Wednesday, May 30

Lessons from the saints - Jeanne d'Arc

Today is the feast of Jeanne d'Arc.  Two years ago (wow, has it been two years?) I wrote about her here, but I wish to point out a different and somewhat unrecognized aspect to the tale.

This revolves around who Jeanne was.  Not what she did or saw/heard or any of that, but who she was.  She was a peasant and a female who was martyred before her 20th birthday.  In short, she was a nobody, noone of importance, a nothing who may not even have been worthy of a gravestone.

Yet it is precisely this nobody who God chose to have visited. 

It is precisely this noone who was chosen to do the impossible for God and country.

It is precisely this nothing who listened, followed and changed the course of history.

It is something I noticed when searching for images about the Maid of Orleans.  Apart from the 'burning' images, she is almost always wearing armour, often with a sword in hand.  The latter is at variance with the accounts, as she stated specifically that she did not wish to harm anyone.  It is hard to find an image of her as the 12 year old shepherdess.  But that is who she, at her core, was. 

The point I see is to reiterate St. Francis: "If God can work through me, He can work through anybody",  whether it be a merchant's son or a teenaged girl. What made them is not where they came from or who they were born, but that they listened when the Voice called and answered it.

May we do the same.

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