I heartily recommend reading the entire book.  The setting for this excerpt is from the early part of this book. Father Elijah (also called Davy) is travelling with his priest friend, Billy. They are on an errand by the Holy Father. They have just finished seeing Don Matteo, a mystic with the stigmata. Here it is:

They drove on without further conversation until Elijah turned west toward Orvieto.

"Where you going? Naples is the other way."

"Don Matteo suggested we make a detour to the cathedral at Orvieto."

"What for? There are a dozen cathedrals on the way south, most of them just as impressive."

"Have you seen inside?"

"No. I've passed it once or twice. Did he say why you're supposed to go there?"

"He wants me to see something. But I didn't have time to find out what it is."

They reached Orvieto by midmorning. Spatters of rain had begun to hit the pavement outside the cathedral. The air was cooler than the day before, but humidity was high, and there was rumbling above the gray blanket of sky.

It took a moment for their eyes to adjust to the darkness of the interior. lt smelled of incense and beeswax. The apse echoed faintly with hushed whispers. A few old women were praying their beads and making the Stations.

Elijah and Billy genuflected toward the tabernacle and then stood gazing about them.

The interior was beautiful but did not differ notably from the numerous other cathedrals that dotted Italy.

"Well, where's the big secret?"

"It's here. Whatever it is, Don Matteo thought it important enough for us to make a detour to find it."

They entered a side chapel.

Four monumental frescoes, representing the end of the world had been painted on the walls in vivid colors, in a style of epic grandeur that must have been innovative at the time of its execution.

"1499 to 1500'', said Billy reading a bronze plaque. "These frescoes are by Luca Signorelli."

"Who was he?"

"A disciple of the painter Piero della Francesco. Michelangelo admired his work."

"He has made an apocalypse."

"And a jolly unattractive one it is! This mural here is The Damned Cast into Hell Ugh! I hate crowds. That lot isn't bound for a soccer match. Gor', I wouldn't trade my mind for this man's imagination, not for a million pounds. It's horrible."

"Yes. I think that must be what he wanted to teach us. The horror of damnation."

"Looks like all the deadly sins are here. Let's see, I'm going to try to find drunkenness. Sure enough, there it is, right beside lust. Let me look into the drunkard's face. I knew it! I knew it! He looks just like me."

Billy's attempt at humor did nothing to relieve the pall of tragedy hanging over the scene.

"They look too damned human for my taste. And so do the devils."

Elijah went over to another mural.

His eyes were drawn to the central figure of the image, a figure of Christ. How strange, he thought, to see a representation of the Lord with the figure of Satan whispering in His ear, and his arm penetrating His robes. Is that Christ's hand or the devil's that emerges from the folds of cloth?

It was not a literal depiction of a scriptural scene, he concluded; although it might be the artist's imaginative rendering of the temptation in the desert? But there was something out of character in the way Christ leaned into Satan's embrace and listened with such attention.

He stared at it for a long time. Suddenly, the meaning of the mural became clear, like a scene viewed through lenses revolving into focus. The blurred shapes of reality drew together into a sharp, piercing landscape of moral disaster.

The figure held in the devil's embrace was not Christ but Antichrist.

Elijah understood why Don Matteo had wanted him to see it. Now he knew why the old friar would not tell him the reason for his request. Matteo had wanted Elijah to discover the secret of the mural for himself, and in the process, to observe the mechanics of perception .

"What you staring at?" said Billy.

"The Antichrist."

"That's not the Antichrist. It's the Lord."

"Look at it carefully. Pray as you look."

Billy obeyed and a few moments later he shuddered.

"I see what you mean."

"The painting seems to operate at a number of levels", said Elijah. "On the surface, it tells a dramatic tale, a narrative. On another level, it is a moral lecture about sin and betrayal. On still another level, the artist is reaching for the deepest organs of perception in the soul. The artist wants us to hear a soundless cry, an alarm, a warning."

"That might be stretching it. Were those fifteenth-century painters such sophisticated theologians?"

"Some of them were. Some were mystics as well. In those days, the civilized world was Catholic. Life was short, eternity was always just a breath away. Salvation and damnation saturated the normal atmosphere of life. Even so, the painter was compelled to attempt a most urgent warning. I think he's saying that if we can be so easily deceived by a few strokes of the brush, by art, which of its very nature is a medium of illusion, how vulnerable are we to the power of the senses? Couldn't a flesh-and-blood Antichrist far more effectively create the appearance of goodness, while hiding his attachment to evil?"

"Theoretically. But he'd have to be quite a conjurer."

"This Antichrist resembles our traditional images of Christ. What if he should also imitate Christ in his public actions?"

"Granted, it's possible. But I can't believe a man who's that evil would be able to fool the whole world for long."

"What if the world desired to be fooled?"

"You'd still have hundreds of millions of believers on guard. They'd spot him."

"Do you think so? We are presently in the midst of a massive apostasy. Never in the history of the Church has there been such widespread loss of faith. In a few years, will there be any faith left on the earth?"

"You're rather pessimistic today, Davy."

"Scripture says that unless the days be shortened even the elect would be deceived."

"Well, I suppose the eye could be deceived, but what about the mind? Any Christian worth his salt could tell when your hypothetical Antichrist was preaching false doctrine. Couldn't he?"

"But what if for a generation or two before his appearance, the formation of Catholics were to fall into confusion? What if a generation of religious illiterates had been formed, unable to distinguish between religious truth and religious sentiment?"

"All right. It could happen. And I get your not-so-subtle point. You think we're that generation."

"I do. But there is another important message at work in this masterpiece."

"Hold on, half a mo'! The soul has powers. It can detect things the eye and the mind can't see, don't you think? I mean, even if an Antichrist were to fool our eyes by appearances, and also deceive our minds by plausible lies, wouldn't there be something deep down inside of us that was uneasy? A faint warning bell that rang and rang until we answered?"

"I agree. But you know as well as I do that this warning system can be deactivated. Sin can cover it with layer after layer until eventually we hear nothing. We forget it ever existed."

Billy sighed heavily.

"I need a cup of coffee", he declared with solemnity.

He went out, leaving Elijah alone with the mural.

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Father Elijah is the sixth novel in the series, Children of the Last Days:

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