively, but shared the same passion for religion and philosophy, though the three of them had different beliefs and practiced different religions. Yet they also accepted that they shared a common foundation. Worshiping in the Roman Catholic, Jewish, and Muslim traditions, they recognized that their faith had a common ancestor and father: Abraham. That humans and other factors had brought these religions further and further apart was observable. Similarly, history had witnessed its share of armed conflicts among their respective faithful. However, for our trio, these differences paled into insignificance when considered in the light of what could unite them. In fact, Emmanuel had once said, and the group had agreed, Imagine our religions without hierarchical leaders. Would we all be fighting as much?

Now, ostensibly, such an affirmation might have been seen as bordering on blaspheme, if he had meant it literally and, more to the point, continuously and in particular today. What he really had meant was that religions had not always solely focused on the spiritual; they had allowed the temporal to intrude. There is a clear human tendency: certain people in position of some power will use it to get more power. It had led to a number of actions that, though done in the name of God, were really more using God as an excuse than a driver.

Jacob had replied, Ever heard that religions have prospered despite their hierarchy?

In truth, this was a topic that they often discussed. They were all deeply religious and respectful of their respective leaders. Yet they often cringed when they saw them, as they often did, take positions on the day-to-day political discussions of the time. Emmanuel, in particular, was readily critical of bishops opining on economics or related topics. He kept arguing that this was not their areas of expertise. Ostensibly, when pushed, he would readily admit that there were overlapping areas that made it impossible for them to ignore the reality of the day. As he would at times say, Jesus did participate in the politics of his day… Yet he immediately reminded his friends that Jesus never openly took side, quoting the famous, Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.

Melek often found herself on the receiving end of the most pointed questions. As she would herself readily admit, Islam was probably the religion where the overlap between the religious and the political was the most visible, both now and through the centuries.

The evening had begun the way the first Thursday of each month started, ever since they had met six months ago or so. For some reason, the three of them, all students at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, had bonded quite early on. Besides being generally of the same vintage, age wise, they shared a common passion for the fundamental goal of the institute at which they were studying: using a better knowledge of all religions to discourage religious extremism.

They wanted to know more about the religions that their neighbors practiced. They wanted to find the common elements between all the religions and cultures of the Middle East. They also all had a fair capacity for mysticism, which often drove their conversations away from the mundane and toward philosophical and theological topics. That it was not the easiest line to follow, or the shortest distance between the proverbial two points, probably explained why they had not recruited additional members of their small group. It probably also accounted for why their conversations had a way of extending beyond normal closing hours.

They were not complete oddballs, as many young adults might have called those more inclined to discuss religious topics rather than the latest sport, artistic, political, or, simply, current events. As young, energetic, and idealistic people who have not yet had life play too many of its tricks on them are wont to, they kept dreaming of world peace and harmony as well as human happiness.

Melek and Jacob were more sharply focused on their goals than Emmanuel because they lived in or near the powder keg that the Middle East had been for centuries. It has always been a main passageway between the Far East and the North. Traders coming from east of the Caspian Sea would transit through the area. It was also a main route from the south and the east for those coming from the Indian subcontinent or even further away in South Asia. These two main routes converged in the Middle East. They took traders to either Europe on the north coast of the Mediterranean Sea or Africa if they travelled the south shores. The multiple clashes of cultures, tribal traditions, and religions had always been ferocious in that relatively small swath of the globe. Yet this was still where, chronologically, Judaism first, then Christianity, and finally Islam, the three monotheist Abrahamic religions, were born. Melek and Jacob longed for the countries and the people of the region to live in peace.

The three of them saw freedom of religion as the most basic human right. They extended this view to issues such as schooling and the way government conducted its business. They felt people ought to be free to choose what they believed. Schools should be equally free to teach what they thought was important, within reason. Similarly, governments should not interfere in issues of worship nor should they impose one religion over another, including atheism.

Though each was deeply respectful of their own religion’s teachings, they might individually have surprised a few of their masters. They were at times prepared to veer off from certain religious codes if doing so allowed people of different faiths to live more in peace with one another. Certainly, they would not leave the reservation set by their religious beliefs and traditions. But they were a bit more flexible than many others who might see themselves more as judges than as shepherds. In short, Melek, Emmanuel, and Jacob gave others space if they needed it; and that is perfectly in line with the famous quote of Pope Luca who simply said in 2018, Who am I to judge? He had said that in response to a question on homosexuality.

In short, they wanted to be mirrors of love and leave it up to God to correct others as He saw fit. Practically, they saw their current classes at the Gregorian University as a means to learn how much flexibility they could and should apply to their thinking without venturing into a measure of heresy or, worse, apostasy.

