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A Reflection on Gertrude von Le Fort’s The Song on the Scaffold
In the Catholic custom, martyrs are sometimes touted for his or her fearlessness. Saints Perpetua and Felicity walked into the sector with their heads held excessive. Saint Thomas Moore bravely declared that he would die, above all else, as God’s good servant. Saint Lawrence boldly mocked his executioners as they roasted him alive. God’s reminder, as voiced regularly by Pope Saint John Paul II, echoes within the hearts of Catholics: “Be not afraid!”
In the midst of such an ideal cloud of witnesses, Gertrude von Le Fort invitations us to mirror on one thing counterintuitive: the present of concern. In her novel, The Song on the Scaffold, Le Fort explores the ways in which concern strips away our egos and purifies our motives. She invitations us to embrace our crosses and ponder the affect of grace in our deficiencies.
Set through the years main as much as and through the Reign of Terror within the French Revolution, The Song on the Scaffold relies on the true story of the Carmelite nuns of Compiégne. The group endures the persecutions imposed by the revolutionary authorities: novices are prohibited from taking vows, property is seized, and finally 16 ladies of the Carmel are arrested and martyred on the guillotine.
Readers expertise the escalating turmoil by the fictional character, Blanche de la Force. Blanche is a painfully timid youngster, afraid even to ascend the steps for concern they could collapse. Attempts to beat her concern go away her ashamed and disenchanted.
Blanche’s governess proposes to console her with the picture of the Christ Child, le petit Roi de Glorie. Just because the King of France has safe energy, the governess says, God’s windfall won’t ever fail. Blanche is unconvinced, and responds with prophetic skepticism of the King’s energy asking, “But if he misplaced his crown?” Blanche understands that any try to quell her fears by interesting to analogous language about God is inadequate. The brutality and uncertainty of the world are plain, and concern dominates her life.
When Blanche enters the Carmel, she is given a brand new technique. The Reverend Mother declares, “I’ve suggested the poor youngster to proceed searching for peace in concern itself, since God, because it appears, has no intention of releasing her from this emotion.” Blanche turns into, “loyal to concern.” She leans into her weak point, to not embrace it for its personal sake, however to grasp what God may educate her in it.
As the story progresses, martyrdom turns into an increasing number of possible, and we see the antithesis of Blanche’s concern personified in Sister Marie de l’Incarnation. The illegitimate daughter of the Aristocracy, she enters spiritual life with a zeal to do penance for the sins of the court docket. Her ardor makes her an intimidating and compelling determine, and she or he disdains Blanche’s concern. Several occasions she bemoans the load of Blanche’s cowardice, and the burden it means to the opposite nuns. Sister Marie has a need for martyrdom, to sacrifice herself for the salvation of France. Her dauntless daring would sometimes be the makings of a hagiography, however her hubris and self righteousness blind her, and she or he almost misses out on three classes Blanche teaches by her loyalty to concern.
Perspective
When Blanche enters the Carmel, she is warned of the tough, penitential life that awaits her. Blanche responds, “Oh, Reverend Mother, actually there are different issues to be feared greater than these slight sacrifices!” Blanche understands that there are issues to be afraid of, however mortification and sacrifice aren’t amongst them. Her concern provides her an everlasting perspective and illuminates the evil that infiltrates the world. This frees her from the concern of immolation. She is ready to settle for the grace which permits her to supply her life to Christ. She even comes to grasp that loss of life will not be essentially the most fearsome destiny. Disloyalty, sin, and violence in opposition to the harmless are way more terrifying than consecration to God.
Reflecting on the French Revolution, the significance of Blanche’s perspective is additional emphasised. The author extols concern saying, “My buddy, concern is a superb emotion…A State ought to know concern. Governments ought to tremble. To tremble is to be robust.” Among those that held revolutionary concepts, Blanche’s personal father included, there was by no means any consideration—any concern—that concepts may take maintain and result in catastrophe. If solely there had been a wholesome sense of concern, an understanding that concepts have penalties, the struggling and bloodshed of the revolution might need been prevented.
We are invited, by Blanche, to think about how concern can encourage our personal perspective. If we might perceive the fact of evil, we might not concern to put our lives in God’s arms.
Purification
As the revolution continues and intensifies, so does the zeal for martyrdom among the many Carmelites. The sisters, Sister Marie de l’Incarnation specifically, sit up for what they consider to be their imminent loss of life. Their zeal verges on obsession, and a self righteous vanity appears to develop inside them.
Blanche, alternatively, continues to battle concern. She desires to be as courageous because the others, however finds no ease or pleasure within the prospect of loss of life, even a heroic one. She insists that she will likely be steadfast, however abandons the Carmel when first dealing with the prospect of the guillotine.
Blanche finally confronts martyrdom a second time. Because of her concern, the event is purified of any vainness or pomp. Fear strips her of ego, enabling her to mimic the kenosis of Jesus. Her posture within the face of martyrdom is considered one of receptivity, not pursuit. Like Jesus within the Garden of Gethsemane, she accepts by grace the cup provided to her, not of her personal will, however in response to the need of the Father (Mt. 26:39).
Fidelity to Christ will not be a desire, however a calling. Blanche exhibits us easy methods to give up, even when it appears inconceivable. We are impressed to depend on grace, not zeal, to spur us ahead.
Poverty
A last lesson revealed by concern is the utter poverty through which we stand earlier than God. Sister Marie de l’Incarnation protests Blanche’s investiture, telling the Reverend Mother, “Such little flames don’t belong in a convent! The Carmelites demand absolute energy and religion!” Sister Marie locations extreme weight upon private probity, and depends on effort within the face of persecution.
While heroic deeds are admirable, they will deceive us. We might develop into forgetful of our reliance on grace. Blanche is unable to launch herself from the bonds of concern. Her solely hope of freedom is the grace of Jesus Christ. Any heroism or advantage Blanche expresses can solely be as a result of Christ’s work in her, for she might supply heroism of her personal. She teaches us to stay conscious of this actuality, for less than once we know what we can’t supply will we permit grace to compensate.
Blanche does finally supply her life in martyrdom, and it confounds us. The narrator expresses this saying, “You anticipated the victory of a heroine and also you noticed a miracle in a single so weak!” We wouldn’t anticipate concern to be important within the lifetime of a martyr, however Gertrude von Le Fort invitations us to show our expectations the other way up. Like Blanche, we too should make the willful option to embrace the crosses of our personal weak point, trusting that Christ will educate us new views, purify us of ego, and in our poverty compensate for all that we lack with all that He offers.
Photo by The Cleveland Museum of Art on Unsplash
von Le Fort, G. (1931). The Song on the Scaffold. TAN Books.
