February
Newsletter
Abbaye Saint-Joseph de Clairval, France
February
17, 2002
First Sunday of Lent
Dear Friend of Saint Joseph Abbey,
Good Friday. Cruelly nailed to the Cross, Jesus is subjected to the sarcastic remarks of the two criminals who are suffering the same torment. One of them insults Him: "Are you not the Messiah? Then save yourself and us." Seeing this strange prisoner's patience, the other thief, touched by grace, defends Jesus: "This man has done nothing wrong." He then spoke to the Savior: "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." Jesus answered him, "I assure you: this day you will be with me in Paradise" (cf. Lk. 23). With these words, Our Lord pronounced the first "canonization" in history. One must, therefore, "never despair of the divine mercy" (cf. Rule of Saint Benedict, ch. 4). As in the conversion of the good thief, the life of Jacques Fesch illustrates this beautiful maxim.
It has been said that a child's upbringing begins twenty years before his birth with that of his mother. We must add-and with that of his father. Jacques' father, Georges Fesch, was born in Liege in 1885, to parents who were already in their forties. He settled in France in the 1920's, working as a bank director. An unbeliever, proud of it and proud to show it, he flaunted a "strong will." His cynicism concealed bitterness, disappointments and disillusions. At times, his abundant table welcomed numerous companions. Yet, a determined worker, he was a success in business.
The fourth child in his family,
Jacques, was born not having been wanted, in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, a
suburb of Paris, on April 6, 1930, and received Baptism the following
July 6. Mrs. Fesch shared her husband's ideas. Although she did not practice
any particular religion, she was a good mother to her little ones, whom
she cherished and tenderly cared for. But when they reached the age of
13 or 14, she would turn her back on them. Jacques' contact with his mother
then became cold and reserved.
Jacques grew up without a particular interest in anything. He attended
various academic institutions, from which he was expelled for his laziness
and lack of discipline. He was spineless, apathetic, unstable, and corrupt.
He always had a lot of money, and modeled himself on his father's maxims:
amorality, contempt for his fellow man. Despite all this, he made his
First Communion, in keeping with custom. Wearing his white armband, he
bears a limpid expression. But he was soon to forget all that. As a young
man, he spent some of his nights in places of ill-repute; yet, his father
was little concerned.
During the years 1947-1948, Jacques met Pierrette Polack, whose father
held an important position in the management of the Alsacian Coal Board.
From a Christian background, she was baptized and had made her First Communion.
She made the first move, so it seems, to come into Jacques' life, who
was at this time working, after a fashion, in his father's bank.
Jacques' parents were not getting along, which resulted in a tense atmosphere.
Mr. Fesch, who was charming with strangers, showed himself a sarcastic
and proud person at home. In 1950, the family split up. Mrs. Fesch stayed
in Saint-Germain-en-Laye; her husband settled in the region of Saumur.
If the love of God does not live in the hearts of a husband and wife,
their marriage is often quite precarious, as is tragically shown in the
experience of the home into which Jacques was born.
A "marriage" without love
In 1950, Jacques left for Germany
for his obligatory military service. Pierrette, who knew she was pregnant
with his child, found a job in Strasbourg in her father's business. After
much hesitation, she finally told Jacques that the child she was expecting
was his. Jacques waited to reach the age of majority to marry Pierrette
in a civil ceremony in the city hall in Strasbourg on June 5, 1951, a
month before the birth of little Veronica. He confessed, "I got married
first of all because my wife was pregnant... I didn't love my wife, I
got along well with her, but as friends..." Released from military
service, he found work in Mr. Polack's business. But, after having embezzled
funds, he parted ways with his father-in-law and split up with Pierrette,
who would later say, "He was very unhappy when we broke up. I am
sure that he suffered very much. He cried like a baby. We never stopped
seeing each other." When Jacques went to see his daughter Veronica
at his father-in-law's, he was not invited into the house. He remained
on the threshold of the door to caress her...
With the intention of helping her son, Mrs. Fesch put a sum of one million
francs at his disposal in order to launch a coal transport business (1953),
but Jacques sank half of the sum in the purchase of a sports car. About
this period, he would later write, "I found myself alone in Saint-Germain-en-Laye,
even more unbalanced by this experience (separation with Pierrette) which
gave me to taste remorse. I tried to work... one month. At the first setback,
I abandoned everything..." At that time, one of his friends, Jacques
Robbe, dangled the prospect of an adventure which at first might seem
exciting: "What would be more romantic, adventurous and attractive
than a friend who whispered in your ear the wonders of the free life of
the lone sailor?" Jacques Robbe was not malicious, but was indeed
harmful. He entertained the crazy idea he had drawn from films and reading
of buying a sailboat to "run away from it all," but he was to
abandon his friend at the last minute... The sailboat cost two million
francs. Jacques Fesch didn't have the money, and his father refused to
finance such a scheme.
