Load Your Weapons Well...
Jennifer Jones made her first
appearance in the movies in 1943 as the poor peasant girl Bernadette
Sorbouris who said she saw "a lovely lady" (later said to be the Virgin
Mary). Though the common people who were anxious to believe a miracle
soon believed the girl, all the powerful officials including the priest
who was the Dean of Lourdes said her claim was false. They said it was
an attempt to get attention or a scheme to get presents from the people
or it might even be madness.
At first the Dean (played well by Charles Bickford) was an outspoken
critic of Bernadette’s claim but then her obvious sincerity, honesty,
humility and courage won him round. He came to believe that she was
telling the truth. When the public prosecutor lined up against the girl
and threatened to put her in an insane asylum the Dean said he would
oppose any action aimed at taking her away. Asked what he would do when
the police arrived to take her he said: "I would say to them, ‘load well
your guns for your path lies over my dead body.’ "
If Hollywood can imagine such scenes can we not so live as to make
them reality? If Hollywood can admire and publish such incidents can we
not do the same? To see a man so change (even in fiction) stirs the
heart and makes us want to be that kind of person. In a world full of
disappointments and broken promises, where people walk away from those
under fire in case they themselves might suffer in the battle, how
profoundly uplifting it is to see someone draw a line in the dirt and
defy all comers to cross it.
Christ opposed Satan who would spill the souls of men and women in
lonely ditches and vile ghettos. "Load your weapons well for your path
lies over my dead body."
Christ opposed religious leaders and government officials when they
came after the accused and vulnerable. "Load your weapons well for your
path lies over my dead body" He said the same to his friends when they
joined the ranks of the smug and dismissive and somehow that strikes me
as nobler still. To oppose your enemies is easier than to oppose your
friends on whom you have come to depend and whose good opinion of you
has become precious. Whoever it is that comes for the defenceless
there should be a word in all our mouths. "Load your weapons well for
your path lies over my dead body or reputation or protests."