Up to God
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Up to God is a story by the Austrian writer Peter Rosegger , published in 1885 by Hartleben in Vienna .
content
Coming from a wealthy family deeply rooted in the Catholic faith, Hiron does not want to pursue a career in the church after his ordination , but rather to serve God in humility . The young clergyman will soon have the opportunity to do so. The consistory sent him as a chaplain to the high mountains in Klarau to the small farmers and forest people. On Christmas Eve in the hamlet of Auf der Scheiben the old wood master Hans lies dying. Hansen's elderly wife sends the 20-year Blasel a tight writing to Klarau down to a clergyman to Versehgang to ask. Hiron's superior, the frail pastor from Klarau, could not survive the two-hour walk from the valley into the mountains. So Hiron agrees. For Christmas mass he will surely be down in the Klarau church again.
The cretin Blasel looks like a twelve-year-old and gives an incomprehensible answer - if at all. Nevertheless, Blasel knows the way. As an altar boy , Blasel leads Hiron deep into the mountains with a candle that burns in a lantern and a ringing bell . Soon the path becomes narrower, steeper and more bumpy. Ice needles fall from the fog, later flakes. The chaplain carries the ciborium with the host in it. In the snowstorm, the two meet a girl at a fork in the road. Blasel rings respectfully with his bell. The guide and acolyte then does not take the path to the left into the windows, but to the right into the karen . It gets steeper. Far above, the dead ovens block the way. From the cliff in the snow, Hiron sees no way back. Blasel is unresponsive and sleepy. The chaplain takes care of his companion, warms him and watches over his deep sleep all through Christmas Eve. He builds an altar for the ciborium out of stones. He can no longer hand the host to the dying man to whom he was called. The city dweller has never experienced the high mountains with the rising moon at midnight and the sunrise on the following Christmas morning. He is astonished. In this way, his piety, which was previously only directed towards the sacrament, is expanded to include love for one's neighbor and admiration for creation.
After Hiron was looked for by Klarauern on Christmas Day and found together with Blasel, who had finally awakened, he had to find out: Hans died. Hiron goes to the self-made altar and takes the host on behalf of the dead Hans. The rescued clergyman faints, is brought down to the valley on a makeshift braided stretcher and is strengthened in the village by the Klarauers. In the church square he says to the crowd as a “solemn sermon” just three sentences about the greatness of God that he experienced that night.
On top of the window, the old wood master Hans died comforted anyway. His childhood friend and long-time enemy, the poacher Peter, had come and forgave the dying man for his "act of friendship" years ago. At the time, the hunter Hans reported Peter for poaching .
expenditure
- Up to God . In: Peter Rosegger: The Wanderer's Story Book . First volume. A. Hartleben's Verlag, Vienna 1885 (1st edition).
- Up to God . In: The Wanderer's Story Book . 7th edition. tape 1 . A. Hartleben's Verlag, Vienna 1898, p. 55-79 ( archive.org ).
- Up to God . In: Peter Rosegger: The book of novels. Second volume, L. Staackmann. Leipzig 1915, pp. 387-410.
Individual evidence
- ↑ The Wanderer's Story Book 1885, 2 vol.