"If Heavenly Father truly had punished him, leaving him dead in the wilderness with no remains to be found, wouldn't that be enough?" Dominic retorted.
The other man was probably no longer dwelling on the past. He wanted to settle, once and for all, who was right and who was wrong in the feud between their families. But they couldn't take one side's word for it without any evidence.
To get things smoothed over as quickly as possible, Dominic seized on that point, ready to put the matter to rest.
"After death, Heavenly Father decides where a soul will go. That judgment is absolutely just. The living can never know everything or see everything. To presume to judge events we never witnessed would only make us guilty of arrogance and presumption."
There was nothing they could do about this. Dominic suggested the man let it go; otherwise, he would be challenging Heavenly Father's authority.
As expected, the stonemason hesitated. Heavenly Father's will might be inscrutable, but openly showing disrespect for Him in front of a cleric was sure to bring trouble later.
Dominic pressed his advantage. "If you still have doubts, you can bring Old John's son here. Let's see whether he dares swear before Heavenly Father that his father never robbed anyone else's grave. If he tells even one lie, may he be punished after death."
"What if it happened, but he didn't know?"
"Then he wasn't involved in his father's sins, and you should be even more willing to clear up this misunderstanding and make peace. You're neighbors. Having one more friend and one fewer enemy can only be a good thing."
"Huh?"
The stonemason sensed that something was off. How could both sides of the argument sound reasonable? And yet he couldn't think of a way to