Who Is Father Tomás?
When I began writing Mateo and the Secrets of the Eternal Word, I knew Mateo would witness extraordinary things.
He would stand in the Garden of Eden.
He would see Noah building the ark.
He would watch the Tower of Babel rise toward the sky.
But before Mateo could experience any of those things, something else had to happen.
He had to find Verbum Aeternum.
Or perhaps—
Verbum Aeternum had to find him.
And standing between the two was Father Tomás.
The Priest in the Mountains
Father Tomás cares for an old, abandoned church in the mountains near Mateo's home in Miraflor, Nicaragua.
Father Tomás watches over the abandoned mountain church—and the ancient Bible hidden within it.
There is no congregation waiting for Sunday services.
No families filling the pews.
Father Tomás simply maintains the old building—and watches over what has been left inside it.
Among those things is Verbum Aeternum.
The enormous ancient Bible has been there for longer than Mateo can imagine.
Father Tomás knows it is there.
He knows what it is called.
He cares for it.
And somehow, he becomes the catalyst that brings a curious twelve-year-old boy and an ancient Bible together.
At first, that might seem like coincidence.
As the story continues, it becomes harder to believe that it was.
Why Mateo?
That question lies beneath much of Mateo and the Secrets of the Eternal Word.
Why Mateo?
Why would this particular boy be allowed to step through the pages of Scripture and witness events that happened thousands of years before he was born?
Mateo doesn't know.
The reader doesn't know.
And Father Tomás isn't saying.
That is where Father Tomás and Doña Rosa begin to share something.
Both seem to know more than they reveal.
Neither appears particularly surprised that something extraordinary is happening to Mateo.
And both seem, in ways Mateo does not yet understand, connected to whatever brought him to Verbum Aeternum in the first place.
Were they involved in Mateo's choosing?
That's a question I haven't answered.
Yet.
The One Mateo Comes Back To
After each journey, Mateo returns carrying more than memories.
After every extraordinary journey, Mateo returns to Father Tomás with questions only the two of them can understand.
He carries questions.
He has seen the Bible in a way no one around him has.
He has watched familiar stories become real people, real places, and real choices.
And Father Tomás is the person he can talk to about them.
He listens.
He helps Mateo understand the Scripture behind what he has witnessed.
But there is an interesting difference between answering Mateo's questions about Genesis and answering his questions about Verbum Aeternum.
Father Tomás is much better at the first.
When the questions move toward the ancient Bible itself—and why it chose Mateo—the answers become less certain.
Or perhaps simply less forthcoming.
How Much Does He Know?
That may be the more interesting question.
Father Tomás is not surprised by Verbum Aeternum.
He knows the book.
He knows its name.
He knows its history—or at least some of it.
And he knows Doña Rosa.
There are connections here that Mateo has not yet discovered.
Connections that I have deliberately allowed to remain just beyond his reach.
For now, Father Tomás is his priest, his teacher, and his friend.
He is the man Mateo trusts enough to tell the impossible:
“I was there.”
And Father Tomás believes him.
Perhaps because he has faith in Mateo.
Perhaps because he has faith in God.
Or perhaps because, long before Mateo understood what was happening...
Father Tomás already knew something was coming.
