---

Reconciliation of Victor
with His Family

On Sunday, Victor and Zosia met as agreed.

Zosia asked:

“Does your father love sweets?”

“Very much! But how did you know?”

“I didn’t, but now I know! Let’s buy some tea cakes and go to visit him!”

“You’re bold! But okay, let’s go! It’s not like it would make matters worse!”

* * *

They stood in front of the solid carved door of the apartment in which Professor Danilevsky, Victor’s father, lived.

“Well, ring the doorbell, if you say that you have the ‘magic touch’,” — Victor joked, visibly worried. He, as usual, tried to hide his emotions behind jokes.

A pretty, middle-aged woman, wearing a fluffy knitted shawl on her shoulders, opened the door.

Victor greeted her, saying:

“Hello, Natalya! Is father home?”

“He’s home, he’s home! Peter, Peter! Victor’s here and he’s with a girl!”

… Her voice trembled with joyful excitement.

Victor’s father, too, was clearly delighted, and with great difficulty hid the emotions that were overwhelming him.

He introduced himself, saying:

“I’m Peter! And what is the name of this beautiful young lady?”

“This is Zosia! And these are tea cakes! Shall we drink some tea?” — Victor, without any ceremony, said.

When the initial excitement subsided and everyone was sitting at the table, some tension started to be felt. Therefore, Victor’s father decided to transfer the conversation to Zosia.

“Tell us, please, my dear, how did you manage to get acquainted with this rebel and joker?”

“At the exam. I entered the Women’s Medical Institute, and Victor and his friends were helping to organize everything there.”

“And were you able to successfully get in?”

“Yes, they accepted me!”

“You must, I suppose, also be a rebel and a revolutionary, like my Victor? Now all the youth seems to be plagued by these ideas about freedom and equality!”

… Victor intervened, saying:

“You didn’t guess correctly, papa! Zosia does not share my ideas at all, but we, nevertheless, have never quarreled!”

“Wonders!”

“Exactly! Zosia is some kind of important specialist in miracles! Imagine, she says that she knew a ‘real saint’ — the elder Zosima. She will now crush our medical atheism, and Natalya will find full support in her views and in matters of faith.”

“That’s great! This means that there will be balance in the religious life of our family, which means that there will then be peace and harmony in everything else!

“And tell us, Zosia, something about this elder. I promise not to mock, honestly! I really would be interested to hear about this from the lips of a future doctor. So, are there miracles that cannot be explained with materialistic science? And what of such miracles have you, yourself, seen? And which ones of those among them could convince scientists-materialists?”

“Of course, such miracles do exist! However, people understand miracles differently. Turning water into wine or walking on the surface of the water — these are miracles that the elder Zosima never performed. He, nevertheless, healed many!

“But his wisdom was expressed in a different way. The help that he provided transformed souls, turning them to the path of kindness and love! Helping a person to become calmer and wiser, or to straighten his or her life into the light, can also be considered a miracle! And inspiring people to do good deeds when one previously didn’t want to do them at all — is this not also a real miracle?”

“Well, my dear, then, it turns out, that I also perform miracles: I test vaccines against diseases and I create medicines.”

“Yes! But, in these deeds, you do not think that it is God Who helps people through you, helping them to develop common understanding and wisdom.”

“So, it turns out, you believe, my dear, that common understanding and science do not in any way contradict faith in God?”

“Of course, they do not! The deeper scientists study everything in this world, the more clear the Great Power will become for them, Which always governs everything in the universe. This is as the elder Zosima said. I’m just now reading one of his student’s notes about him.”

“And what, were you a witness of such events that took place beyond the scope of understanding of materialistic science, such as, medicine, for example?”

“Yes!”

* * *

What Zosia told after that, came as a complete surprise to everyone.

“I will talk about the most important event in my life.

“I was fourteen then. At that time, my faith in God waned. There was a time back then when I seemed to feel offended at God, because He did not fulfill my prayers and healing requests for some patients. The elder Zosima had already been gone for 6 years, and an admonition from his disciple, fr. Alexander, only slightly convinced me.

“It so happened that my father became infected when he went to a remote village to fight the sudden outbreak of a plague that was brought there by visitors from Transbaikalia. There were only a few cases of the disease, and my father managed to stop its spread.

