Francis woke up early but did not get out of bed, instead, he propped himself up against the headboard and began to organized his activities for the day. It was a Wednesday and it was going to be a very busy day at the office. There were UN officials arriving from New York to discuss the plans submitted by the Brazilian government for the resettlement of some of the Amazonian Tribal villages to more accessible region of the tropical jungle. The W.H.O. had asked Francis to review the environmental and the adverse social disruption impact statements prepared by the experts hired by the mining companies and supported by the Brazilian natural resources departments. Off and on, he had worked on the project. Over five years of experience working with the Tribes for the Church, he had acquired their trust and affection. Ostensibly he had treated them not as savages but humans of different ideology about the divinity and way of life. This approach worked much better than the standardize process of conversion adopted by the Jesuits and other missionaries everywhere else in the world. He was more interested in improving their lot than saving their souls. He had written several reports and worked on their behalf with the UN and other NGOs to protect their lands and waters. The position he was holding came to his way because of this work being admired by the journalists and others. His mind was already engaged in that day's agenda and his personal issues had taken the backseat for now.

Sitting upright in the bed Francis was revisiting his years in the Amazonian jungles and at the cusp of what we call a civilized world. Then in mid-nineteen sixties, he was a young man with lots of enthusiasm and zeal for saving the souls of those who he thought as the innocent and untouched by the sinful ways of the modern world. The material in his monastery he had studied related to that assignment was mostly the chronicles of others like him who had spent their lives among the tribes of Africa, Indian Eastern jungles and Papua New Guinea. The central theme and the focus of those reports primarily was the pitiable conditions of the natives, their inferior and misconceived notions about life, living and the divinity, all of which needed the attention of the civilized world basking in the glory of the Father, The Son and The Holy Ghost- in essence that of the wealthy Christian kingdoms of Eighteenth and Nineteenth century Europe. The descriptions of traditions and cultural ethos were depicted in the most effective and vividly shocking use of vocabulary and rituals described in such abysmal ways as to have a dreadful picture in the minds of the readers. All this done for the fund raising in the name of religion and to arouse pity for the poor devils.

When he arrived at the Mission out post in 1980, at the Sau Paulo cost, he was full of apprehension and somewhat disappointed. During his early days at the Vatican, he was seen as a rising star because of his extra ordinary attractive personality, diligent working habits and exceptional knowledge of the Scripture and Roman Catholic liturgies. Most Dioceses are located in the prestigious places and an attractive priest was an asset that made positive impressions on the benefactors of the church. Accordingly, it was expected that he would be working in the Arch Diocese of Boston or San Francisco but then in his confession, he had confided to his mentor, a Dominican senior clergy, his sexual dreams and then, a difference in attitudes and avoidance, began to show in the beginning among the lower ranking officials and later, became plainly visible in the upper echelons of the hierarchy. No one mentioned Boston after that and he landed here in Brazil-a posting to cure him of his abnormal mental affection for the attractive males.

The years rolled out quickly and the world forgot him and his total absorption into solving the daily problems of unimportant people became his obsession. Devout as he was to the teachings of his Master, he was constantly thinking of love and kindness. It was no wonder that his favorite Saint has been the Francis of Assisi. He learned several dialects and studied their spiritual approaches to the divinity and was attracted to their lack of desires to acquire what the modern world would kill for-the commercial booties. They, in their own rights were inventive and intelligent people who knew how to make the best of what nature offers to humanity. Without disturbing their way of life, he began educating them in the ways of modern civilization and the value of freedom they had. He wrote to higher ups in Brazil and Vatican about the destruction of their habitat, pollution of their rivers and fishing grounds and finally to NGOs in New York, London and U.N.O.

His work under the banner of Roman Catholic Church had taken a major shift. Instead of bringing the savages into the RC system of faith, he was taking them towards the Gnostic path of Thomas and Phillip. The very path that was denounced by the early Roman Church official like the Bishop of Antioch-Ignatius, Clement and Valentinus, began to creep into his mind after he read a scholarly translations of Gnostic accounts of intimacy of Jesus with Thomas and Mary Magdalene in the newly discovered 52 texts in 1945. The findings of text from the time of Jesus and the first and second century at Nag Hammadi in Egyptian cave, also included the gospel of truth and the Apocalypse of Paul, Secrete Book of James(brother of Jesus), Apocalypse of Peter-to name few. The history of early Christian era indicated that Christians outside the Rome, did not accept the Roman Catholic doctrine of hierarchical organization to reach the God(Bishop to Layman) and the challenge to that authority was reflected in those ancient writings of individuals who were close to Jesus while he was alive and spreading the message of love and forgiveness which the later Gospels of Luke and Mathew etc., did not emphasize. The impact of this, and the experiences he had in the Vatican just before getting posted to this post influenced him, perhaps unconsciously. It reflected in his outlook towards building his flock by properly performing the convertion and baptizing rituals. Now his sermons were covering more of spiritual aspect of the life of Jesus and the love for humanity, rather than emphasizing on the Dogma of humanity's sinful birth. There was no supervision of his work as the nearest Diocese was thousands of miles away and he got away with the freedom he took just like a nun in Calcutta, India was taking and serving the humanity in the footsteps of the Savior.

