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Leon Bloy, the Church and the Bourgeois
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 October 2024
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Léon Bloy, who fought in 1870, suffered great poverty all his life, and died in 1916. He knew, as a matter of personal experience here on earth, that the absence of God is Hell.
Le Pélerin du Saint Sépulchre, as he called himself, he lived at the loot of the Cross, with infinite longing; seeing in History the great span of God’s holy Will (’ I am going to write a History of the Will of God ‘) stretching from the Fall to the Incarnation and from the Incarnation to the still unrealised reign of the Spirit; and underneath, the horror of godless man, ‘la hideur plus qu’effroyable d’un monde qui a cessé de ressembler à son Créateur ‘(La Femme Pauvre, p. 214). His meditation was all in depth, taking this form:
‘When the ruffians came down from Calvary, they brought to all people the great news that mankind had come of age. In a single bound, Suffering crossed the infinite abyss separating Accident and Substance, and became NECESSARY.
‘Then the promises of joy and triumph in which the Scriptures are soaked, appearing in the new law under the brief heading “ Beatitudes,” coursed through the generations, cutting across them like a whirlwind of swordblades. In a word, humanity set about suffering in hope, and that is what is called the Christian era . . . Great souls, Christian or not, long for the outcome of it all . . .’ (Le Désespéré.)
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- Copyright © 1945 Provincial Council of the English Province of the Order of Preachers