Final Payment
Stories
Lectionary Tales For The Pulpit
57 Stories For Cycle C
The story of Mary Gordon's book, Final Payments begins with a funeral. Isabel Moore's father was being laid to rest. Isabel had been the person solely responsible for taking care of her father since she was 19 years old. She was now 31. She had single-mindedly devoted her life to her father. People around Isabel Moore thought she was a saint because of her affection for her father.
But what do you do with your life when, at age 31, you are deprived of your sole reason for living? Isabel Moore had to invent a life for herself. Everything was new to her. Buying clothes, looking for a job, dealing with the house her father left her -- all new! But Isabel Moore did get on with her life. She even fell in love with a veterinarian, Hugh Slade. Isabel found herself irresistibly drawn to this married man.
Hugh Slade's wife Cynthia, called an end to this affair. She confronted Isabel at a party. ''You are a good person,'' Cynthia told Isabel. ''Everyone says you are.'' She then proceeded to scold Isabel for her every action.
''Yes, I had been a good person,'' Isabel Moore thought to herself. It was as if Cynthia Slade's words had shocked her back into reality. She decided then and there that her affair with Hugh must end. ''We are both good people,'' she told him. ''We must not hurt anyone. We must not be selfish.'' Strangely enough, this woman who had devoted almost all her adult life to her father's care, found selfishness to be her greatest sin.
Isabel Moore next decided that she must atone for her selfishness and sin. She would be a good person again. She would be sacrificial again. She would give her life to the most undeserving person she knew. She would devote her life to Margaret Casey. Margaret Casey had been the housekeeper for Isabel and her father after Isabel's mother had died. Isabel was only two years old at the time. She grew up, therefore, under the watchful eye of Margaret Casey, a woman she despised. In fact, Isabel hated Margaret so much that when she was 13 years old she almost single-handedly dismissed her from her job as caretaker for her father.
In her attempt to be a good person again, however, Isabel saw Margaret as an unfinished debt she had to repay. ''I would absorb myself in the suffering of someone I found unattractive,'' Isabel thought to herself. ''It would be a pure act, like the choice of a martyr's death which, we had been told in school, is the only inviolable guarantee of salvation.''
And Isabel did it. She cared for Margaret who paid her back only in spite. Margaret criticized Isabel's every move. Finally, Isabel could take no more. She sold her one possession, her house, and gave the money to Margaret. ''I left on the table in front of Margaret a check for $20,000. It was all the money I had in the world. But I was free of Margaret now. I felt weightless ....''
It is from this action that the novel gets its title. This was Isabel Moore's final payment. She felt bound in guilt over the way she had treated Margaret. She had a ransom to be paid in order to buy her own peace of mind. Isabel's act is a universally human act! Because of the selfishness of our deeds we all feel a need to make a final payment, to pay a ransom that will purchase our peace with God.
But what do you do with your life when, at age 31, you are deprived of your sole reason for living? Isabel Moore had to invent a life for herself. Everything was new to her. Buying clothes, looking for a job, dealing with the house her father left her -- all new! But Isabel Moore did get on with her life. She even fell in love with a veterinarian, Hugh Slade. Isabel found herself irresistibly drawn to this married man.
Hugh Slade's wife Cynthia, called an end to this affair. She confronted Isabel at a party. ''You are a good person,'' Cynthia told Isabel. ''Everyone says you are.'' She then proceeded to scold Isabel for her every action.
''Yes, I had been a good person,'' Isabel Moore thought to herself. It was as if Cynthia Slade's words had shocked her back into reality. She decided then and there that her affair with Hugh must end. ''We are both good people,'' she told him. ''We must not hurt anyone. We must not be selfish.'' Strangely enough, this woman who had devoted almost all her adult life to her father's care, found selfishness to be her greatest sin.
Isabel Moore next decided that she must atone for her selfishness and sin. She would be a good person again. She would be sacrificial again. She would give her life to the most undeserving person she knew. She would devote her life to Margaret Casey. Margaret Casey had been the housekeeper for Isabel and her father after Isabel's mother had died. Isabel was only two years old at the time. She grew up, therefore, under the watchful eye of Margaret Casey, a woman she despised. In fact, Isabel hated Margaret so much that when she was 13 years old she almost single-handedly dismissed her from her job as caretaker for her father.
In her attempt to be a good person again, however, Isabel saw Margaret as an unfinished debt she had to repay. ''I would absorb myself in the suffering of someone I found unattractive,'' Isabel thought to herself. ''It would be a pure act, like the choice of a martyr's death which, we had been told in school, is the only inviolable guarantee of salvation.''
And Isabel did it. She cared for Margaret who paid her back only in spite. Margaret criticized Isabel's every move. Finally, Isabel could take no more. She sold her one possession, her house, and gave the money to Margaret. ''I left on the table in front of Margaret a check for $20,000. It was all the money I had in the world. But I was free of Margaret now. I felt weightless ....''
It is from this action that the novel gets its title. This was Isabel Moore's final payment. She felt bound in guilt over the way she had treated Margaret. She had a ransom to be paid in order to buy her own peace of mind. Isabel's act is a universally human act! Because of the selfishness of our deeds we all feel a need to make a final payment, to pay a ransom that will purchase our peace with God.
