Moved to tears by ‘Les Mis,’ writer has hope in the Lord and Bishop Beckman
By Claire Collins
If you’ve never seen the 2012 movie adaptation of the musical “Les Misérables,” prepare yourself for a spoiler alert (in fact, go watch it and then come back to this column).
During the time leading up to the French revolution, a man is granted freedom with parole after a 19-year prison sentence of hard labor for stealing a loaf of bread and attempting to escape from prison. Jean Valjean, hardened and poor, desperate for food and shelter, finds himself in the home of Bishop Myriel, a kindhearted prelate who extends great compassion to the man.
Valjean, however, cannot receive his generosity and ends up leaving in the night, stealing the good bishop’s silver on his way. When he is caught by police and brought back to the bishop’s house to face punishment for his crime, the bishop insists that he had, in fact, given the thief the silver, and that Valjean needed to also take with him the candlesticks he had left behind.
The bishop then speaks to Valjean, encouraging him in virtue and claiming his life for God, and this act forever orders the trajectory of Valjean’s life towards goodness and honesty. At the end of the movie, as Valjean dies a hero and honorable man, he enters into heaven, and who is waiting to bring him into the kingdom but the good bishop himself. And every time I see it, I weep.
I weep at the full circle of Valjean’s life, the kindness of Bishop “Bienvenu,” and at the great mercy of God to save this man’s soul.
We have just received the great gift of a new shepherd for our diocese, a continuation of the apostolic tradition handed on from the original Apostles in the line of St. Peter. Bishop Mark Beckman has been called by God to lead our diocese. The Holy Spirit chose him “for such a time as this.” It is in this hope we can trust. God, in His wisdom, knows what He is doing. And for Bishop Beckman’s “yes,” we are grateful.
The office of bishop is one that merits great reverence, honor, and respect. It is a place of God-given authority and leadership. It also is a place of ultimate self-sacrifice, as the story of the Good Shepherd reveals to us. As I’ve learned through my training in the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, the shepherd knows his sheep by name. He calls them, and they follow him because they know his voice. He lays down his life for the sheep and defends them in the face of danger. The office of bishop shares in this image of Christ, as do all of our priests and shepherds.
It can be hard to remember this when those in leadership fail us, themselves, and God. And yet it is the office of bishop, led by the pope, that God Himself chose to establish and lead the Church over the millennia. And it is the office of bishop, and ultimately the Church, whose goodness cannot be undone by the imperfect people that make it up. There is no perfect institution because every one of them is made up of broken individuals, and this, the human condition, cannot scare us away from humbly and vulnerably trusting in God’s great plan for us and His Church.
I think this is one of the things that most attracts me to our beautiful Catholic faith. There is a hierarchy of leadership, with its roots deep in Jewish tradition, that has lasted throughout the history of the Church, in good times and in bad. Every new Catholic church is not its own denomination but submits to the teachings of the Church and is held accountable to faithfully living out Church teaching and doctrine, liturgy, and worship.
And every church has a leader who submits to that very hierarchy in which the bishop participates. It is fitting that our new shepherd has chosen for his motto, “Jesus Christ yesterday, today, and forever.”
But this hierarchy is not one of dominance, selfishness, and overbearing rule. It is one of sacrifice, self-giving, receptivity to the Lord, and submission to God’s ultimate authority. And it is because of this that I look so fondly on the office and desire deeply to trust in the men God has placed there.
I have a delightful memory from a former bishop of our diocese, Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz. When I was in third grade, then-Bishop Kurtz celebrated Mass at my home parish, Sacred Heart Cathedral. My great aunt, Sister Catherine Steiner, had been Archbishop Kurtz’s supervisor when he was a newly ordained priest pursuing his social-work degree in Scranton, Pa., and this connection was something special that I wanted to share with him.
After Mass, nervous and excited to get to speak with him, I went up to him and proudly announced, “My great aunt was your first boss!” I remember his curious expression, and then playful laughter when he realized who I was talking about and what their true relationship had been. I also remember the kindness and gentleness with which he spoke with me, and my own pride at being able to have a conversation with a bishop!
In preparing to write this column, Archbishop Kurtz was kind enough to give me a phone call and chat with me about the details of that story, and it was so lovely to get to speak with him as he recounted the details of it with me. He also mentioned my late father by name and told me about a time when they had sat next to one another on an airplane. Those same feelings of joy and pride welled up in me once again to receive such a phone call from a man who led so well that he was eventually named an archbishop and served as the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. He was, and still is today, a joyful and humble servant leader.
From watching Bishop Beckman’s interview from the day he announced publicly his acceptance of the position, what caught my attention most was his humility. He emphasized his shock and surprise at receiving the call to lead our diocese, and the time he had to spend in prayer making sure it was truly what God was asking him to do. He seemed to desire deeply to serve our diocese as its leader, and this characteristic is something that I think is so important for someone given a position of authority to possess.
I have so much hope for what the Lord wants to do in and with Bishop Beckman in East Tennessee, and I hope that we can all cover him with prayer as he allows himself to be put in a position of service and leadership, one that holds with it great spiritual responsibility.
I hope that we can participate in his vision for our diocese and the mission of the Church, that all souls might be saved in and through Jesus Christ and His Church. And I hope that, in our own humility, we can take upon ourselves whatever it might be that the Holy Spirit is asking us to do so that, together, our diocese can reveal the love and mercy of Christ to the world.
