Chapter 23 Chapter 22 The Second Sermon

Since Paneloux joined the health and epidemic prevention organization, he has never left the hospital or the plague-endemic area.He put himself in the ranks of the rescuers, in the ranks where he thought he should be, that is, to participate in the first-line rescue work.He had seen many scenes of death.Although in principle he has been injected with anti-epidemic serum and is immune, he is not completely worried about his own life.On the surface, he has been calm.But since that day he had watched a child die for a long time with his own eyes, he had changed.There was a growing nervousness on his face.One day he smiled and said to Rieux that he was writing a paper entitled: "Can a Priest Call a Doctor?" "Short essay.In Rieux's impression at that time, Paneloux was actually writing an article with a more serious subject, but he did not explain it.When Dr. Rieux expressed his desire to read his works, Paneloux told Rieux that he would give a sermon at the time of mass for male believers, so that he could at least clarify some of his points of view. .

"Doctor, I would like you to come and listen. The subject will interest you." On a blustery day the priest delivered a second sermon.To tell the truth, the seat of the audience is much more empty this time than it was during the first sermon.This is because this kind of scene no longer has the charm of novelty for the residents of this city.In the difficult circumstances the city is currently in, the very word "new" has lost its meaning.Moreover, for most people, when they have not completely abstained from religious observance, or have not yet reached the point where religious observance and a private life of extreme immorality go hand in hand, then they Some superstitions without rational basis will be used to replace the usual religious activities.They would rather wear some protective badge or amulet of Saint Roch than go to Mass.

For example, the superstitious prophecy habit of the residents of this city is an example.In the spring, people were already expecting that the plague would end soon, and no one thought to ask others how long the plague would last, because everyone was convinced that it would not last.But as time passed, people began to fear that this plague would really never end, and at the same time, the end of the plague became everyone's hope.So people passed on to each other the various prophecies of astrologers, or the riddles of some saints of the Catholic Church.Some printers in the city soon discovered that they could profit from people's fascination, so they printed and published a large number of Analects and prophecies that were popular in the city at that time.As soon as they perceived the inexhaustible curiosity of the public, they immediately sent to the city library to search for such things in the wild history and anecdotes, and printed them for sale in the town.When they could no longer find anything of the sort in their books, they hired journalists to invent it, and these men, at least in this point, had a talent equal to that of their best colleagues of all ages.

Certain prophecies were even serialized at length in the newspapers, and these articles were read with the same voracity that one would read a newspaper romance novel in normal times.Some predictions were concocted by some grotesque calculations, based on: the years of the plague, the number of people who died, and the number of months the plague lasted.Other predictions use the method of comparing with the plagues that have occurred in history, so as to summarize the common features of the previous plagues (the prophecy calls them constants), and by the same grotesque calculations, it is said that it can be derived from this. Revelation of the plague.But the most popular with the public are undoubtedly those which, in that apocalyptic language, foreshadow a series of future events, each of which is likely to take place in this city. It was fulfilled, and the incident is very complicated, so there can be various interpretations.Therefore, people consulted Nostradamis and St. Odile every day, and always got satisfactory results.Moreover, all prophecies have one thing in common: they are always comforting in the end.But the plague alone was never a source of comfort.

The townspeople substituted these superstitions for religion, so that when Paneloux preached, only three-quarters of the pews were occupied.On arriving the evening of the sermon, Rieux felt a gust of wind blowing freely among the faithful through the swing door at the entrance.In this cold, silent church, Rieux sat down among the audience, which was composed of all religious men, and then he saw the priest ascend the pulpit.The abbe spoke in a softer, more thoughtful tone than in his first sermon, and the congregation several times noticed a certain hesitation in his speech.Another strange thing is that he no longer calls "you" but "we" in his speech.

