And joy suddenly stirred in his soul, and he even stopped for a minute to catch his breath
And joy suddenly stirred in his soul, and he even stopped for a minute to catch his breath. The past, he thought, is linked with the present by an unbroken chain of events flowing one out of another. And it seemed to him that he had just seen both ends of that chain: he had touched one end, and the other had trembled.
The truth and beauty which had guided human life there in the garden and in the high priest's courtyard had continued without interruption to this very day, and had evidently always been the chief thing in human life and in all earthly existence; and the feeling of youth, health and strength (he was only twenty-two), and the inexpressibly sweet expectation of happiness, of a strange, mysterious happiness, took possession of him little by little, and life seemed to him enchanting, marvellous, and full of lofty meaning.
Perhaps Chekhov's subtlest observation on faith is to be found in the story “The Student”, whose plot rests on a student retelling to a peasant woman the Gospel scene of Peter's denial, seeing her tears, and suddenly grasping that the past has not died, that the pain of that night and the tears of a woman by a fire are going on without interruption. The story is set in Holy Week.
“If you remember, at the Last Supper Peter said to Jesus: ‘I am ready to go with thee, both into prison, and to death.’ And the Lord said to him: ‘I tell thee, Peter, the cock shall not crow this day, that is, the cockerel, before thou shalt thrice deny that thou knowest me.’ After the supper Jesus was sorrowful unto death in the garden and prayed, and poor Peter was worn out in his soul, grew weak, his eyelids were heavy, and he could not struggle against sleep. He slept. Then, you have heard, Judas that same night kissed Jesus and betrayed him to his tormentors. They led him bound to the high priest and beat him, and Peter, exhausted, tormented by anguish and alarm, do you see, not having had his sleep out, sensing that something terrible was about to happen on earth, followed after... He loved Jesus passionately, beyond all reason, and now he saw from afar how they were beating him...”
Lukerya let the spoons fall and fixed her motionless gaze on the student.
“They came to the high priest,” he went on, “they began to question Jesus, and the servants meanwhile made a fire in the middle of the courtyard, because it was cold, and warmed themselves. Peter stood with them by the fire and warmed himself too, as I am doing now. A woman, seeing him, said: ‘This man also was with Jesus’, meaning that he too ought to be taken in for questioning. And all the servants who were standing by the fire must have looked at him suspiciously and sternly, because he was confused and said: ‘I know him not.’ A little later someone again recognised him as one of Jesus's disciples and said: ‘Thou art also one of them.’ But again he denied it. And a third time someone turned to him: ‘Did not I see thee in the garden with him today?’ A third time he denied it. And immediately after that third time the cock crew, and Peter, glancing from afar at Jesus, remembered the words he had said to him at supper... He remembered, came to himself, went out of the courtyard and wept bitterly, bitterly. In the Gospel it is written: ‘And he went out, and wept bitterly.’ I imagine it: a still, still, dark, dark garden, and in the silence the faint sound of muffled sobbing...”
