Adultery lies there
Mandoza comes from the city of saints, where everything is forbidden for the younger ones. Criticizing, especially the older ones, is a synonym for disrespect. He was born and raised in the Church of Santo dos Santos, which takes its name from the community. He attended Sunday school and was almost always outstanding. A diligent and obedient boy. These were the qualities that allowed him to achieve the much anticipated scholarship to study abroad, where he studied Theology. A well-educated young man and a model for the inhabitants of his village.
In the foreign city he lived in, he attended the church that would be responsible for his education. However, the practices witnessed there were abominable according to his traditions. To remain steadfast in his faith and principles, he would turn to the holy scriptures for solace. Curious fact: the customs and traditions of the congregation to which Mandoza had joined were quite different from the norm, as homossexuality, adultery, and other vices were normalized. His adaptation process was not very hard, such much so that he ended up meeting a young woman named Laureta. She introduced him to some young people with whom he went on to share various experiences on topics relevant to that time.
With time and experience in the new town, he realized that there is no sin that is more reprehensible than another, it all depends on the social practices and the way in which judgements are made about each people’s way of life. Wherefor, what he had always considered a sin, for others was a spiritual pleasure. Every day his relationship with Laureta grew and, inevitably, he fell in love with her. The woman’s lifestyle was different from his. She, with exuberant beauty, led a very active social life, which would later lead to her falling into a state of degradation. Love blinded Mandoza’s judgement, he renounced everything and followed the rotting life of the woman he loved. He began to love her. As a result of these events, his daily routine underwent a complete transformation. Nightclubs and bars became his refuge. At these parties, Mandoza got drunk. In the same night, Laureta betrayed him with a friend. It was a massive deception for the victim of this misfortune. Because of this, he called that place the “City of Secret Loves”, because it was there that he discovered and realised there was a life beyond the temple.
On a Wednesday morning, before the cult, he had a self-examination of conscience. He realized that he was running away from the main focus, the one that was to expand his knowledge so that he could assist in the spiritual growth of the siblings who remained in the city of Santo dos Santos. He decided to turn to God and asked for forgiveness for having allowed himself to be led away by an illusory and satanic love.
Many questions started to arise, and to answer them, he picked up the Bible. With this, he intended to understand if there were any distinction between cultures in the sight of God, because for the young people and other believers at the church he attended, vices were part of modern life. For them, the most important thing was to be present in the Mass. A strange monologue became part of his routine.
- Is there really such a thing as a modern sacred text that works on the basis of the world’s virtues and desires? Does the desire to serve God, which once drew people to Him, still prevail? Or are there now gods within the almighty God to satisfy individual needs?
These were Mandoza`s worries until his return to his home town, the city of Santo dos Santos, which, to him, still represented the true treasure of the heavenly inheritance. When he arrived in town, the first thing he did was to visit the church where he was born, to bring to life what he had always believed in and which the City of Secret Loves had failed to take away from him for good: to give his all for the love of Christ.
However, in his community, he had a big disappointment, the good practices he grew up with did not exist anymore, the ministry changed and members were nominated as servants based on financial criteria. It was the earthly possessions that came to determine who would serve God. Thus, the heavenly mansion came to be bought. Worship services were no longer focused on the Heavenly Father and became a form of exhibitionism, where the most successful ones received the blessing and the demons themselves in the very poorest. Mandoza was outraged and his faith was in crisis, he remembered the moment his faith weakened in his time abroad. He tirelessly asked where the church’s moral compass had gone.
On one of those nights of vigil, he left the chapel to get some air, and while some brothers prayed for protection, mercy and forgiveness for God, the others, outside of the chapel, made love in their cars under the gaze of Jesus Christ, only to then enter the Lord’s temple and kneel discreetly, praying the “Our Father who art in heaven”. If one could get angry with God, Mandoza should be bearing everyone’s pain. He renounced his faith, believing that the truth of religion lies in that which has never been revealed. Envy reigned over all believers. Those who cloaked themselves in the spirit of God to take advantage of the faithful’s spiritual blindness turned the church into a center of gossip. It was then that he decided to embrace his roots. He felt it was better to serve and live in accordance with the will of his ancestors than to pretend to serve God for the benefit of a group of greedy men.
On the first Sunday of the month, he went to his grandmother`s hut to surrender himself to the will of the spirits. It was a moment of joy for her, because she believed that the grandson had awakened for life. He received the blessing and a hoyo-hoyo kava kokwana ritual. He started to use his traditional name in a gesture of honor. All the memories of the City Of Secret Loves were erased. He began to visit his ancestors’ graves frequently; his greatest wish was to be free of this earthly life, full of pitfalls. One night while sleeping, he awoke and heard loud noises calling to him in the direction of the familiar cemetery, and he went there. When he arrived, he knelt down in his grandfather`s grave and shouted: take me up into the sky. At that very moment, a serpent appeared.
The next day, as usual, the grandmother went to lay flowers in the grave and came across the grandson’s body lying on the ground, the servants who were with her manifested themselves and the spirits began to quarrel. His maternal relatives wanted him to be a servant of God, adopting modern practices to represent the family in society. On the other hand, his paternal family wanted him in the hut, serving the family spirits. The shouts reached the village and everyone watched that spectacle of spiritual conflict. Minutes later, it was decided that he had to be buried immediately, because his presence in the house would result in further deaths.
Months later, his soul started to disturb the children. The deceased want to live and to be glorified into a pure soul. In one of these attempts, the children were unable to survive and all lost their lives. To this day, the village remains in a state of gloom.
