President Spencer W. Kimball once said that the most important book other than the Standard Works is Victor Hugo's Les Miserables. This, among many other reasons, has driven me to slowly work my way through the ridiculously long novel. As I've done so, I can concur with President Kimball that there are multitudes of wonderful Christlike wisdom within its pages. There is one in particular that I'd like to discuss.
"Do not ask the name of him who asks you for a bed. It is precisely he whose name is a burden to him who most needs sanctuary."
I love this quote, and it reminds me very much of King Benjamin's admonition in Mosiah 2:17 "And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God."
In Les Miserables, Monseigneur Bienvenu -- the Bishop -- is almost certainly an allegorical parallel to Christ, or at the very least, a representative of the goodness of God. He is the only one who will take in Valjean, and he extends him nothing but kindness. Valjean is struck by this and vows to live a virtuous, Christlike life thereafter. I love this because at once we are all both Bienvenu and Valjean. All those who are tired, poor, and yearning for any sort of kindness deserve that from us. To serve the Lord, we must serve his struggling children. On the other hand, however, we are also His struggling children. We are also beaten down by the endless breakers of life, and we sometimes need the helping hand of a Bienvenu; a servant of the Lord who brings good morning. None of us are exempt from either role, and in embracing both, we become greater, kinder, and more loving individuals who further the work of the Lord.
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