A portion of Ka’s narration in “The Book of Miracles” chapter caught my attention, while she and her parents attend midnight mass on Christmas morning. After showing reluctance to attend through her comments during the ride to church, her casual dress, and her choice to smoke a cigarette before entering the pews, she makes an observation of her mother:
“Midnight on Christmas Eve was Anne’s favorite sixty seconds of the year… It was the time when birds were supposed to being chirping their all-night songs to greet the holy birth, when other animals were to genuflect and trees down in reverence… water in secrets wells and far-off rivers and streams was turning into wine; bells were chiming with help only from the breeze; candles, lanterns and lamps were blinking like the Star of Bethlehem. The gates of Paradise were opened, so anyone who died this minute could enter without passing through Purgatory. The Virgin Mary was choosing among the sleeping children of the world for some to invite to Heaven to serenade her son.”
She connects the death of her brother to her mother’s fixation on midnight mass, which made me question the correct way to read the above passage. Is it a.) an honest emphasis of the significance of midnight mass as a moment for her mother to see her son has found peace? or b.) a sardonic description of her mother’s reliance on midnight mass, following the death of her son, to restore her faith?
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