Gradually, however, his voice became firmer, and he began to remind everyone that the plague had been among us for so many months, and we understood it better now, for we had seen it sitting in our table or sitting on the bedside of our loved ones, seeing it walk around us, seeing it waiting for us at the workplace, so now we may be better able to accept what it keeps saying to us, rather than These words, because we were not prepared at the beginning, we probably didn't listen carefully.What Father Paneloux had said in his previous sermons at the same place was still true—at least he believed it.But it is also possible, as it happens to every one of us, that he thought and said what he thought and said with a lack of charity, which he now regrets.But it is always true that there is always something to learn from everything.The cruelest trials are still a boon to Christians.And in this particular case what the Christian should seek is this favor which he should receive, and he should know what it consists of, and how to find it.

All around Rieux at this time, people seemed quite at ease, sitting between the arms of the benches, as comfortably as possible.One of the padded soundproof doors at the entrance to the church was swinging slightly back and forth, and someone ran to hold it down.Rieux, distracted by these noises, did not hear what Paneloux said in his sermon.What the priest probably meant was not to try to find an explanation for what happened to the plague, but to try to get something out of it.Rieux vaguely took the priest's words to mean that there was nothing to explain.Then his attention was drawn to Paneloux's powerful voice.According to the priest, there are certain things that people can explain to the Lord, and there are other things that people cannot explain.Of course, there is good and evil in the world, and it is generally easy to explain the difference between them.But it is difficult to go deep into evil and explain it clearly.For example, on the surface, evil has necessary evil and unnecessary evil.There is Don Juan who is sent to the underworld, and there is the death of a child, because if it is right for a licentious womanizer like Don Juan to be killed by lightning, it is incomprehensible why the child should suffer.In fact, there is nothing in the world more important than a child's pain and the terror it brings, and nothing more important than finding out what caused it.In addition, God has given us all the conveniences of life, so it can be said that before this, religion was of little value.Now, on the contrary, God has placed us in a precarious situation where we have nowhere to go, we are all prisoners of the plague, and we have to seek our favor under the shadow of death.Father Paneloux was not even willing to use the words at his fingertips to get over the walls of the prison.He could have easily said that the eternal bliss of heaven awaited the boy, and would compensate him for his sufferings.But whether this is actually the case, the priest has no idea.Who can be sure that eternal bliss will compensate human beings for their temporary sufferings?Whoever says that is not a Christian, for sure, for the limbs and soul of our Lord Jesus have suffered enough.No, in the face of a child's painful problem, the priest would rather be at the bottom of the cliff than seek to cross, because he faithfully accepts this kind of punishment test that symbolizes the cross.And so, without fear, he said to those who had come to hear him that day: "My brothers, the moment of decision has come. Believe all or not. But who among you dare not believe all?"

Rieux had just begun to think that the priest had reached the verge of heresy, but before he could finish thinking, the priest went on talking aloud.The priest pointed out that this command, this demand of purity, is a gift bestowed upon Christians.This is also his virtue.The priest knew that there was something excessive in the virtues he was about to speak that would offend many who were accustomed to a more lenient, more conventional morality.But religion in times of plague cannot be the same as it is in ordinary times, and if God consents, and even desires that the souls of men may find rest and joy in happy times, he may, in these times of utter misfortune, ask a little too much for the souls of men. requirements.Today, God bestows upon His creatures a boon to place them in such a calamity that they are compelled to seek and support this supreme virtue again: to make a choice, either to accept the faith in its entirety, or to deny it in its entirety. .

In the last century, a non-religious writer once threatened that he had uncovered the secrets of the church, and he asserted that there was no such thing as purgatory.His implication is that there is no intermediate state, only heaven and hell. According to the path people choose during life, after death, they either enter heaven for eternal life, or go to hell for eternal punishment.But Paneloux thinks it is a heresy, a heresy that can only come from a soul without any creed, because there is a purgatory.There may be times, however, when one should not expect too much to go to purgatory, and there are times when there is no question of pardonable sins.Any sin is sufficient to lead to hell, and any attitude of indifference is sinful, that is to say, guilty or innocent.

