A story from Rorate Caeli:
At the end of the first month of the Great War:
August 29, 1914: in Taintrux (Vosges, Lorraine), an agonizing French Catholic soldier, in an infirmary bombarded by the Germans in the war front, asks a military chaplain, whom he believes to be a priest in a cassock, for a Crucifix. The chaplain was Chief Rabbi Abraham Bloch, who brings and presents to him the image of the Crucified Lord: moments later, both would be killed by an exploding shell.
The main eyewitness of the incident was Father Jamin, S.J., in whose arms Bloch finally expired.
(Cf. Maurice Barrès, Les diverses familles spirituelles de la France - published in English as The Faith of France.)
[First posted by us in 2011. The famous image is by Lucien Lévy-Dhurmer, born in a prominent French and Algerian Jewish family. ] - Thanks to Rorat Caeli
Such a beautiful story - the art especially edifying.
"It is my hope that in that mysterious twilight moment between life and death, the Grand Rabbi finally saw in the Lord Jesus the Messiah whom he certainly longed for during his life."
ReplyDelete01 September, 2011 06:55
I thought the same thing when reading the above comment from four years ago. What joy he must have experienced to see the Risen Lord...the long awaited Messiah greeting him as he crossed the threshold of eternity.
Thanks Terry for this wonderful story!
The story is very refreshing and gives us a glimpse of heaven.
ReplyDeleteWar and extreme deprivation usually manifest the City of God and the City of Man (or sheep and goats if you don't like Augustine's image). Where each man and woman stands as the two cities pass through the world together. You get astounding beauty and ugliness all at the same time, and as the story shows, God has the last word not artillery shells.
Yes, the art IS edifying and beautiful, thanks!!...
ReplyDeleteHow beautiful for the Rabbi to get the crucifix for the soldier before they went to their eternal rest; his final act being one of mercy before joining the Merciful Jesus.
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