Saint Joan of Arc with her angels and saints

Saint Joan of Arc with her angels and saints

by Walter Adams

“Only, when he has entered the Church, he finds that the Church is much larger inside than it is outside.” (G.K. Chesterton)

No one would have had to tell Ste. Jeanne d’Arc that. Not only did Jeanne know intuitively what Mr. Chesterton proposed with a sense of awe after he converted to the Catholic Church, I truly believe that she could have stated it herself in her own straightforward, simplistic manner. She was quite clever, you know. She was very clever, and whenever the world presented itself to her, either to attempt to alter her course (which she would not do without extreme reluctance) or to accuse her of wrong-doing (which she would never, ever do), she often had a little verbal bite to offer, and one that probably drew a slight smile from her adversary even as it stung. I think it was very difficult not to like Jeanne d’Arc. I think you had to be fighting for the English Crown and losing everything before her unstoppable and unyielding faith-filled advances not to like her. Even then, I think many of those still did like her. And those who really knew her, loved her. That is just the nature of Ste. Jeanne d’Arc. That is how God made her, and it is very edifying.


Speaking of those who loved her and of how it is that the Church can be much larger on the inside than out, Ste. Jeanne was visited often as a young woman by saints from heaven. It is true. If you do not grasp that truth and the significance behind it, then you will have missed the essence of Jeanne. You will not know her as she must be known. You will merely understand her as an enigmatic heroine, and she certainly is that. However, to grasp, to fully grasp, the reality that Heaven visited her often, even daily, from the age of twelve to the time she died at the age of nineteen, is to go so far into the mystery that you actually begin to unwrap and shed light on that enigma. There is light at the end of that journey if only you follow the path with intellectual honesty. St. Michael the Archangel, St. Catherine of Alexandria, and St. Margaret of Antioch visited Ste. Jeanne on a regular basis. These saints brought messages to her from Jesus Christ. They told her what the will of Jesus Christ was regarding the political affairs of France and England. They told her what she must do for Jesus Christ, which was to free the city of Orléans from the English siege and to bring the Dauphin, Charles VII, to Rheims to be anointed with the oil of Clovis and crowned King of France.

 Can you grasp the meaning of this? I mean, can you grasp the meaning of angels and saints coming from Heaven to visit Ste. Jeanne d’Arc? In order to even contemplate it, much less grasp it, one must completely open one’s mind. Now, the temptation is, of course, to be closed minded and narrow, that is, to think that somehow Heaven did not really communicate with Jeanne d’Arc. Or, perhaps Heaven did speak with Jeanne in her own mind, or her own heart, subjectively speaking. Maybe, just maybe, she was mad (though no one who studies her can truly believe that, for she fits no modern understanding of madness in her thoughts, words, or actions). To contemplate the historical record with an open mind is to begin to see. “Let those who have eyes to see, see and ears to hear, hear.” Yes, to contemplate the magnificence of the objective reality that Heaven came to Jeanne d’Arc is to contemplate the magnificence of Jeanne d’Arc herself in the form that she was created by almighty God. However, it is to also contemplate the magnificence of God and of the created order. It is, in short, breathtakingly inspiring. Jeanne d’Arc is breathtakingly inspiring. Through our meditations on her life and with her own heavenly friendship and loving, sisterly care for us here on earth, the Church easily expands beyond measure from the inside. Yes, it does, Mr. Chesterton.

Now, the reality of both Heaven and Ste. Jeanne d’Arc created in me an excitement and religious fervor that I did not know was possible. Through Ste. Jeanne d’Arc, I knew instantly what it was to which G. K. Chesterton referred in the quote above. Do you not suspect that once Ste. Jeanne began her communion with the angels and saints through the grace and will of Jesus Christ, that the earth, even the extremely beautiful part of earth that is the region surrounding her hometown of Domrémy, simultaneously began to look much smaller. She must have felt as though she were looking through a keyhole here on earth to a mystical land of beauty, breadth, and width far beyond anything imaginable here on earth. Undoubtedly her mind was truly opened from the narrow thinking of the world, and she saw reality, yes, reality (for Heaven is real in the eternal Now, whereas earth is real for a mere split second in the time space continuum which is leading us toward that eternal Now).

 The Church, through which Jeanne was formed both religiously and culturally in time and space, is the seed here on earth of that very same eternally Now Kingdom. Can you grasp it? Can you begin to see how it is that the glorious Ste. Jeanne could have easily stated, with a slight smile of knowing on her lips, the very same proposition as did Mr. Chesterton? Chesterton could see through his mind’s eye how the earth and earthly manners of thinking can become ever so small as you peer metaphorically through the keyhole of the great castle gate of the Church leading into the eternal Kingdom of God. From the outside the Church is an earthly institution. Through the keyhole we see Heaven itself exploding like a new universe. Ste. Jeanne d’Arc saw it with her own eyes. It was so grand that she wanted only to go with her heavenly friends when they would depart.

This is what happened to me, I mean, that I came to desire being with Ste. Jeanne in heaven, just as she desired to be with Sts. Michael, Catherine, and Margaret. When that happens, it changes everything, and I mean everything. One’s worldview is then so radically altered that the earth begins to look small. You keep peering through the keyhole of the Church’s towering gate to expand your mind. At a certain point, you push the gate open and begin your journey. That is what Jeanne did; she bravely began her journey to Chinon to meet Charles VII and to persuade him to allow her to take an army to free Orléans. That journey, though, did not end in Orléans, or in Rheims, or even in Rouen where she was burned at the stake. That journey ended in Heaven because the whole source and purpose of the journey was from Heaven. It began “before the foundations of the world” as a form in the mind of God.

 Yes, Mr. Chesterton, indeed the Church is much larger on the inside than out. Ste. Jeanne lived that reality to the fullest as she honored, loved, and trusted her saintly visitors, fulfilled God’s will, and sacrificed her life for both France and Heaven. And in that breathtakingly inspiring manner, Jeanne gave me a small glimpse of how large that inside really is. Heaven does commune with us in our very small world flying at breakneck speed through the time space continuum. I am hoping and praying that with my intense desire to share heaven with Ste. Jeanne, Ste. Thérèse, the rest of the communion of saints, and especially with Our Lady the Virgin Mary and our glorious Divine King, Jesus Christ, I will somehow be drawn over the hills, meadows, and mountains grasping their hands and will arrive in the Kingdom where Jeanne d’Arc will lead her eternal family of brothers and sisters in worshipping The Father, The Son, and the Holy Spirit through the Heart of Immaculate Mary.

Yes, Ste. Jeanne, I want to come too. With Ste. Thérèse de Lisieux, pray for us dear sister in Christ.

Related:

http://tradcatknight.blogspot.com/2015/09/saint-joan-of-arc-was-knight-not.html

http://tradcatknight.blogspot.com/2015/01/st-joan-of-arc-restoration-of-social.html

http://tradcatknight.blogspot.com/2014/05/st-joan-of-arc-model-crusader.html

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