Paneloux paused for a moment, and at that moment Rieux heard more clearly through the crack of the door the wind outside which seemed to grow louder.At this moment, the priest said that the virtue of accepting everything that he talked about was incomprehensible according to the narrow interpretation that people usually give it. It's a kind of inferiority complex, but it's a willing inferiority complex.Of course, it is a shame to the soul that a child should suffer in this way.But because of this, we should throw ourselves into this pain, and because of this - Paneloux assures his audience that what he has to say is not easy to say - we should offer to "want" This pain because God wants to 'want' it.Only in this way, Christians will go all the way to the end of the path that must be chosen without any other choice.In order to keep himself from denying the belief altogether, he will decide to accept it all.Now, in churches everywhere, good women say, "My God, let me have lymph nodes!" Christians, like these women, submit themselves to God's will, even if it is incomprehensible.People can't say: "I understand this, but that is unacceptable." We should face the "unacceptable" things in front of us, and do so in order to be able to complete our choices.The pain of children is our bitter bread, without which our souls would starve to death for spiritual food.

Whenever Father Paneloux paused for a moment in his speech, there was a slight noise all around him, and this time, as soon as the noise had begun, the priest continued unexpectedly loudly, pretending to propose this question on behalf of his audience. One question: what exactly to do?He anticipated that people would utter the dreaded word "fatalism."Yes, he would have no fear of the word "fatalistic," if only he would be allowed to add the adjective "positive" to it.Of course, it should be pointed out again not to imitate the Abyssinian Christians he spoke of last time.Not even to be like those Persian plague sufferers who, while throwing their old clothes at the Christian sanitation pickets, begged heaven to bring the plague down on these heretics, because later Those who want to overcome the disasters given by God.But on the other hand, don’t learn from those monks in Cairo. When the plague spread in the last century, in order to prevent infection and avoid touching the hot and humid mouths of believers, they held the communion cake with tweezers. Communion ceremony.The plague sufferer in Persia is as sinful as the monk in Cairo, because the former ignores the suffering of a child, while the latter, on the contrary, make the human fear of sickness override everything.Whether it is the former or the latter, they have cleverly avoided the problem.They have always been deaf to the voice of God.In addition, Paneloux would like to give some examples.According to the chroniclers, at the time of the plague at Marseilles, of the eighty-one abbeys of the Redeemers, only four survived.Among the four, three escaped.At that time, the chroniclers described it in this way. Due to the nature of their work, they would not write in more detail.But when Father Paneloux read this document, all his thoughts were fixed on the monk who had not escaped, who, despite the seventy-seven corpses before him, and especially despite the fact that his three companions had fled, was still one. People stay.Then, beating the edge of the pulpit with his fist, the priest said loudly: "My brethren, you must learn from the remaining monk!" It is not a question of non-cooperation in a society which, in order to cope with the chaos caused by disasters, must take precautions to maintain a reasonable order.Don't listen to the ethicists who say you should bow down and give up everything.We just have to start groping a little in the dark and trying to do something good.As for other matters, even if it involves the death of children, they should be allowed to develop naturally, fully trusting in God's providence, and not seeking personal solutions. Speaking of this, Father Paneloux recalled the noble image of Bishop Belzens when he suffered from the plague in Marseilles.He recalled that at the end of the plague, when the bishop, after doing all he had to do, thought there was no other way of salvation, he had his house walled up all round, Locked himself up in his house with food; and the inhabitants, who had been worshiping him like an idol, were angry with him, and piled the dead around his house , to infect him with the plague.They even threw some corpses through the wall, insisting that he die.Therefore, although the bishop, in this last act of cowardice, thought he was cut off from the world of death, yet the dead fell on him from the sky.For us, therefore, it should be assured that there are no islands of refuge in the great sea of ​​plague.Yes, there is no such a safe middle ground, no.This outrage should be accepted, because we must choose: hate or love God.So who dares to make the choice to hate God? "My brothers," concluded Father Paneloux, "the love of God is a difficult love. To have this love is to have a total self-forgetfulness and a courage to disregard personal safety." And it is only with this love that the child's suffering and death can be blotted out from the mind; in any case, only with this love can death become