Steve knelt in the cramped confessional and crossed himself. “Forgive me Father, for I have sinned.”
        “Bless you, my son,” Father Ignatius replied.
        “It’s been a long time since my last confession, and I’ve committed a terrible sin.”
        “Go on…”
        “Well, Father, it began a year ago, when I invented a time machine.”  
        “You what?”
        “I know it sounds crazy, but I’m a scientist and I developed a machine that can take you back in time…”
    
Father Ignatius had heard a lot of strange stories in his twenty years as a priest, but this was a new one. “Ok, go ahead and tell me more…”
        “It’s like this…at first it was fine…I went back in time and bought stocks I knew had gone up in price.  In a couple of months I was rich, richer than you can imagine.  But, I didn’t hurt anything, I was just making money…”  
        “Then what happened?” Father Ignatius asked.
        “I had this problem and I took care of it.”
        “What kind of problem?”
        “You see, Father, the Securities and Exchange Commission opened an inquiry regarding my trading.  One of their agents saw a pattern in my stock buying and got suspicious.  He began to investigate…”
        “What happened then?”
        “I had no choice. I went back in time and killed him when he was a baby–I made it look like he had suffocated in his crib.”
        “My God, you committed murder! You expect me to forgive you for that?”
        “I know, Father, it’s a terrible thing. Please forgive me.  I don’t want to go to hell for my sin.”           Father Ignatius shook his head. “You need to go to the police.  You need to confess your crime.”           “I can’t. I’d have to tell them about the time machine. They’d take it away from me. Then the government would probably use it for something much worse.  You see, Father, I can’t tell them anything.”
        
The priest mulled this over.  There was logic to what his parishioner was saying; the government would probably use it for some evil purpose. Ignatius looked out the screen of the confessional at the inside of his church. Like most days, attendance was sparse. It was a trend he dreaded; not just here, but at most churches. Other religions, heathen faiths, were growing around the world, but his Church was shrinking in membership. If only there was a way to energize the faithful.
        Suddenly, the priest had an epiphany: God was showing him the way, right here, right now.
        “My son, I have an idea—a way for you to redeem yourself in the eyes of God. But there are a few things you must do…”
        “Anything, Father, anything at all.”
        “Once my mission is complete, you will need to destroy the time machine.  The temptation to sin is too great.”
        “Of course, Father, I’ll destroy it. But, what is the mission?”  
        “I need to use the machine, to go back in time, to Christ’s time. I need to bring back proof of His miracles.  That will energize the faithful, and bring growth and prosperity to the Church.”
        “Then I’ll be forgiven for my sins?”
        “Absolutely, my son. God will forgive you.”
    
The next day, Father Ignatius went to Steve’s lab. The time machine looked like a huge MRI, similar to those found in hospital diagnostic departments. Steve hovered over the controls, making some adjustments.  Then he told the priest to enter the machine.  “Lie down,” he said, “on your back.”

        “You sure it’ll work?” the priest asked nervously.  
        “I’ve used it plenty of times. Don’t worry.”
    
Ignatius had dressed in a simple tunic, sandals, and a flowing robe, clothing that would blend in with the people of the time. Underneath the robe, in a pocket, he carried his digital camera and a dictionary of Aramaic, the language used during Jesus’ time.
        He gave Steve the location and the date and closed his eyes. Within minutes, he felt a strange current flowing through his body. He heard a loud boom, opened his eyes and saw a brilliant flash of light.
    
Suddenly, he was in a large field, with an enormous crowd of peasants gathered around a small group of men.  In the center of the field   stood a young, tall, bearded man in white robes. Jesus looked similar to what the priest had imagined.  Amazed the machine had worked, the priest crossed himself. He was at the sermon described in Matthew 14:13-21 and Luke 9:10-1; here, Jesus would feed five thousand people with five loaves of bread and two fishes. The priest readied his camera and walked over to the group.
    
As he got closer to the disciples, he could hear them arguing; having studied Aramaic, he understood most of what they were saying. They were telling Jesus that the people were hungry and that there was not enough food to feed them.  Jesus took the five loaves and two fishes and told them to sit down. Looking up to the sky, he blessed the group, broke the bread and gave it to the disciples to set before the multitudes.
        But there wasn’t enough to go around. There wasn’t nearly enough.
        Fights broke out among the hungry peasants. The crowd, seeing there was no food, left the field and headed home. Confused, Ignatius approached the group of disciples. They were quarrelling among themselves. Jesus knelt at the center of the group, a pained look on his face. His weary eyes again looked up at the sky. He was obviously praying, but so quietly the priest could not hear the words.
        Saddened, the priest returned to the machine.
    
The blinding flash again, the loud boom, and suddenly Ignatius was back in the lab.
        “How’d it go, Father?” Steve asked, after he shut down the machine.
        “Not like I expected.”
        “What do you mean?”
        Father Ignatius shook his head. “Sometimes faith is better than fact.” 
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                       About the Author
     
        Lee Gimenez is a science fiction writer.  He has had over twenty stories published in magazines in the United States, Australia, Canada and England.  His work has appeared recently in Nature, Cosmos, Afterburn SF, Bewildering Stories, Morpheus Tales and Green Wave.  He is a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA), and is now working on a new novel.
        Lee earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Design from Georgia Tech University and an M.B.A. degree from Fairleigh Dickinson University.
        Lee lives with his wife in Florida.  Visit his web site at www.leegimenez.com.
  
    
   
                                          Copyright © Lee Gimenez