The Pulpit Speaks: May 20, 1961

An article written by my father, the Rev. C. Thomas Paige, as it appeared in the Tri-State Defender on the date shown.

Last night I watched Victor Hugo’s famous play “Les Miserables.” The main character in this play is Jean Valjean, a notorious thief. This poor, out of work, man resorted to stealing for his family. He was caught stealing bread to satisfy the hunger of his little children and was sentenced to ten years in the galley. Before his sentence was up, he was paroled. During this period he was given a yellow paper that everyone who came in contact with him would know that he was a parolee. One night found him covered up in the gutter with nothing but a wrap to protect him from the rain. A fellow man saw him in this destitute condition and pointed him to the home of the local minister, where he was given food and shelter and temporarily restored to the status of a man.

This act on the part of the minister and subsequent actions made a great impression on the viewers. The minister did no more than a minister or a Christian should have done. His actions were classic actions that each of us should do as followers of Christ. In all possibilities the whole world would be better if each of us would behave likewise.

Jean Valjean represents countless people of today. Their whole lives would take on new meaning if each of us would discharge all that Christianity implies. But in far too many instances, many of us fail in the face of great opportunity. The fact is that we can remold the lives of those with whom we come in contact by just exercising a small part of the Christianity in us. Many of the people in our society who have gone astray never would have done so had some stronger person come into their lives and given them a new sense of direction.

Today the Jean Valjeans show themselves to us every day — destitute, weary, unrecognized, they go through life with no real meaning. It is left to each of us to give new import to the lives of all of those with whom we come in contact. The unfortunate part of life for many of us is wrapped up in the fact that all of us, at some time, need someone to help us bear our crosses. There is not one of us today who is without a cross. The cross may express itself in terms of economic setbacks. sickness, loss of friends, wayward children, or other things, but these crosses must be borne. If, for some reason, we have had no crosses, if we keep on living, we will have them.

The struggling Jean Valjean represents the average person of our day and time. Curtailed on every hand, we struggle against the odds in an effort to maintain respectability and status. Day after day we seek out avenues of activity that will enable us to rise above the realm of obscurity. We want to be somebody — and somebody important. We want to be in a position to make our contribution to a cause that is worthy and worthwhile. This is not easy. The old hymn says “sure I must fight if I must reign, increase my courage.” These words must be on the lips of each of us. The struggle for survival haunts all of us. The things that give importance to life is that, in spite of all we endure, we must keep our eyes set on the highest and noblest we can be expected to do.

Only to the extent that each of us never foresake that which is best in us will life ever have any meaning. Today, as never before, we must hold on to that which is most meaningful in this life. The demands of life require that we today fight as never before to carry out the strongest and noblest mandates of human activity. The men of our day who write their names upon the brave and noble in spite of all the sand of time write because they have dared to. This must be the aim of each of us.

In this world for every Jean Valjean, there must be a minister. For every one there must be dedicated souls who have made up their minds that they are going to be avenues of moral and spiritual growth for those who, through weakness, have fallen short of the mark. This and only this is the salvation of our world today and the realization of a better world.