He told them that as below, so above. No one understood what that meant until slums began to appear in Heaven, and then crime."
"Crime in Heaven?" Mack said. "I can't believe that."
"You'd be surprised what goes on here. It was along about that time that He suddenly told everyone that He wasn't God at all, not the big one, the immanent, the indwelling, no, He was standing in for God because God had had something else to do. But everyone wondered what that could be. Some suspected that He was starting things all over again in another space and time, and this time simplifying them so that they worked. It was felt by general consent that God was disappointed with how things had turned out in this universe, though of course, being a gentleman, He'd never breathed a word about it.
Perhaps 'intimated' would be a better word."
Mack stared at the bearded man in the white robe, then said, "You really are God, aren't you?"
"Well, yes, in a manner of speaking. What's the matter?"
"Oh, nothing," Mack said.
"No, no, not at all."
"I know that's what you're thinking. Remember, I'm omniscient. That's one of my attributes."
"I know. Omnipotence, too."
"Well, yes, that. But that's a power best left in abeyance. God's real task is resisting His own omnipotence and refusing to be bound by it."
"Bound by omnipotence? How can that be?"
"Omnipotence is a strong hindrance when combined with omniscience and compassion. There's always such a temptation to interfere on the side of gentleness, to right a wrong."
"So why not do that?"
"If I put my omnipotence in the service of my omniscience, the result would be a clockwork universe.
There'd be no free will. No one would suffer the consequences of their actions. I'd always have to be there to see that no sparrow fell from the sky, that no person died in a traffic accident, that no doe was ever taken by a leopard, that no human went hungry, naked, cold, that no one died before their time, or, indeed, why not go all the way and make it so they don't die at all?"
"That sounds good to me," Mack said.
"That's because you haven't thought it through. Suppose everything that ever had been continued to exist.
All of them with their claims, their priorities, their desires. All of which must be met. And of course some other arrangements must be made. If the leopard isn't allowed to eat the doe, then we have to provide other food for him. Turn him into a vegetarian? But what makes you think that plants don't know they're being eaten, and don't resent it as much as you would if someone were eating you? You see the ramifications. It would leave me doing everything, interfering constantly. People's lives would be unutterably boring if I did all the important stuff for them."
"I see there's quite a lot for You to think about," Mack said. "But then, You're omniscient. That must help."
"My omniscience tells me to limit my omnipotence."
"And what about Good and Evil?"
"Well, I realized, of course, that it was absolutely important, but I could never quite figure out which was which. It was all very complicated. I had deliberately projected this less-than-godlike image of myself.
Even though I am a god, and the only God at that, I still had a right to be humble. And I had the right to give myself something to be humble about. Even though I was omniscient and omnipotent, I refused to use those powers. I felt it was an unnecessary restriction, trying to make Good right all the time. It seemed very partisan and onesided to have to support Good constantly. Anyhow, since I was omniscient in those days, I knew that in some ultimate analysis, Good and Evil were complementary, equal. Not that that solved anything. I refused to be checked by it. I said the trouble with knowing everything was that you never learned anything. I preferred to go on learning. Maybe I did know the secret reason behind everything. I never let myself know what that secret was. I have said that even God is entitled to His secrets, and had the right and duty not to know everything."
"But what am I supposed to learn from all this?" Mack said.
"That you're as free as I am. It may not be much, but it's something, isn't it?"
CHAPTER 7
There's always a letdown after something as big as a Millennial contest. Soon after it was over, Azzie found himself at loose ends again. He decided to see what had happened to Faust and the others.
He found Faust in a tavern outside of Cracow. Amazingly enough, the angel Babriel was also there, sitting with him in a booth and drinking a beer. They welcomed Azzie when he came in and offered him a drink.
Faust continued his conversation, saying, "Did you hear that dame, Ananke? That was Marguerite, who earlier did everything she could to win me!"
"It was nothing personal, old boy," Babriel said. "She was speaking as Necessity."
"Yes, but why did Ananke choose her?" He thought about it a moment, then said, "I suppose it's because she had the qualities that Necessity required in its blind direction of human destiny."
Babriel blinked, sipped his ichor, put it down. "You see that, do you? You've learned something, Faust!"
"Not enough," Faust said. "We could have done it, Babriel! We humans, I mean. We could have thrown off all the yokes. If only I'd…"
"Not you alone," Babriel said. "I hate to sound smug, but it was the failings of all mankind that were judged, not just yours."
"There's something unsound about it," Faust said. "It's rigged against us from the beginning. They find what qualities we're lacking, then say that those are the ones they want, and that we lose because we don't have them. When we get those qualities, they have something else in mind. But where would they even get the idea of how we should behave if not from us?"
True enough," Babriel said. "Come now, let's not talk politics. The game is over. Let's have a drink, talk over the good times we had, and be on our way."
Just then Mack came in, singing a student's song. Since the contest he had pulled himself together remarkably. He was a merchant now, and on his way to becoming wealthy. He had a beautiful girlfriend who looked a lot like Marguerite. Since his visit to Heaven, he had taken up his life on Earth again with good cheer.
The others gathered around him. Azzie asked, "So what did He say?"
"Who?"
"God, of course. We watched from the Palace of Justice as you mounted into Heaven. What did you learn?"
Mack blinked and looked uncomfortable. "I can't say that I learned anything. Anyhow, it wasn't God I saw. It was just a friend of His."
"Not exactly. My understanding was, I got to do whatever I wanted with my own life. And that's what I'm doing."
"Is that all you can tell us?"Azzie asked.
Mack frowned and didn't answer. Then he smiled again.
"Come, friends," he said, "I've reserved a table for us at the Wounded Duck. They have a roast goose ready for us. Well eat and toast our accomplishments and laugh at our failures."
That seemed a good idea to everyone. But Faust said he'd be along later. He left the tavern and walked down Little Casimir Street, and came to the elegant little tea shop where he'd arranged to meet Helen.
He went in.
Helen was seated at a little table, sipping orange pekoe. She smiled coldly when he entered and sat down.
"So, my dear," Faust said, "you gave those old ladies the slip. And you've come back to me!"
"Only to say good-bye, Johann," Helen said.
"Oh? That is your decision?"
"I've decided to return to Achilles," Helen said, nodding. "That's a necessary part of the Helen archetype.
I returned finally to Menelaus when he was my husband, you know."
"Well, I suppose it's for the best," Faust said, not really sorry to see her go, because she was entirely too much of a good thing. "Our archetypes aren't well suited to each other. We are both dominant, unique.