By Michael Patrick O’Brien–
It’s understandable in some ways but also ironic in many others. Disdain for the Catholic Church runs high in 2020 not just because of the child abuse scandal, but also due to the general and growing disregard for all religion occurring at the start of this new millennium. Yet, a quintessentially Catholic story, Les Miserables, is as beloved as ever.
The Victor Hugo book has been around and read for 160 years, since 1862. The musical by Claude-Michel Schönberg, Alain Boublil and Jean-Marc Natel, and Herbert Kretzmer (English lyrics) premiered in Paris four decades ago this year. How popular is Les Mis? Newspaper accounts indicate it has been staged in over 4 dozen countries in two dozen different languages and before over 60 million people. The 2012 film earned over $500 million at the box office.
When the stage musical first arrived on New York’s Broadway in March 1987, there were more than $4 million in advance ticket sales before opening night. Thus, it took us a while to get tickets to see the show. We finally saw it 30 years ago this year, when my then-new wife Vicki joined me on a business trip to the Big Apple. It was love at first view, because of the music and compelling story, of course, but the show’s obvious and utter Catholicity also made us big fans.
Think about it. What gets Jean Valjean in trouble? Love for his sister and her starving son. What diverts him from his path of relentless hate and violence after he gets caught stealing? The Catholic Bishop of Digne and his gift of forgiveness and silver candlesticks. How does Valjean manifest his new way of life? By living an honest, hardworking life, and then, by modeling the selfless example of Fantine’s devotion to her child Cosette. Valjean embarks on a road marked by mercy, kindness, and love of neighbor as self.
Of course, these redemptive choices sometimes have some negative consequences. Who shelters him from some of them? Catholic nuns in Paris. Need more examples of the Catholic nature of the story? Eponine sacrifices her life for Marius. Gavroche sacrifices himself for his colleagues behind the barricade. Valjean forgives and releases his tormentor Javert, and then risks his life to save Marius. And then Javert forgives and releases Valjean. And so on.
As Valjean dies, the spirits of Fantine and Éponine guide him to Heaven. And then Victor Hugo’s story and the musical based on it unequivocally state what I have always understood to be the powerful and essential message of the Catholic Church, and indeed of most religion: “to love another person is to see the face of God.”
Les Miserables, like many actual moments in the history of the Catholic Church, is rife with people who either do not get or do not heed this very basic notion of goodness. They abuse power (19 years for stealing a loaf of bread?), abuse people (think Thenardiers), and destroy lives. Yet, the all-too-common presence of these despicable characters does not make people hate Les Miserables. People who disdain religion adore Les Mis.
In other words, like Vicki and I did some 30 years ago, people fall in love with the very Catholic elements of Les Miserables despite the story’s villains. I hope and pray the Catholic Church can meet its similar challenge ahead—to get people to fall in love again with its essential message of love…despite its bad actors.
*Mike O’Brien is a writer and attorney living in Salt Lake City, Utah. He is writing a book about growing up with the monks at the old Trappist monastery in Huntsville, Utah.
