Review — Momo by MIchael Ende

Translation: "The whole world is a great story, and we are playing in it."

Full disclosure — This is a German fantasy story, but the connections that can be drawn to the Gospel are so great that I had to share. Also, I am currently reading this book for my German class at BYU, and so I am only halfway through the novel, and any translated phrase is my own translation. (For those curious, it is published in English as well.) Regardless of where I am in the book, however, this is an amazing story that all Latter-day Saints can connect to.

Momo is about a young girl named, you guessed it, Momo. Like all heroes of great stories, she is an orphan, and she is found living in the ruins of an old amphitheater. The townsfolk all take care of her, until one day "the gray gentlemen" come. (or other translations could include "the gray ones," "the men in grey," etc.) The gray gentlemen are time-thieves, preying off of people's insecurities about the future to steal their time, making their victims irritable and unfriendly. Under normal circumstances, someone can meet a gray gentleman but completely forget that they have done so. However, Momo, having discovered what they are through her own encounters with one, travels to the edge of time where she meets Master Hora in an effort to save her friends from the lies and the grasp of the gray gentlemen.

So how does this all connect to the Gospel?

The Devil's Tactics Are Used by the Gray Gentlemen

The first instance of the gray gentlemen stealing time happen to a middle-aged barber, Mister Fusi. Mister Fusi is insecure about his life and what he wants to really do, and right at the exact moment he has these doubts, a grey gentleman appears and tricks him into saving his time by no longer helping others. Mister Fusi falls into this temptation, becoming selfish in an effort to save his time. 

It is interesting that the Devil plants doubts in our minds and uses these to try and control us. Likewise, right at the exact moment Mister Fusi began having doubts about his life, the very manipulative grey gentleman appeared to "tempt" him.

Children Are Innocent

Momo is a young girl, and as such cannot be influenced by the grey gentlemen. One day, one appears to her, knowing that the townsfolk all spend time with her and believes that if he can get Momo to not desire her friends to visit, it will be easier to trick the townsfolk. However, Momo cannot be tempted by the gray gentleman with all of the toys he brought, and she discovers what they are. Unlike the other people, she cannot forget her experience.

Later, in a meeting of the grey gentlemen, one exclaims that children are their natural enemy because they have no control over children.

Throughout the scriptures we read how children are innocent. "Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 19:14). Likewise, King Benjamin taught that we must become like a child, "submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father" (Mosiah 3:19). We also learn that little children are not capable of sin, and as such need no baptism. The Lord also goes so far as to say that Satan cannot even tempt children until they are accountable. "Wherefore, they cannot sin, for power is not given unto Satan to tempt little children, until they begin to become accountable before me" (D&C 29:47). Because of the Atonement of Christ, children are clean and pure, every whit.

The Lord Lends Us Breath Day-to-Day

When Momo is brought to the Never-Alley, the edge of time, she meets Master Hora, the caretaker of sorts for all time. He explains that he is responsible for giving time to mankind, and when a person runs out of time, it is his time to die.

King Benjamin taught that "I say unto you that if ye should serve him who has created you from the beginning, and is preserving you from day to day, by lending you breath, that ye may live and move and do according to your own will, and even supporting you from one moment to another—I say, if ye should serve him with all your whole souls yet ye would be unprofitable servants" (Mosiah 2:21, emphasis added). Master Hora is a representation of God, lending us breath (time) to do what we must do during our probationary state.

Agency is Sacred

"Can't you do anything to stop the gray gentlemen?" Momo asks Master Hora. "No, I cannot. I give men time, but once it is theirs, it is theirs to use and defend. They must choose how they spend their time."

Agency is a God-given gift that cannot be taken away. Even when we use it incorrectly, it is ours. Agency and its proper use has always been one of the great conflicts between good and evil, from the war in heaven to the same conflict that continues today between us and Satan. We must choose to use our agency for good.

The Temple is a Timeless Place

Master Hora lives at the place where time originates from in the Nowhere-House, found at the end of the Never-Alley. Time does not flow normally there, but it is a place where the grey gentlemen cannot come. They attempt to stop Momo from being led there, but are unable to approach her as she enters the Never-Alley.

The Nowhere-House in the Never-Alley can be a representation of the Temple, or the Celestial Kingdom. God lives there, and it is possible to be lost in the beauty of the Temple for hours as we serve Him. Likewise, Alma teaches that "all is as one day with God, and time only is measured unto men" (Alma 40:8). God can see all things, He knows all things, He can do all things for eternity as a whole, whereas in our mortal state we see time flowing day-to-day. Satan cannot have any influence in the Temple or the Celestial Kingdom, having not kept his first estate.

The Devil Only Has Power Over Men When We Give It to Him

As Master Hora explains what the grey gentlemen are, he says that they only exist when people give them the ability to exist. If nobody were to be tricked by them, if nobody would be so worried about themselves, the grey gentlemen would have no power and would cease to exist.

The Devil wouldn't cease to exist per se if we did not give him power over us, but he only has the power we give to him as we draw farther away from God. If we would not allow him into our hearts, he could have no power over us. Christ is the perfect example of this doctrine. He was tempted throughout His life, "suffereth temptation, and yieldeth not to the temptation, but suffereth himself to be mocked, and scourged, and cast out, and disowned by his people" (Mosiah 15:5). And who can forget the declaration of Mormon about Captain Moroni, a man so Christlike that "if all men had been, and were, and ever would be, like unto Moroni, behold, the very powers of hell would have been shaken forever; yea, the devil would never have power over the hearts of the children of men" (Alma 48:17).

If Men Knew What Lay Beyond the Veil, They Would Have No Fear of Death

An amazed Momo asks Master Hora, "Are you Death?" Master Hora laughed kindly and tells her that "If men knew what death was, they would not be so scared of it." 

The Prophet Joseph Smith likewise taught that “the Lord in his wisdom had implanted the fear of death in every person that they might cling to life and thus accomplish the designs of their creator” (quoted by Wilford Woodruff in Diary of Charles Lowell Walker, ed. A. Karl Larson and Katherine Miles Larson [Logan: Utah State University Press, 1980], 1:465–66). 

Conclusion

These principles are just a few of the many that I have picked out as I have been reading this book. There are a few notable differences that can be drawn out between Latter-day Saint theology and mainstream Christianity, such as the idea that God exists outside of time and space, or other ideas that are strictly Michael Ende's for storytelling (which is only natural). But this has been an amazing book and it has been extremely enlightening so far.