necessary, because one cannot know death, one can only To seek death. This is the profound lesson I want to learn together with you. This is the belief that is cruel in the eyes of people, but decisive in the eyes of God, and it is a belief that everyone should gradually accept. We should align ourselves with this appalling figure. At this highest level, everything becomes one without distinction, and then the truth emerges from the apparent injustice. In the South of France We can see this in many churches, where for centuries the victims of the plague have been laid to rest beneath the altar stones, the priests have preached over the graves of the dead, and the spirit they proclaim is constantly changing from here. Glow from the pile of ashes, including those of the children who died." When Rieux came out of the church, a gust of wind blew in through the half-open door and blew on the faces of the faithful.It brought a smell of rain into the church, a smell of damp sidewalks, and it made people imagine what the city was like before they even stepped out of the church.An old priest and a young deacon walked in front of Dr. Rieux, holding their hats with difficulty.Despite the wind, the older man kept on commenting on the sermon.He admired Paneloux's eloquence, but he was disturbed by the boldness of thought expressed by the priest.He believed that the sermon did not show its strength, but contained more elements of anxiety, which a priest of Paneloux's age should not worry about.The young deacon, with his head bowed against the wind, said that he had often dealt with the priest and was well acquainted with the evolution of his thought, and that Paneloux's thesis might be much more daring, but the Church would probably not allow him to do so. published. The old priest asked: "So, what opinion does he have?" They had reached the square in front of the church gate, and the wind howled around them, making the young deacon unable to speak.When he caught his breath, he simply said: "If a priest wants to see a doctor, there must be some contradiction." After listening to what Rieux had told him about what Paneloux had said in his sermon, Tarrou told the doctor that he knew a priest who had discovered the eyes of a young man during the war. He has been dug out, so he lost his faith and did not believe in religion. Tarrou said: "Pañalou is right. When a Christian sees an innocent person with his eyes gouged out, he either loses his faith, ceases to believe in the religion, or agrees to gouging out his eyes. Paneloux does not want to lose his faith. , he's going to stick to it. That's what he's trying to say in his sermons." Does this insight of Tarrou's clearly explain the incomprehensible behavior of Paneloux in subsequent unfortunate events?People will judge it later. After the sermon, a few days later, Paneloux was also busy with moving.At this time, due to the severity of the epidemic, there was a trend of moving houses in the city.Tarrou had to leave the hotel to live with the Rieux, and the abbe had to give up the apartment allotted to him by his congregation for an old church-going woman who was not yet infected with the plague. Go to the believer's house.Already at the time of the move, the priest felt increasingly tired and anxious.In doing so he lost the respect of the landlady, who had lavishly praised St. Odile's prophecy to him, and the abbe had behaved a little at that time, probably from fatigue. patient.In spite of all his subsequent efforts to make the old lady feel at least not against him, he was unsuccessful.He made a bad impression on her.So every night, before he went back to his bedroom full of crochet lace, he would see her sitting in the living room with her back to him, and at the same time hear her icily, without turning her head. , said to him: "Good night, priest." One night, when going to bed, the priest felt his head was heavy and he felt the heat that had been dormant in his body for several days rushing to his wrists and temples like a broken torrent. rushed everywhere. What happened after this was known only through the mouth of his landlady.The next morning, according to her old habit, she got up early.After a while she was surprised not to see the priest come out of his room.After hesitating for a while, she decided to knock on his door.She found that the priest hadn't closed his eyes all night and was still lying on the bed, feeling a sense of oppression all over his body, and his face was even redder than usual.According to the old lady's own words, she politely suggested that the priest should see a doctor, but she regretted that her advice was rudely rejected by him.So she could only leave the priest's room.After a while, the abbe rang the bell to have her fetched.He apologized for his bad temper just now, and declared to her that his current discomfort had nothing to do with the plague, and he did not have any symptoms of the plague, but just a short-term fatigue.The old lady replied solemnly that the reason why she made such a suggestion to him was not because she was worried that he would catch the plague, but that she did not consider her own safety, which was in the hands of God, and she just Thinking of the priest's health, for she thought she was partly responsible for his health.But, according to her, the abbe said