The Day I Finally Found God.

Today is Saturday, and Dan and I decided to get out of the apartment. We had no goals or projects that we were planning on working on, and so we just wandered. We found ourselves in the heart of Lyon near a Cathedral that I had had my eye on for some time. I haven't done my research on this Cathedral, so I can't really write about it much, and I didn't take any photos while I was in the Cathedral, but I did make a friend when I was there.

Dan had his camera with him, and since the Cathedral had amazing stained glass windows he wandered around photographing them. I picked up some literature on the Cathedral and after wandering around a bit I sat down in one of the pews near the middle of the church and started to try my hand at reading some of the French information offered about what I was seeing. I looked up when a young handsome man was walking towards me. He smiled at me and sat across the aisle from me in another pew. Now, I'll preface this by saying that this Cathedral has fairly high ceilings, and is large enough to not allow for sound to carry well at all. The man smiled at me and whispered something in French. Whispering is always hard to understand, and my French is certainly not good enough to decipher whispering in such an un-ideal setting, so I had no idea what he was saying. I whispered back and asked him if he spoke English, and he then broke into perfect English and asked me where I was from. I told him and he began asking me all sorts of questions about Alaska. I'm used to answering questions about Alaska, since so many people seem to consider it an almost mythical land, but this man was asking questions that were new to me. He first asked me simply what it was like, and since whispering is awkward under any circumstance I replied simply that 'it's cold.' I figured that would satiate his curiosity about Alaska, but he went on to ask me if Alaskans have different accents than the rest of the US, what we eat, if we eat a lot of fish, if we eat a lot of salmon, and how our mentality compares to the rest of the US. I was a little surprised at these really specific questions. He kept repeating "I have never met someone from Alaska before!", which isn't altogether that surprising, considering Alaska's extremely small population.

He then asked me if I was alone, and I was glad to be able to turn around and point to Dan who was busy photographing a statue of St. Anthony de Padua a few yards away from where I was sitting. This man seemed friendly enough, but I tend to feel vulnerable when I have to admit that I'm alone. The man next asked me if I was Christian, and looked up towards the altar. I thought I was in for a bit of proselytizing, but decided to answer honestly and said 'No'. So he asked me if I was atheist. I didn't really know how to respond so I just shrugged and smiled. I thought: here it comes, and braced myself, but the next thing he said surprised me. He looked at me smiled, and then quite seriously said: I am Christ. For a moment I thought that maybe his seemingly perfect English had failed him and he had meant to say that he was Christian, but then he went on to say: I am the messiah. I smiled, nodded, and said, Okay. He told me that I shouldn't spread the word around because the world was not ready to accept him yet. I smiled and nodded and didn't know what to say. He then told me "I am the son of god!" He then shifted away from me and turned his attention back to the altar.

What I found most interesting about this was that I found myself appreciating his words in the same way that I always am interested when people tell me things about their religion. I remember going to a church in India where a family told me that they had a cow that never gave milk, so they brought it holy water that had been blessed by Mother Mary, let the cow drink the water, and then the cow gave sweet milk for years and years to come. When I saw them they were returning to the church to give thanks. I heard a lot of stories like this in churches and temples in India, and it never occurred to me to question the validity of the stories. Again, today it never occurred to me to question whether or not this man actually was the messiah, or whether or not he actually thought he was the messiah. I just found it interesting. I wanted to ask him more questions- why was he sitting in this church, in a pew near the middle, on a Saturday afternoon. How did he get there? How did he know he was the messiah. I guess I could have asked him any of these questions, but I didn't, and I guess I'll never get the chance again.

When I related this story to Dan a few minutes later as he showed me his favorite chapel, I started to realize how ridiculous the story sounded. Dan, being the cynic that he is, told me that this guy was obviously just trying to 'pick me up'. If that is the case, I can honestly say "I am the messiah" is the weirdest/worst pick up line I have ever heard. But, I like to think that this man was sincerely there just to take in the ambiance of the church. Maybe he really thought he was the messiah. Maybe he was just moved by the beautiful rose windows and stunning stained glass and crystal chandeliers dripping delicately from the heavy stone ceilings. I guess I'll never know the whole story.