How long do I have?
Maybe hours.
Then I'd better hear it now.
Hear what?
Your confession.
Bishop, I don't think...
That's what you came here for, isn't it?
I wanted to check on you.
You're searching for your faith. You think you lost it, but you only buried it. It's never left you. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. May God, who enlightens every heart, help you to know your sins and trust in his mercy.
Father, I, I...
Luka, your heart is burdened. Talk to me. Let me take that burden with me.
I don't know, I, uh, lost my family. Danijela, my wife, she wanted to move out of Vukovar but I had to finish my internship and soon it was too late, it wasn't safe to move. I was going to get some supplies and ai made them stay behind. I was just crossing the street when the mortar shell hit the apartment building.
[As Luka speaks, he has a flashback of running into his burning apartment building as air-raid sirens wail]
So, I went out to get some supplies... I made them stay behind. I was just crossing the street when a mortar shell hit the apartment building. [throws up his hands in a gesture of finality]
Go on.
I ran inside, there were my neighbors, hurt, bleeding, dying. I passed them by. I had to get to my family. A piece of shrapnel had torn into Danijela's spleen, and she was bleeding to death. When I turned back to my daughter, she wasn't breathing. I lost the pulse but, as long as I kept doing CPR and breathing for my daughter, I thought she had a chance. I could only pray that someone would get there to help. If I"d picked up Danijela at that moment and gotten her to the hospital she could have had surgery, you know? She could have lived but I couldn't leave my little girl. I waited and prayed. I prayed someone would come.
[quietly] And no one came.
No one came. I called out for hours as I sat there, breathing for her, doing CPR. [pause] I finally had to stop, from exhaustion. I lost them all.
You couldn't sacrifice the one, to save the other. Even if you had, you'd still blame yourself.
[Luka leans forward and begins crying into his hands; Stewart gently lays his hand on Luka's head]
These things can't be explained. Why it happens, the Providence of God, and the mysteries of life and death... are the very fiber of our faith. [pause] They were gifts, of love and life. You are a gift of love and life. Don't turn your back on them. God, Father of all mercies, through the death and resurrection of your only begotten son, has reconciled himself to the world and sent the Holy Spirit among us for the forgiveness of sins through the ministry of Holy Church. May God give you pardon and peace and I absolve you of all your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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