A Curious Girl: Le Miserable

I bought an abridged version of Les Miserables yesterday (Though you can find a free copy on Project Gutenberg or The Literature Network. I wanted to read it because there's an absolutely stunning bit that's occasionally quoted or paraphrased in Christian writing (ie. in Philip Yancey's 'What's So Amazing About Grace?' and in the most recent issue of RELEVENT).

Jean Valjean, a recently freed convict, looks for somewhere to sleep. No one will accept him until a local bishop, who has no riches besides some silver cutlery and candlesticks, takes him in without question and gives him a good meal and a bed, free of charge.
Jean Valjean obsesses over the silver when he goes to bed, and eventually steals the cutlery and escapes... Only to be captured by the police and brought back.

The door opened. A singular and violent group made its appearance on the threshold. Three men were holding a fourth man by the collar. The three men were gendarmes; the other was Jean Valjean.

A brigadier of gendarmes, who seemed to be in command of the group, was standing near the door. He entered and advanced to the Bishop, making a military salute.

"Monseigneur--" said he.

At this word, Jean Valjean, who was dejected and seemed overwhelmed, raised his head with an air of stupefaction.

"Monseigneur!" he murmured. "So he is not the cure?"

"Silence!" said the gendarme. "He is Monseigneur the Bishop."

In the meantime, Monseigneur Bienvenu had advanced as quickly as his great age permitted.

"Ah! here you are!" he exclaimed, looking at Jean Valjean. "I am glad to see you. Well, but how is this? I gave you the candlesticks too, which are of silver like the rest, and for which you can certainly get two hundred francs. Why did you not carry them away with your forks and spoons?"

Jean Valjean opened his eyes wide, and stared at the venerable Bishop with an expression which no human tongue can render any account of.

"Monseigneur," said the brigadier of gendarmes, "so what this man said is true, then? We came across him. He was walking like a man who is running away. We stopped him to look into the matter. He had this silver--"

"And he told you," interposed the Bishop with a smile, "that it had been given to him by a kind old fellow of a priest with whom he had passed the night? I see how the matter stands. And you have brought him back here? It is a mistake."

"In that case," replied the brigadier, "we can let him go?"

"Certainly," replied the Bishop.

The gendarmes released Jean Valjean, who recoiled.

"Is it true that I am to be released?" he said, in an almost inarticulate voice, and as though he were talking in his sleep.

"Yes, thou art released; dost thou not understand?" said one of the gendarmes.

"My friend," resumed the Bishop, "before you go, here are your candlesticks. Take them."

He stepped to the chimney-piece, took the two silver candlesticks, and brought them to Jean Valjean. The two women looked on without uttering a word, without a gesture, without a look which could disconcert the Bishop.

Jean Valjean was trembling in every limb. He took the two candlesticks mechanically, and with a bewildered air.

"Now," said the Bishop, "go in peace. By the way, when you return, my friend, it is not necessary to pass through the garden. You can always enter and depart through the street door. It is never fastened with anything but a latch, either by day or by night."

Then, turning to the gendarmes:--

"You may retire, gentlemen."

The gendarmes retired.

Jean Valjean was like a man on the point of fainting.

The Bishop drew near to him, and said in a low voice:--

"Do not forget, never forget, that you have promised to use this money in becoming an honest man."

Jean Valjean, who had no recollection of ever having promised anything, remained speechless. The Bishop had emphasized the words when he uttered them. He resumed with solemnity:--

"Jean Valjean, my brother, you no longer belong to evil, but to good. It is your soul that I buy from you; I withdraw it from black thoughts and the spirit of perdition, and I give it to God."

After buying a copy of the book, I went to Sainsbury's to buy some bread and see if my favourite Big Issue seller was out. The Big Issue, for you non-Brits, is a magazine sold by homeless and vulnerably housed people in order to get some work experience and a bit of cash. My favourite Big Issue seller is a man who always looks cheerful, calls me an angel when I buy one, has been known to offer his opinions on psychology to passers-by, and once asked if he could owe me ten pence because he didn't have enough change. He manages to cheer me up every time. Unfortunately, he wasn't there, so I bought an issue from another man. I gave him Ł1.50 and he didn't offer me (my 10p) change. He just half caught my eye and said, in an unusual, foreign accent, "I don't have enough money for rent. I'll have to sleep on the streets tonight."
"That's a shame," I said, softly and reluctantly.
He understood my tone. He walked off dejectedly, having sold all his magazines. I went into Sainsbury's, having graciously allowed him to keep the extra ten pence.

"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'

"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'

"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.' Matthew 25:34-40

It isn't fair. The good Samaritan was rich.

Random word for today: theophany

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