There once was a farmer by the name of Damascules. This man was once a soldier of fortune. When he turned back to God and Christ and his religious upbringing, he hung up his sword of fortune on a hook, from the ceiling of the root cellar, amidst the drying herbs and cut flowers. He soon married a woman that shared his beliefs and had an only child. All three did their best to have faith in God and to follow in the comforting love of Jesus Christ.
One day, three days after Damascules only daughter was engaged, she went down into the root cellar to get some potatoes for the stew she and her mother were making for her father and her husband-to-be. As she went down into the cellar the candle she was holding shone upon her father’s sword of fortune and the blade glinted ominously. As a thought in her head startled her, she began to cry, and then eventually she began to sob uncontrollably. Her mother, wondering what was taking her daughter so long in the cellar, stopped what she was doing, and went down the dirt steps where she heard her daughter weeping. Very concerned she asked her daughter what was wrong. In deep heartache, her daughter said in between sorrowful tears, “My candle glinted upon my father’s sword of fortune and I realized that after my marriage, my son, your only grandson, will come down here to get potatoes, and this sword will fall down and kill him!” The mother, distraught at this bit of news, collapsed next to her daughter and started to lament right along with her.
Meanwhile, back in the sitting room, Damascules, who was starting to get very hungry, was running out of things to say to his intended son-in-law, excused himself. Walking into the kitchen looking for dinner, he heard the sorrowful lamenting and sobbing out in the root cellar. He then rushed down into the cellar and saw his wife and daughter holding each other in grief and despair. Trembling and expecting the worse he asked what was wrong and then being told in between sniffles and sudden gasps of air, he too slumped down next to them and began to wail right along in unison.
Eventually, the commotion down in the root cellar became louder. Loud enough for the soon-to-be husband to hear and to become very alarmed. He ran out to the cellar and hurried down the steps. Peering inside and with the flickering of a dying candle saw three huddled and tormented souls. Perplexed beyond measure he inquired what was wrong. Moaning in his spirit the father repeated the soon-to-be incident of the happening of his only grandson. Amazed at this incredible tale, the young man stepped forward and reaching above their heads, grabbed the sword of Damascules from off its hook and with great effort bent and snapped the bade in half and tossed the sword of fortune upon the dirt floor and kicked it into the corner of the cellar. This young man shook his head in disbelief and said to the farmer and his wife, “I will go and search the world far and wide for three more sillies worse than yourselves, and when I find them I will come back and marry your daughter, and then he left.
St. Matthew 3:15 KJV
And Jesus answering said unto him, “(Allow) it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfill all (Conformity to God’s Will).