CHAPTER 1: Clouds Over the Metropolis
Mary clenched her hands inside her coat pockets as she walked along the damp sidewalk of the central avenue. Large drops of rain were beginning to leave circular marks on the asphalt, which was dusty from the summer heat, and the smell of wet dust raised a suffocating sensation in the air. The city looked like an immense stage where thousands of people ran in opposite directions, each absorbed in their own worries and the glowing screens of their phones. No one looked at the sky, even though distant thunder foretold a fierce tempest.
For Mary, this day was far from ordinary; it represented the moment her hidden past caught up with her at a terrifying speed. She had received a clear ultimatum from Salome, the director of an influential PR agency. Mary’s past, scarred by a period when she had agreed to assist in shady financial transactions to save her family from bankruptcy, had left deep marks on her conscience. She felt exactly like the description in Psalm 107:27: “They reeled and staggered like drunkards, and all their wisdom was useless”.
She took shelter under the eaves of an old building—a stone church with dusty stained-glass windows that seemed crushed by the surrounding tower blocks. While catching her agitated breath, she noticed a small group of people gathered in the inner courtyard. In their midst stood a Man dressed simply, without any elements of luxury, but who emanated a quiet authority completely different from the arrogance of the corporate leaders Mary encountered daily in office buildings. He spoke clearly, and His words seemed to cut through the noise of the honking horns on the avenue. Mary approached discreetly, listening to His message almost despite herself.
“Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear,” the Teacher said, looking at those present with profound warmth. “Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?” (Matthew 6:25). Mary felt a shiver run down her spine. Those words were not just an ancient parable from a dusty book; they described exactly the modern slavery in which everyone around her, including herself, was trapped—caught in the race of chasing material goods.
