Excerpt
Finten shook his head.
“There are many questions to explore. Still, I ask the same questions. We men are
fortunate to have the time to seek these truths. Our women keep the lodges. They
look after large gardens and prepare all the food. Those are their duties so that we
men may hunt and seek spiritual knowledge. The women have their own ways to
honour the spirits. We do not interfere.”
Finten fidgeted to say his piece, but Fire Maker was not to be interrupted.
“We have important ceremonies where everyone honours the buffalo and the
corn. We men go many days without food, so that the spirits might speak to us in
visions. We teach young boys to fast and endure pain, so that they too might learn
from the spirit world and become powerful buffalo hunters.”
Finten wanted to tell Fire Maker about the Blessed Trinity. He remembered how
Éirinn’s first bishop had taken a shamrock to explain the Three Persons in One God
to his country’s first converts. Here there were no shamrocks, not even clover, so
Finten took a Red Columbine plant with three trumpet blossoms on one stem, and
began his explanation.
“From all time and before all time, there has been, and is, one God in Heaven.
And that one God made all there is from nothing. He did this by His Word alone. He
made the earth and the sky and Heaven above the sky and the sun to light and warm
the earth. And He made the moon to watch over us at night and all the stars to make
the heavens beautiful with their twinkling light. And He made the earth beautiful
with trees and plants and lakes and rivers. And He made all the animals and the birds
of the air and the fishes and the creatures that live below the earth. God in Heaven
made a man out of clay from a riverbank. After that He made a woman to keep the
man company. He gave the man and the woman a beautiful garden with fruit trees
and all kinds of good things to eat.”
Fire Maker seemed to be paying close attention and Finten spoke with added
enthusiasm.
“There was only one fruit He told them not to eat. God told them this to test their
obedience to Him. But man and woman thought they could be like God. They even
wanted to be more powerful than their Creator. These two first people ate the forbidden
fruit. Then, the Creator, to punish them for their disobedience, sent them from
the beautiful garden and told them they would have to work hard to produce their
food and find happiness. The happiness the Creator had given them was now lost.”
Fire Maker nodded in approval. “Yes, yes. This is very much like the Creator story
of my people. Continue, please.”
“The Creator God wanted His people to be happy. So He sent His own Son to
bring understanding. Now this Son is also God with the Father. They are the same
Spirit, God the Father and God the Son. And the love between Father and Son is so
good and so perfect that it forms another Being – the Holy Spirit, also God.” Finten
used the flower to illustrate. “Just as this plant is one flower, it is three blossoms and
each blossom is the flower and the flower is each blossom. And so there are three
Persons in the one God – the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; and these three
are one. ”
