24 How the Church Has Changed the World sinner!” cried the priest, “look and see who chastises man, who judges and is not judged! Who plies the lash and who pardons! But you, worm of the earth, you want to deal out justice. You know what justice is, you!” And with such words, not balm but a purifying fire, he scored the soul of the boy, stripped away its selfishness, and left it bare to the dreadful medicine of God. So they stand, the boy and the priest; the one a young survivor, the other about to die of the illness himself. And there in bed lies the evil man, the source of so much misery. “For four days he has been as you see. No sign of consciousness,” says the priest. “Maybe the Lord is ready to grant him an hour of reconciliation, but he wants you to pray for him; maybe he wants you and that innocent girl to pray; maybe he reserves his grace for your prayer alone, the prayer of a heart in pain, but resigned to the pain. Maybe the salvation of this man—and your own—depends upon you, hangs upon one impulse of pardon, of compassion—of love!” What happens then? You must read The Betrothed. Where is his like? When Alessandro Manzoni died at the age of eighty-eight, all of Italymourned. If you go to Lecco you can see in the Piazza Manzoni a monumental
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