How often do we pick our cross without external coercion? Why does it often take a crisis—a close encounter with The Grim Reaper, a brush with tragedy, hitting bottom with no further down to go—to bring our lives’ purposes into sharp focus?
“The Miracle of Mysteria” is the novel about the whole community transformed when facing the imminent death from the Black Death. The story is actually based on well-documented actual events in the Bavarian village of Oberammergau. In 1634, grappling with their fear, the residents pledged to stage a reenactment of The Passion of Christ every ten years if they were spared from the plague. Mind you, the epidemic was already IN the village! The story goes that not a single new person got sick and all those who were already sick recovered. Every decade for four hundred years, they have honored the promise, faithfully staging The Passion of Christ every ten years, most recently in 2010.
But could a tradition like that be born without plague? Can people radically change to the better without crisis? And can they keep on changing when the crisis is over?