Because of their different backgrounds, Emmanuel, Melek, and Jacob did not share too many classes. They each had a lot to learn, but they did not need to learn as much about their own religions or cultures. Their main weaknesses were with respect to other religions, histories, and cultures. They knew their own religions well: Jacob and Emmanuel were ordained ministers in the Jewish and Catholic faiths respectively, and Melek was a very devout Muslim young woman. She had been entirely schooled in the Muslim educational system in Istanbul. They had, however, crossed paths in class, here and there, particularly when studying Aramaic and Greek, as students in the program needed some working knowledge of these ancient languages. They often studied sacred texts in their original forms and languages. Actually, they had met as they were all three struggling with ancient Greek.

Since they did not cross paths very often in their class work and enjoyed one another’s company, they had quickly agreed they needed to find a way to share their thoughts regularly. So they had decided to spend at least one evening a month together and to do it around good Italian food and wine, with promises of some great conversation. Though they initially meant to discuss topics related to their classes, they found themselves more often than not wandering away toward broader world topics.

A few months ago, the mixing of religion and politics and the explosiveness of that cocktail had in fact been the topic of their dinner musings. Emmanuel had started the ball rolling, arguing that the excesses of the Inquisition were directly traceable to the fact that ordained priests held political power. He had initially noted that this juxtaposition of religion and politics was often because priests were the most educated among their people at the time. The church was one of the few well-organized institutions. That it might provide an explanation was true, but it was certainly not an excuse, he had added. In fact, his point was that he could not understand how the notion of converting miscreants—even by force, if necessary—might be viewed as practicing virtue, even in some very twisted way. Emmanuel could only conclude that the Church, just as must be the case with any human institution, has to harbor a few bad apples.

Guess the institution may be holy…but the men and women within it at times are anything but.

Melek had replied that she saw a direct parallel to the Inquisition in the Muslim world today. She pointed to so-called pure Islamic states, where, in her view, intolerance dominates. They had gone back and forth for a while when Jacob had expanded the debate in a direction that had surprised both Melek and Emmanuel. Obviously referring to his own country, Israel, he had asked whether one could justify a country being governed in the name of a single religion. Melek and Emmanuel had initially been surprised that a Jewish rabbi normally residing in Jerusalem might be this provocative. But, as time would tell them later, they learned that day about the intellectual honesty of their Jewish friend. Both thought to themselves that there was an example for them in that behavior. They realized at that point that Jacob’s question could also extend to several Muslim countries, and particularly to Saudi Arabia, among many other religiously inspired governments.

His cynicism and willingness to ask almost any question would surely come in handy in due course.

3

A Friendly Dinner in Rome

Today was a bit special. It was the end of the semester, and our trio could look forward to a couple of weeks to themselves. At the end of their late afternoon classes, they had met on the steps of the Gregorian University, which sat at No. 4 on Piazza della Pilotta in Rome. Jacob and Emmanuel had had classes there. They just had to step out of the main building. Melek had to cross the piazza. Her last class had been at the Biblicum, the colloquial name they all gave to the Pontifical Biblical Institute, which, still a part of the Greg as they affectionately called the university, housed biblical studies and was located across the street from the main building. As the lone Muslim among the three of them, she was the one who felt she had the most to learn about the Bible.

After the customary greetings and kisses, they walked down the steps, turned first to their left, and then to their right, going down Via del Viccaro until they reached No. 1. This was tonight’s destination, a small restaurant called Abruzzi.

Nice to see you, Father, the waiter had said to Emmanuel as he had entered first.

Of the three, he was the only one who wore ecclesiastical clothing. Tonight, as usual, he had on a black cassock with its traditional Roman collar. Of medium built, he was not very tall, only five feet eight inches. Yet he looked athletic and had curly, dark-blondish hair that he kept well combed, with a part on the left-hand side. He was always closely shaven, and his hair was kept short. His face was rather square, dominated by a large forehead; an incredible smile; and very expressive blue eyes. A female friend of his family had once joked that it was a shame he was in seminary as he was quite a physically attractive young man.

I see the joke, he had replied, but you know, it’s no effort for me to follow the Church’s chastity rule. I think I made a better choice. He had said this with a monster of a smile across his face.

His friend had immediately understood that he was pulling her leg. Emmanuel indeed did not subscribe to the politically correct mood of the time that holds that one should avoid any joke that could remotely be misinterpreted. He was one of the first to look for opportunities to make fun of any situation, though he certainly would not allow himself to make a joke that could—and should be expected to—hurt. He had a few of the best Catholic jokes in his repertoire. His most famous related to the Gospel episode of the woman taken in adultery: when asked whether she should be stoned, as the Jewish principles of the time mandated, Jesus had simply replied, Let him who is without sin throw the first stone. Then, turning to the woman to his right, he added, Mother, drop that stone. Emmanuel would have plenty of opportunity later on in his life to ponder his decision to remain celibate.

Jacob and Melek wore no clerical clothing. Rabbis are not obliged to, and Melek was not an ordained minister. Jacob was wearing gray slacks and a sports coat over an open-neck white shirt. His face was oval with somewhat curly, thin black hair and wonderfully expressive dark-brown eyes. He knew how to use them to get an indulgent pass on cynical comments he would often make. Though a devout Muslim, Melek did not follow a strict Islamic dress code and did not cover her