Worldly Pleasures

Was reading Les Miserables the other night (my puppy needs to know where her name came from…), and I read a bit that I hadn’t noticed before. It was at the beginning, where the Bishop of Digne is being described.

In my humble opinion, the Bishop of Digne is one of the most important, but least known characters in Les Mis. If not for him, and the fact that he listened so closely to God, the rest of the story never would have happened. Jean Valjean would have remained a hard-hearted ex-con. The people Valjean provided jobs for would have gone without jobs, Cosette would have remained with the Thenardiers, Marius would have died at the barricades. So much good would not have happened without this one man’s response to God’s direction.

What I have noticed about him before is how Victor Hugo describes him as pious and giving. Any money given him, he gives to those who need it worse. He worries not about his comfort when he can give comfort to others. Even his housekeeper thought him mad, because of the way that he lived.

But early on in Hugo’s description of the Bishop, you’ll find this quote:
“His early years had been devoted to worldly pleasures.”

Not exactly the description you would expect of a man so devoted to God. But true nonetheless. Well, true for a fictional character. And true of many non-fictional people as well. Your past, what you have done in your early years, or even earlier this year, does not define you. Who you are now does. You can make a difference that even you won’t know about if you are willing to devote your life to God instead of devoting it to worldly pleasures. It doesn't say in the book if the Bishop knew what an impact he had on Jean Valjean. I love in the movie, where the Bishop comes to meet Jean Valjean as he dies. I think that was a brilliant way to portray it. Like God was showing him what a change he had made in the world. 

The Bishop had an option in his early years to continue on the path he was on, or to devote himself to God. He had very little in the way of worldly pleasures after he devoted himself to God, but he took pleasure in knowing that he did what he was called to do. 

What gives you pleasure?