Psalms in the Glade
Early in the morning, right after sunrise, in the riverside willow woods, I suddenly heard a voice that was reciting loudly and with abandon the majestic old verses: “When I see Thy skies, the deed of Thy fingers, see the moon and the stars that Thou established, I ask: what is the Human Being, what dost Thou remember about him? Who is the human son Thou art recalling?” The Bible, the Psalms, were being recited at such a time and place! I elbow my way through the thick of tall shrubs and see a young man standing, facing the sun, in a small sandy clearing surrounded by the willows, reading the Bible with inspiration. After some hesitation, I come out in the clearing and sit down on the white sand, thus giving him at least some kind of audience.
In spite of my intrusion, the boy never looked up, never broke the strict rhythm of prayer: he went on reading psalm by psalm. I listened quite a long time. An early hour, a narrow spit of sand in the oblique rays of the sun, accompanied by the music of ancient poetry made a strange impression, something like a rift in time and space. It was as if I had found myself in the Holy Land, not now, with its hordes of tourists from all over the world, but in the times of the prophets who may have established the oral version of biblical texts in precisely this way: far away in the desert, face to face with God, entreating Him with their demanding and humble verses.
Later, I conducted a small interview with the reader. As expected, he was a neophyte, a recently baptized member of one of the numerous so-called neo-Christian religious communities with unmistakable signs of Protestantism, those who reject in their church life the Holy Legend, most rites and rituals, putting the main emphasis on Logos, the literal Word of the Bible’s texts.
What drew my new acquaintance to one of the non-traditional churches that have far from the best reputation in contemporary society? Why in general did he join a religious community? The more so that his parents, as I found out, were “diehard materialists” reacting quite painfully to their son’s religious bent. They are convinced that “this sectarianism” will hamper his education, work, and career for which his parents are painstakingly grooming him. Incidentally, he is about to graduate from a prestigious legal institution of higher learning. What actually pushes young men from affluent families, so distant from the church, “to enter into the faith?”
The conversation with my chance acquaintance again proved the simple truth that there are people and souls badly in need of faith as well as membership in a certain religious community. The fellow said that when still in his teens he had “tried everything from pornography to drugs.” But this brought him only disgust instead of satisfaction. Thus at the age of 14 he had himself baptized in secret from his parents in an Orthodox church: he went to the church by himself, turned to the priest, and paid with the pocket money he had saved. He says he recalled his grandmother whom he had never known but thought, for some reason, that she had been an Orthodox believer. The young man interpreted his baptism as a very serious step in life; he thought he would never be lonely and would always have support and counsel. But when he came, with his problems, to the church a few days later, the priest just failed to recognize him and simply had no time to speak to some importunate teenager.
He never went back to that church. A few years later, by then a college student, he made friends with a young man who shared his enthusiasm for playing the guitar. After some time the latter brought his friend to a neo-Christian church whose members received him as if he were one of them, “one who was lost and then is found.” Some would learn, together with him, to play religious hymns on the guitar, others would interpret the Bible and help him understand the Holy Writ. A few months later the young man underwent yet another baptism, his Orthodoxy being cast off forever.
I could not hold myself back and asked why he was reading the Bible out loud in solitude. In answer he said, “One should begin his day by singing prayers and psalms, but it is difficult to do this on one’s own and at home. So I go away from the buildings, find a deserted place, and commune with God.” (Would it not be more natural for a young man to use the morning, the summer, and the Dnipro for swimming, running about or playing tennis? But these must be utterly pagan thoughts).
Speaking to the would-be lawyer, I touched upon one more theme. Will faith influence his future career? For in modern times even truly honest people find it difficult not to commit the sin of lawbreaking, bribery or some other abuse, especially in his chosen calling. My interlocutor answered solemnly and firmly: “If one must choose God or Mammon, he must choose God.” Shall I believe him or not?
