“Elijah in Jerusalem” by Michael D. O’Brien
Ignatius Press, San Francisco, 2015, 282 pages, grades 11 and higher.
The final book of the Bible, the Book of Revelation or The Apocalypse, is difficult to interpret. It is challenging to understand because it has so much symbolic imagery in the text. The meaning of the Book of Revelation will always remain an educated guess at best.
Novelists have also used the Book of Revelation as a sort of outline for historical events as well. In societies where faith is growing cold and tyranny seemingly to be on the rise, it holds a gripping interest for many people. The basic question is about the appearance of the end times. Michael O’Brien writes about these ideas in his apocalyptic novel, “Elijah in Jerusalem.”
While making no claims of infallibility about the Book of Revelation, he writes a compelling story about the Church under persecution in contemporary times.
Elijah is a Jew saved from the Holocaust through the love of a Catholic man. As he grows into manhood he is at first an atheist, then a Catholic and finally a Carmelite priest. His brilliance and holiness are recognized within the Church. At the same time, governments, multinational corporations and religious bodies begin to desire one giant world society. This society would be a utopia freed from religious and racial injustice.
Within this society a man (“The President”) arises, capable of doing almost anything. He makes peace between warring nations, solves religious disputes and brings a “peace” to the entire world. Unknown to his millions of admirers, he is also a sadistic murderer bent on serving diabolical forces. The pope has privately consecrated Father Elijah a bishop and he is later sent to the Holy Land to try to convert this “great man” from a life of iniquity. He is accompanied on this arduous journey by a holy, simplistic brother named Enoch.
When they get to Jerusalem, the city is buzzing with the news that the President is going to arrive in the Holy City and make a final announcement on Temple Mount about the establishment of an overarching, one-world religion. Situated above the Jewish Wailing Wall, Temple Mount is also a mosque from which Muslims believe that Mohammad ascended to heaven to gain religious knowledge. Obviously, The President will use this site to demonstrate that he has superseded all religions and is bringing forward the totality of religious truth. The President will then preside over this new political/theological order and lead mankind into an era of unsurpassed peace and prosperity.
But Bishop Elijah knows that The President actually worships the father of lies. The bishop has been sent to confront The President and to try to convert him to Christ. As the final confrontation begins, cardinals in the Catholic Church, imams from Islam, rabbis from Judaism and even atheists gather to support The President at this new great announcement. From the select crowd, Bishop Elijah and Brother Enoch step forward and challenge the The President. What happens?
This novel is the third novel in the Father Elijah series. There is a tendency in difficult times to want to know the exact days and times of future events predicted in the Book of Revelation. O’Brien shows that characters with these tendencies have refused to follow sound spiritual direction, because “that day or that hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” (Mark 13:32)
But O’Brien’s novel accurately uses fiction to paint a picture of a society discounting God’s divine assistance and replacing it with man-made plans. The current events he so strikingly writes about can be seen throughout contemporary society. The best advice comes from Our Lord: “Take heed, watch and pray; for you do not know when the time will come.” (Mark 13:33) I hope you get a chance to read this fine novel.
