Sister Floriana

The Game

Flori hurried around the corner, making her way towards the infirmary, only to find a kindly old woman blocking her way.

"Is she ok? Please tell me!" 

"Oh, Sister Floriana!" Mother Superior hugged her. "She's going to be fine."

"Oh thank God!" she replied, burying her face in the old woman's habit. "I'm so, so sorry!"

"I know," Maria replied. "You're not at fault."

"But I was the one who kicked the ball!"

"And I was the one who gave you the ball, and Sister Emmie was the one who convinced me to lift the ban. You can't blame yourself."

"But it was my choice," she said. "You didn't make me kick it. You couldn't have known that I would kick it so hard."

"And you couldn't have known that it would hit Sister Marisol."

"But it did, and that's what matters. I'm responsible."

"Now now! Don't you get into that consequentialist thinking. That's not how God works."

"Consequentialist?"

"Come now, Floriana. I'm sure you remember some things from theology class."

"I know, but... I'm a bit distracted at the moment."

"Sit down with me."

The two sat side by side on a stone bench in the hallway. 

"See here," said Mother Superior. "Consequentialism is the belief that an act is good because of its consequences. Petting a puppy is good because it makes both you and the little dog happy. Or, kicking a soccer ball is bad because it hurts your friends' faces."

"That makes sense," Floriana replied.

"It does, if you don't believe in God. The truth is, only God can see all the consequences of your actions. Perhaps Marisol will avoid some other, even more painful accident because she's in the infirmary right now. Perhaps petting the puppy will bring its vicious mother out to defend it. You can't know either way. God tells us what actions are intrinsically good and bad."

"You mean, what things are good no matter what?"

"Precisely. You were playing with your friends outdoors on a sunny day, having a good time. Just because an accident happened doesn't make what you did today any less good. Naturally you should want to comfort and help Sister Marisol, as she is your sister in Christ, but there's no need to feel guilty. You've committed no sin, child."

"I still feel so awful though."

"That's because your friend is in pain, and you want to go see her. So why don't we do that right now?"

"Yes let's!"

The two of them stood and walked into the infirmary. Isabel was already with Marisol, who'd lost her glasses, and now had a bandage over the bridge of her nose. 

"Floriana? Is that you?"

She could literally not see more than 3 inches in front of her.

"It's me. Mother Superior is here too."

"Oh! Hola!"

"How are you feeling Sister Marisol?"

"It still hurts," said Marisol. "I'll need new glasses."

Floriana ran up and hugged her.

"I'm so sorry!"

She sobbed into Marisol's shoulder.

"Aw, now you're making me cry again!"

The two embraced and held each other for a bit.

"You know," said Marisol, "Maybe you should aim for the goal next time."

Floriana laughed and they broke apart.

"Isabel really was destroying us!"

And the two sisters managed to laugh over it. 

Floriana realized that Mother Superior was right- you never knew what would happen due to any specific action. Sure you could be reckless and careless, and that was wrong, but everything had intrinsic value and deserved to be judged on that standard alone. She and Marisol got over their grief and went back outside to play by the end of the day.

Of course, finding new glasses was not going to be easy with most doctors either living in Republican cities, or serving as medics in their side of the war, but they could make do.