An adventure at a high price
A crazy idea suddenly took
shape in Jacques' mind-he would get hold of the money by stealing it!
He agreed to steal because this act follows naturally from the way he
sees things. The accomplices he sought out, Robbe and Blot, decided to
assault a moneychanger, Mr. Silberstein. They had no intent of killing
him. Jacques, however, made a long trip to get hold of a pistol which
belonged to his father.
On the morning of February 25, 1954, Jacques ordered from Mr. Silberstein
the sum of 2,220,000 francs in gold bars, which he wished to pick up that
evening. Around 6 p.m., he parked his car close to the moneychanger's
office, and took his pistol with the safety jammed. Robbe and Blot then
left him. Robbe told a police officer, "Hurry, my best friend is
making a big mistake." Meanwhile, Fesch had hit Silberstein over
the head with the butt of his pistol, without being able to make him lose
consciousness. The banker called for help. Jacques took the safety off
his pistol, hit Silberstein with the butt a second time, and clumsily
shot himself in the finger. He made off with the money that was in the
coffer (only 330,000 francs), and fled at full speed, chased by several
passers-by. He dove under the arch of a carriage entrance and hid for
a moment at the top of a stairway, then came down again. He had been recognized.
A police officer shouted to him, "Hands up or I'll shoot!" Jacques
was quicker, and shot through the officer's raincoat. The bullet hit the
police officer right in the heart and killed him. Jacques continued to
flee, and was finally stopped by a retired officer who threw a heavy door
in his face and wounded him. Jacques collapsed.
Pierrette, who suspected nothing, was waiting for him at a café
near the moneychanger's office. Instead of Jacques, it was the police
who went to look for her at this rendezvous. She was soon found innocent
and released, after having been brought face to face with Jacques, whose
head was still covered in blood from the blow he had received. On February
27, the murderer was committed to La Santé Prison. He would stay
there three years.
Shortly after Jacques' arrest, God rekindled in Mrs. Fesch's heart some
religious sentiments which had never been completely extinguished. Before
dying of cancer and of sorrow in 1956, she said, "I offer my life
so that my son might die well."
The dawn of conversion
On the chaplain's first visit,
Jacques exclaimed right away: "Don't bother! I am not a believer."
The priest nevertheless paid him a short sympathy call every day, as he
did to the other prisoners. Among the books he provided Jacques with,
only one caught his attention-the story of the apparitions of Our Lady
of the Rosary in Fatima. This reading initiated Jacques' return to the
Christian faith. Mary is called the Morning Star of the Sun. Indeed, when
devotion to the Blessed Virgin is aroused in a soul, it is a sure sign
that God will come soon to enrich it with His grace. Innumerable faithful,
obedient to the request of Our Lady of Fatima, recite this prayer after
each decade of their Rosary: "O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save
us from the fires of Hell; lead all souls to Heaven, especially those
who have most need of Thy mercy." This little prayer doubtless exerts
a salutary influence on sinful souls, and did, particularly, on that of
Jacques Fesch.
One year after the crime, on February 28, 1955, during a visit to the
prison, Pierrette informed Jacques of the consequences of a dramatic confidential
story which the couple had lived through in anguish in December 1953,
before Jacques' imprisonment. This conversation gave rise to an emotional
pain in Jacques' soul, pain which robbed him of sleep over the course
of many nights. On March 1, he distinctly heard a voice not of this earth
say to him, "Jacques, you are receiving the graces of your death."
This shock brought about his instantaneous conversion. In his spiritual
journal, he clarified, "That day, I was in my bed. My eyes were open,
and I really suffered, for the first time in my life, with a rare intensity,
because of what had been revealed to me concerning certain family matters,
and it was then that a shout burst forth from my chest, a cry for help:
'My God!' And, instantly, like a violent wind that passes without anyone
knowing where it came from, the Lord took me by the throat. And, from
that moment on, I have believed with a firm conviction that has never
left me since." Jacques did not deduce the existence of God from
reasoning; he met Him who alone was capable of transforming him by enveloping
him in His tenderness. Fear had nothing to do with it, for the murderer
very much expected at this time to avoid capital punishment.