nothing more at that time, and in fulfillment of her duty she again advised him to send for a doctor.The priest still refused, but he added some reasons which sounded very vague to the old lady.She thought she understood only this: that the priest refused to see a doctor because it was not in keeping with his principles.And this was exactly what she couldn't understand.From this she concluded that her lodger's head was so bewildered with fever that she could do nothing but make him some herbal tea. Determined to fulfill her obligations under the circumstances to the letter, she visited the patient every two hours.What surprised her most was the constant restlessness in which the priest lived throughout the day.He lifted the quilt for a while, and then pulled it back on his body. He kept touching his sweaty forehead with his hands, and often sat up and coughed hard, but the coughing sound seemed to be choked. His throat was hoarse and phlegm, as if forced out.At that moment, he couldn't seem to get the ball of cotton that was suffocating him from the depths of his throat.After this fit, he fell back on the bed with a very tired look on his face.At last he sat up again, and for a moment his eyes were fixed ahead, more fanatical than all his earlier restlessness.But the old lady was still hesitating about whether to call a doctor or go against the patient's wishes.Terrible as it looked, she thought, it might just be a sudden onset of a high fever. In the afternoon, she wanted to ask the priest about his condition, but all she got was a half-hearted answer.She resumed her proposal.Then the priest sat up again, almost out of breath, but answered very clearly that he did not want a doctor.The landlady then decided to wait until the next morning, and if the abbe's condition persisted, she would dial the number that the RRS repeated a dozen times a day on the radio.She was always obsessed with her responsibilities, and wanted to visit her lodger at night and attend to him.But that night, after she drank the newly brewed herbal tea for the priest, she wanted to lie down for a while, but she fell asleep and didn't wake up until dawn the next day.She hurried to the priest's room. The priest lay motionless on the bed.Yesterday, his face was flushed due to extreme congestion, but today it turned into a kind of blue-gray, especially since his face is still full, so it looks more obvious.The priest gazed at a small chandelier of stained-glass beads that hung from the ceiling above the bed.When the old lady came into the room, he turned to her.According to the landlady, at this time he seemed to have collapsed from the torture of the previous night, and he had no more strength to resist.She asked the priest how he was doing.She noticed that the priest replied in a strangely indifferent voice that he was not well, but that he did not need a doctor, but that he should be taken to the hospital, and that everything would be done according to the rules.The old lady was frightened and hurried to make a phone call. At noon Rieux came.After hearing the landlady's account, he simply replied that Paneloux was right to ask for hospitalization, but it seemed too late.The priest received the doctor with the same indifference.Rieux examined the priest's whole body and was astonished, for, apart from the swelling and oppression of the patient's lungs, he found no major symptoms of bubonic or pneumonic plague.But, at any rate, the pulse was weak, and the general condition was so serious that there was little hope. Rieux said to Paneloux: "You do not have any of the main symptoms of plague. But in fact, it is suspicious, so I have to put you in isolation." The priest smiled strangely, as if to show politeness, but said nothing.Rieux went out to make a phone call and then went back into the house.He looked at the priest and said to him kindly: "I will stay with you." The priest seemed to be alive again, and turned his eyes to the doctor, and there seemed to be renewed enthusiasm in his eyes.Then he spoke, and he spoke with such difficulty that it was impossible to know whether he said it with an element of sadness or not. He said: "Thank you. But priests have no friends. They entrust everything to God." He begged to be handed the crucifix that stood over his bed, and when he had it he turned and looked at it. In the hospital, Paneloux never spoke.He let people give him various treatments like an object, but he never put down the statue of the cross in his hand.However, the priest's condition was still uncertain, and Rieux's thoughts were still full of doubts.It was both like the plague and not like the plague.Besides, the plague had been making it difficult for doctors to diagnose for some time now, and it seemed to take pleasure in it.In the case of Paneloux, however, what happened to him later will prove that this indeterminacy is irrelevant. The heat has risen.The cough became hoarse, and the patient suffered from coughing all day long.At night, the priest finally coughed up the "cotton ball" that made him suffocate.It is bright red.During the high fever, Paneloux's eyes remained indifferent, but the next morning, when people found him lying halfway outside the bed, dead, his eyes were full of coldness. There was no expression."Suspicious condition" was written on his medical card.