Bishop Myriel is out in his garden the following morning when it is discovered that the silver has been stolen and Valjean is missing. From the jump Myriel’s response is to essentially say the silver wasn’t really his to begin with and he should have given it to the poor a long time ago. He then concludes that Valjean was poor so he’s essentially good with Valjean having it.
This is where the story gets interesting. Some police officers show up with Valjean and have him and the silver in tow. How will the bishop respond? Rather than accusing Valjean of the crime he actually committed, the bishop says “I gave himthat silver, but he forgot to take the candlesticks” and gives him those as well. There’s more that happens obviously but this is the crux of the chapter. His only ask of Valjean is that he essentially use the money to start clean and live a life worthy of the gift.
Mercy would have been saying it was ok and Valjean could keep the silver. It goes far beyond mercy to name what was taken in bad faith to be a gift, and then to give even more beyond that, essentially doubling the value. This is grace in it’s purest form.
Now, grace is a word I often cringe at, because sometimes in the evangelical world I grew up in, it’s a word that is used as part of a framing that says essentially “you are garbage and have nothing in you of any value and you deserve to suffer in hell for all of eternity - but because of God’s grace, you can avoid that terrible punishment.” With that framing it’s only good news if you buy into the larger framing that God who supposedly loves you was ready to torture you for eternity and now may be willing to let you live. Thanks??
But taken in a different way, with a different frame, like we see here in our story, grace is an unexpected gift that exceeds anyone’s expectations. It’s irresponsible and radical, wild and free.
Just this week there was an episode of Poetry Unbound that featured a gorgeous poem called grace and touched on many of these same themes (including an exvangelical discomfort with “grace” as it is often framed). If you have a few mintues, it’s worth a listen.