Steps towards the light
After this passage from atheism to Christianity, a second conversion took place, on December 2, 1955. Jacques rose to the heroic fervor which entailed receiving his death from the hands of God, for himself and for others: "I was happy," he wrote. "I am saved in spite of myself; I am being taken out of the world because I was lost in it... The punishment that awaits me is not a debt that I have to repay, but a gift that the Lord is giving me." He gathered an abundance of information on the soul and on the final ends, Hell, the life of the blessed in Heaven, the Cross. It was a veritable novitiate in eternal life. In spite of his guards' constant surveillance, he prayed on his knees. His neophyte's apostolate to members of his family and other prisoners was fervently performed. In order to awaken them from their unbelief, he was severe with them, especially with Pierrette, whom out of love he wanted to convert, for his imprisonment had aroused in him genuine and profound love for her. "There is a double transformation in me," he wrote her. "The chance to love you, and the fact that I love you." He loved her, but he learned through experience that real love here on earth does not work without suffering. Little by little, faith was awakened in Pierrette's soul. Several days before Jacques' death, she went to receive Communion, after having been distant from the Church for more than ten years.
Religion with no discount
Jacques was now convinced that
he was going to die, because Jesus had made it clear to him on two occasions
that he was receiving graces for his death. He was sorry that his chaplain
did not sufficiently dwell on eternal salvation. "This chaplain,"
he wrote, "is a wise man... but he is reduced to presenting a synthesis
of philosophical and religious concepts which is far removed from the
simplicity of the Gospels."
As for him, without being fanatical in regards to Hell, he was aware of
his sins and of his bad inclinations. He looked damnation straight in
the face, as a real possibility. Nevertheless, his entire journal speaks
of real love and of a firm hope in Heaven. "My death is redeeming,
even if it appears unfair. We must not struggle against what has been
decided by God... and which is owing to His great mercy." This repentant
prisoner's spirituality fits in with the truth of the Gospel. In the Apostolic
Exhortation Reconciliatio et pænitentia, of December 2, 1984, Pope
John Paul II recalls, "Nor can the church omit, without serious mutilation
of her essential message, a constant catechesis on what the traditional
Christian language calls the four last things of man: death, judgment
(universal and particular), Hell and Heaven. In a culture which tends
to imprison man in the earthly life at which he is more or less successful,
the pastors of the church are asked to provide a catechesis which will
reveal and illustrate with the certainties of faith what comes after the
present life: beyond the mysterious gates of death, an eternity of joy
in communion with God or the punishment of separation from Him. Only in
this eschatological (concerning man's destiny after death) vision can
one realize the exact nature of sin and feel decisively moved to penance
and reconciliation" (no. 26).
The secrets of his heart
Between August 1 and October
1, 1957, Jacques wrote his spiritual journal, intended for his daughter
Veronica who was six years old at the time. He revealed not so much his
familiarity with his family than his intimacy with God. Jacques had discovered
Jesus, and his fervent hope was to make Him known to Veronica: "What
I have, I give you for the day when, after you are an adult, you will,
through these words, be able to follow the life of the man who was your
papa and who never stopped loving you for one second." The journal
ends with these words: "If by the end of these pages I have succeeded
in making you understand what life can be, real life, that begins in this
world in order to bloom where everything is light, if you have been able
to sense the greatness and the worth of the soul, and of what little importance
worldly success is, these lines will not have been written in vain, and
maybe one day, faced with God knows what ordeal, you yourself will draw
from this example so close to you the strength and the courage to distinguish
which direction the light comes from."
Little by little, he developed the habit of discerning which thoughts
came from God and which came from the devil. When Jesus made His presence
felt, he wrote, "I would like to die because I have too much joy...
There is nothing but a song of gratitude which should spring forth from
our breast." But there was no absence of moments of interior suffering:
"My spiritual barometer, which was standing at 'unsteady,' is now
steadily dropping to rain and fog. The world and its charms are making
up ground they lost in grace's invasion... Though I cannot keep more or
less troubling thoughts from invading my mind, nothing can stop me from
getting on my knees and saying my prayers, even if my attention is no
longer sustained... This struggle will end when the good Lord wishes it
to end... The only thing to my credit is that it is I who will receive
the blade on the skull!... Obviously, it is not at all fun, but afterwards
I will be so happy!... Only a quarter of an hour, in contrast to eternity!"
