In Georges Bernanos's historical play Dialogues of the Carmelites, the scene is grim for the Catholic Church. The nuns and priests are hunted by the Revolution. Everywhere the Church seems to be collapsing. One sister asks what shall happen when a lack of priests deprives French people of the sacraments. Bernanos has the Mother Superior reply with an inspired answer: "When priests are lacking, martyrs are abundant, and so the balance of grace is restored."
Elsewhere, Bernanos calls this confidence in the restoration of the balance of grace, this hope, "the largest and the hardest victory." Hope is "a heroic disposition of the soul." As the Carmelites discover when they conquer their fear of persecution and their fear for the people of France, hope's "highest form is when despair is overcome."
Like the French, Americans share in France's sorrow over the fire at Notre-Dame. Like the French, they have offered many interpretations of its significance. Yet as they do so, they should reflect on these observations from Bernanos. He warns against that habit with which conservative romantics who love the past are often tempted: a conservative melancholia, or disdain for the present. This leads to despair.
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