“But when he returned, he realized that he himself had, nevertheless, become infected. Then he locked himself in his office, and did not let anyone in: neither my mother, nor me, nor other doctors. He did not allow anyone to intervene. He had medicine, but he was dying.

“When I saw through the door window that he had lost consciousness and had fallen to the floor, I could not stand it and began to try to open the office door.

“At that moment, I was alone and no one could stop me.

“I don’t remember now how I managed to open the lock! This was the first miracle, because it turned out that I was able to select the right key almost immediately.

“Although, of course, we can assume that there are such coincidences…

“I locked the door again from the inside and stayed with papa. For two days, I looked after him.

“And then he died…

“That he really died was not my imagination. Of course, I was still a child then, but a child who grew up in a hospital. And I could not be mistaken!

“During those days, there was no limit to my despair! I prayed, believed, and hoped — I went through all this. But he… died!

“And then I saw the elder Zosima: his intangible appearance appeared next to me, coming out from the Light. It was not a dream, not nonsense. I was in clear state of mind.

“I asked:

‘Give dad back! I will believe, I will live the way you teach! I will agree to everything! I’m ready to do anything, just return dad! Ask God! I know you can!’

“Death is just the other side of life…” — was his answer.

“I seemed to cry then through tears:

‘Do something! All my life I will live only for God, I will be obedient! Just bring him back!’

“And then, in that Light, I saw my dad, hugged him, and did not let go… Then I fainted.

“When I woke up, papa was breathing…

“I did not know how much time had passed, apparently not much, but anyway, this usually doesn’t happen!

“Dad — he was alive!

“He was recovering very quickly, and I didn’t get sick!

“It was then that I was ‘cured’ of life without God… I’m sure that it is forever! I then understood a lot about life, about death, about faith, and about trials. I won’t talk about it now. In that moment, I felt and deeply realized that each of us has not only our own earthly father, but also the Heavenly Father!

“I was given another five years of life with my dad. He died last year; no one could have cancelled it.

“And now, I want to become a doctor who can treat patients together with God! This does not mean that all patients will recover miraculously. That is another matter. But I know for sure that so much more can be done to help people!

“And I must keep my promise to Him!”

* * *

Natalya wiped her tears with a handkerchief.

Victor looked at Zosia and realized that he had not just fallen in love, but that an unusual girl had come into his life, who, with her simple words and similarly simple deeds, changes the circumstances around him!

In this particular case, she reconciled him with his father. And right now, she was changing his whole life! And to not love her would be impossible!

Peter said:

“You are so amazing, Zosia! And I’m so glad that my son met you! Truly, I am very happy! Although, I admit, I do not know how to give compliments: sentimentality is completely alien to me.

“By the way, I am often in correspondence with Dr. Vladimir Khavkin from the University of Lausanne, a student of Mechnikov, who recently created a cholera vaccine and is now working on a vaccine against the plague. He is an incredible person! By the way, he is also a very deep believer, but his religion is Judaism. If you are interested, Zosia, my new book includes a chapter on these studies of his and on the need to introduce their results in Russia.

“And by the way, my dear, I have already finished the book. I would need to find a reliable person who could type the text on a typewriter. Do you, Victor, have a friend, who is not an underachiever and who would like to earn some extra money? I found one typist, but so many mistakes in medical terms were made by her that all her work was wasted…”

Zosia suggested:

“Can I try to do this job? You can show me the manuscript. And if I can easily understand the handwriting, I’ll quickly do it. I had to type a lot for my father and for the hospital.

“Only, I have no typewriter.

“And I do not want to do it for the money…

“I only ask that I may be allowed to type the text from a notebook about the elder Zosima, if possible?”

Victor’s father and Zosia went to the office to look at the manuscript.

Natalya said:

“Thank you, Victor, for forgiving me and your father! Thank you for coming! If you only knew how worried he was!…”

“It’s all thanks to Zosia. If things will continue as they are, I might even start believing in miracles myself,” — Victor answered, smiling calmly.

He understood that the resentment against his father and the hostility to his father’s new wife had now disappeared without a trace, as if it were swept away by the purity of that state of love that was now awakening in the soul.