During this time, Jacques' preliminary investigation and trial took place,
a case that triggered impassioned debates in the assizes and the press.
The verdict was handed down on April 6, 1957, the day before the Passion
- a death sentence (the death penalty was enforced in France until 1981).
On July 11, the appeal to the Supreme Court was rejected. The only way
out was a presidential pardon.
Contemplation of the crucifix
As the hour of his execution
approached, Jacques united himself ever more closely to Jesus' Passion,
and even went so far as to say, "My heart is full of joy. No more
dread, no more fright, the Blessed Virgin has taken them away." He
often tried to put himself in Jesus' place in His Passion: "The nails
must be what hurts most, His hand forced against the wood, the point that
is pressed on the hand to center it. Then the hammer blow hurled, and
the flesh that bursts, and the blood that spurts... And after the first
hand, the other one! Then the feet!... After that, the body's least motion
must make the wounds rub against the nails, and cause unbearable pain...
And to think of the sufferings of a Mother who contemplates all this and
can do nothing to comfort Her Son! Poor Virgin Mary, humble, silent and
in tears at the foot of the cross..."
Late in the afternoon of September 30, 1957, Jacques Fesch's lawyer, Mr.
Baudet, informed his client that his petition for reprieve was rejected.
The execution was set for the following morning. Jacques put his matrimonial
affairs in order, officially marrying Pierrette in the Church, through
the parish priest in Saint-Germain-en-Laye. On October 1, at three o'clock
in the morning, he got up and made his bed. The last lines of his journal
are eloquent: "In five hours, I will see Jesus. I am inundated with
peace and my prayers flow like honey... Blessed Virgin, have pity on me!
I believe that I will stop this journal where it is, being as how I hear
disturbing noises. Let's just hope that I take the blow. Blessed Virgin,
help me! Good-bye to everyone, and may the Lord bless you." His last
letter was for his spiritual director: "I am waiting in the night
and in peace... I have my eyes fixed on the crucifix and look at nothing
but my Savior's wounds. I continuously repeat, 'This is for You.' I want
to hold onto this image up to the end, I who am going to suffer so little...
I am waiting for Love."
Around 5 o'clock in the morning, Jacques' chaplain and lawyer entered
his cell. In profound peace, he made his last confession and received
Communion. He continued to repeat in his heart that the certainty of Heaven
was close at hand. With his hands tied behind his back, he said to the
chaplain, "The crucifix, Father, the crucifix!" He kissed his
Lord emotionally, and was led to the scaffold. Eight minutes later, the
execution took place. Nowadays, October 1 is the Feast of Saint Thérèse
of the Child Jesus, whom Jacques dearly loved. Like her, he had offered
his life to Merciful Love. When her husband's death was announced, Pierrette
obtained his spiritual journal and read it from cover to cover the same
day.
In December 1993, Cardinal Lustiger, the Archbishop of Paris, opened the
preliminary inquiry for the beatification of Jacques Fesch. "I hope,"
he said, "that one day he will be venerated as a model of sanctity."
Indeed, his conversion invites us never to despair of God's mercy and
of Our Lady's intercession.
Like Ruth the Moabite, who pleased Boaz and who obtained from him permission
to glean the ears of grain left in his field by the harvesters (Rt. 2:1-13),
the Blessed Virgin Mary goes into the field of the Church and the world,
preciously gathering the lost souls, those from whom no one expects anything.
She places them, as it were, in Her apron, protects them from the fearful
Judge before whom She alone was able to find favor, and, as it were, smuggles
them into the eternal granaries of the Father.
O most merciful Virgin Mary, be our guide, our light, and our consolation
on the road that leads to Paradise. Deign to lead us by the hand to the
Heavenly city of which You are Queen, so that we might bless for all eternity
the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation.
In these thoughts of confidence in Mary, Mother of Mercy, we pray for
all your intentions, including your deceased.
Dom Antoine Marie osb
P. S. We gratefully
accept the addresses of other persons who may enjoy receiving it.
- Also available free of charge are: tract about the Truths of the Catholic
Religion; scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, with explanatory notice;
the promises of the Sacred Heart; the mysteries of the Rosary.
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de Clairval, F-21150 Flavigny sur Ozerain, France) :
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The monks pray for your intentions.