As his work among the Tribes was growing and bearing fruits of slow movement towards assimilation of indigenous people in the modern world, his dissatisfaction towards the Church's handling of requests for more funds also was growing. More often than not, he would receive letters demanding explanations for the money spent for books and school supplies and not enough demand for the literature related to Church and Bible. In his mind, he was doing his job of presenting the universal message of Jesus and then leaving things as they were so as to give that choice of conversion to those who wanted to work in the church. He used no special pressures on anyone and tried to understand their faith and the vision of nature as the embodiment of life, the life-force living around them and the divinity that needed no special actions from them, except to love and respect the God's gifts to all living creatures. They took what they needed and in return, protected the God's world surrounding them. What need do they have for a Pope, Bishop or a Priest? He questioned himself. Who was there when Jesus was giving the Sermon on the Mount? Slowly but surely, he was falling out of step with his mother Church- the very institute that had initiated him in his childhood to perform the Holy Duties of the Lord, neatly packaged into a fail-proof and liturgically sound modus operandi that had come through two thousand years of history of saving the souls.

It was in the seventh year of his service to that region when things started to become difficult at the beginning and physically rough in just a short time. Sounds of heavy machinery began to come closer and closer and then one day he received a letter from the Diocese of Sau Paulo asking him to attend a meeting related to his work of past few years. It was a brief letter without a clue about the nature or the attendees of the meeting. He tossed it in the burning log in his cottage. Another three months passed and one day, a native young man came to him with a hand-delivered envelop with Brazilian Government's marking.

It was a letter he never thought he will read in his life. It was a request sounding order to vacate the premises within ninety days because the territory was leased to a Brazilian-US conglomerate for the development of entire region and to implement the resettlement of the indigenous citizens of Brazil as a part of a welfare scheme approved by the government and UN agency responsible for them.

There was nothing he could do but explain the situations to his friends and companions of past seven years that their life was going to go topsy turvy. With the news of violation of their sacred river, uprooting of surrounding trees and destruction of habitats of those animals who have been giving up their lives to feed them, they were, all confused in the beginning but then they got together in the meeting hut of their villages and made a choice. Overnight they were gone. The meager belongings and having no permanent structures; they could just get in their canoes and move with the river as their ancestors had done ever since the civilized Europeans had set their foot upon their lands.

Francis was devastated as he was preparing to fight for them and was planning to appeal the highest authorities in any organization including the Pope in Vatican. Now, there were none left for his church to save their souls but then, they were not important human beings after all to anyone else but to him. Wearily he went to Sau Paulo and was received cordially but with some sort of disdain and indifference to his cause. Three days letter he was given the marching orders to move to that small parish in New Mexico, USA. The seed of resentment towards the church's authority planted in the last days of his stay in the Vatican was turning into a sapling now. What he saw in that scheme for resettlement was a political expediency and that made him sick in his heart. The end-result was that he rebelled against the church authorities who he thought were not listening to His Master's voice. At last he had stormed out of the parsonage on that fateful night and that's where this story began.

Here in that efficiency apartment in Rio, he was pondering about the reviews and recommendations he was to make to the very same authorities he was planning to appeal earlier. He had gone through those reports on the environmental impacts etc., but he had read nothing mentioned about the people who left him and vanished in the thin air overnight. He had nothing to add to that report and wanted no part of that hypocrisy.

"I was sent to save their souls; I couldn't even save their way of life. What recommendations can I give? Go after them, hunt them down, and spread diseases like the Conquistadors of the past?! No sir; I thought I gave them my faith but in reality, I am the one who received from them what they could freely give- love for each other, innocence, respect for the living spirit surrounding us, and it is they who taught me how to love like my Master loved Thomas and Mary Magdalene. They saved my soul."

He picked up the Gnostic Gospel, the book about Nag Hammadi findings by Professor Elaine Pagels, opened page [xx] and read a quote of Jesus:
"I am not your master. Because you have drunk, you have become drunk from the bubbling stream which I have measured out. ... He who will drinks from my mouth will become as I am: I myself shall become he, and things that are hidden will be revealed to him."

Francis let the book slide out of his hand and sat motionless. He was reflecting on his life's journey and accessing the merits of his work. "Did I drink from the mouth of my Master?" He questioned himself but couldn't get a satisfactory answer from his alter ego. "What does He mean by 'the bubbling stream which I have measured out?' He began to ponder on that point.
" I have not found an answer for this anywhere in the Old or New Testament but then, how could anyone find answer there? The whole book is filled with the parables- stories, do's, don't and repentance and forgiving for the Sins; all designed for the gentiles and no explanation or interpretations of the divine Gnosis as if reserved only for the special apostolic group. There can be no other meaning in that statement but a reference to the unselfish and pure love for each other and that is the bubbling stream the Master referred to and I think it exists in every heart; just have to find it and with the help of my Master, I will!" With that thought, he made up his mind and got out of bed to get ready to go to his office.