The Cruci-fix

From all-creatures.org
SPIRITUAL STORIES ARCHIVE

The Cruci-fix
Written by Mark Edgemon

Pepe Arnez slipped quietly onto the plane heading for Mexico. The passengers would nod as he passed them while making his way down the aisle of the plane, toward his seat. He would hear people address him as father or padre every few seconds out of respect for his collar and calling.

But he wasn't a priest. He was a drug runner, which should have been evident to those who would look at the stone hard features of his face. The drug cartel had an ingenious drug smuggling ring on the border to Mexico. They had taken over a mission 50 miles from the border and often sent drug runners dressed as priests to Mexico, to pick up coffins filled with so called loved ones for families in the United States. What they were filled with were unidentified bodies from the morgue, surgically filled with bags of cocaine, covered with vaseline which masked the smell of the drugs from drug sniffing dogs at the airport.

Another ingenious part of their operation was the method of testing the quality of the drugs they were smuggling. A long needle that was hidden inside the bottom of an over sized crucifix, that hung around the drug runner's neck, was used to inject the drug stored bodies, piercing both the body and the bags of cocaine, pulling the drug up into the upper part of the crucifix. This way they could test the drugs before leaving Mexico.

With several coffins loaded onto the plane, Pepe leaned back to relax as the plane was ready to take off from the Mexican airport. Suddenly, drug sniffing dogs were brought aboard the plane and were sniffing their way up the aisle. Pepe realized he had forgotten to empty the drugs out of his crucifix. With no time to get rid of the drugs, he injected himself with the entire container which was completely filled at the time.

The drug agents and their dogs had left the plane without incident ten minutes later without discovering his drug device. But Pepe, was in for the ride of his life.

He envisioned himself being nailed to the cross, feeling the pain as the nails pierced his hands and his feet. He felt the sword enter into his side and the blood trickling down his face from the crown of thorns that was on his head. He felt life itself slipping from him as he was nailed to the cross, naked in full view of the public.

When he woke up, he was in a prison hospital, stretched out in a bed with tubes sticking out of him. He had made it through the near death experience and slowly regained his consciousness. It had been obvious to the passengers and the crew on the plane that he was under the influence of drugs and was handed over to the police when they landed back in the states.

He confessed everything to the police, the drugs were confiscated and he was convicted of drug smuggling, but given only three years in prison due to his help in identifying the other drug runners and their operation.

Pepe began to preach to the inmates, not about hell, but about the cost God was willing to pay to give them a way out of death. He converted many. God had picked a good one to reveal Himself to.

Copyright © 2008 Mark Edgemon