Last year around this time, I wrote about the book The Diary of A Country Priest by French author Georges Bernanos, (Journal d’un curé de campagne, 1936). I’d like to repost my review this week, for every time I read it, I find the essence of Easter.
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A young priest comes to his first parish, the rural town of Ambricourt, filled with humble hopes. All he wants is to serve the people, to give of himself, to bring God’s love. But as soon as he sets foot in the village, he is engulfed by hatred and rejection. There are dark secrets too sinister to be exposed. The young priest is an unwelcome alien. In a town afflicted by hypocrisy, pride, anger and bitterness, he is despised, taunted and ridiculed. His own innocence is no match even for the children in his catechism class, especially the precocious Seraphitas, a girl ‘with a hardness far beyond her years.’
Ambricourt is a world afflicted by the ‘leprosy of boredom’, a microcosm of the human condition. Bernanos uses diseases to illustrate his point well. The young priest himself is being slowly consumed by terminal illness. The pain in his stomach ultimately defeats his body, cancer. His diet consists mainly of bread dipped in wine which he makes for himself, and some potato soup. Poverty of means, but also frailty of body to take in solid food. Many a times we see him in the Garden of Gethsemane, pleading for strength in anguish. But he faithfully presses on, using his diary to confide his deepest thoughts, a means to commune with his God.
On the outskirt of Ambricourt is the Château of the powerful M. le Comte. The Count needs no priest to know about his adulterous affairs, this time, with the governess Mlle Louise. His wife Mme la Comtesse is totally absorbed by her long-held bitterness and grief from the loss of her young son. And his daughter Mlle Chantal is a deeply disturbed girl eaten up by anger and jealousy. Soon, she will be sent away to England, a most convenient plan devised by her father.
It is with this deep mess of a family that the young priest finds himself entangled. The most intense scene of the whole book, the climatic moment, comes when the priest goes to the Château to meet with Mme la Comtesse. She lost her beloved son when he was only eighteen months old, a child hated by his jealous older sister Chantal.
On his last day they went out for a walk together. When they came back my boy was dead.
Mme la Comtesse is fully engulfed by hatred for her daughter, grief for her lost son, and bitterness towards God.
Hearing her speak, a tear flows down the face of the young priest. “Hell is not to love any more, madame.” The young priest responds. And with miraculous strength, he delivers the following words.
… But you know that our God came to be among us. Shake your fist at Him, spit in His face, scourge Him, and finally crucify Him: what does it matter? It’s already been done to Him.
Towards the end of some soul piercing exchanges, Mme la Comtesse kneels down, releases her pain, and receives blessings from the young priest. Afterwards, she writes to him in a letter:
… I have lived in the most horrible solitude, alone with the desperate memory of a child. And it seems to me that another child has brought me to life again…
And this young child, a priest, consumed by illness, wreaked by frailty of spirit, can only marvel at the power through weakness:
Oh miracle — thus to be able to give what we ourselves do not possess, sweet miracle of our empty hands!
Not long after this, he succumbs to his illness. A life too short, a mission seems unaccomplished. But his last words faintly uttered on his deathbed are as powerful as the God who sends him:
Does it matter? Grace is everywhere…
And in the film, these three words leave me with one of the most impressive endings of all the films that I’ve seen:
“All is grace.”
***
~ ~ ~ ~ Ripples
CLICK HERE to read my film review of The Diary of a Country Priest.
The Diary of a Country Priest by Georges Bernanos, translated by Pamela Morris, Perseus Books Group, Philadelphia, PA, 1965, 298 pages.
Journal d’un curé de campagne, 1936, was winner of the Grand prix du roman de l’Académie française.
Ripple Effects 
I remember reading this post last year and am glad you reposted it for anyone who had not discovered it before or who like me, had forgotten. Just your retelling does indeed tell the Easter message. Thank you.
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Jeanie,
Thanks for your kind words! When you have the chance, find the Robert Bresson film. A classic in itself.
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Thanks for posting again. I watched the movie after you wrote about it and enjoyed it. It wasn’t a film I would have found on my own, so thank you!
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Thanks Cathy! That is one powerful film adaptation of a unique book. Timely for Easter. Have a meaningful Weekend!
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Bob Jones here. Diary is one of the most important books I’ve read about pastoring and the pastoral vocation. Its a once a year read! Thanks for posting this. Wish I could live as he did. Have you read Gilead by Marilynne Robinson? A Protestant ‘Diary.”
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Bob,
For me, Diary of a Country Priest is a book, and the film, that I’d go back time after time… even though I’m not in the pastoral field. It depicts something universal. The film is most worthy of re-watching too, considering Bresson’s masterful renditioning. Such films, I’m afraid, may not appeal to the general, contemporary audience.
And yes, I’ve read Gilead the book a couple of times as well as listened to the audiobook. I’ve written a short write-up on it.
Glad to have you stop by and leaving your comment. Hope to hear from you again. 😉
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