The golden cloth of love...

Social optimism can of course not be without boundaries. There has to be the same good intention in the partners in friendship. One cannot be friends on one side only. Still, the power of beginning over and over again has its own effect that is not confined to the one side. True miracles happen when I see the I in the other person and act as I to I. In this kind of relationship there are no judgments that come from past events, because the I is fresh ever again, and will meet another I that is new - even though it has been known for many, many years already.

There is a wonderful legend, told by Selma Lagerlöf in the book 'Christ Legends', The sacred flame. Francesca, in the city of Florence, marries Rainiero di Rainieri, they love each other deeply. It is in the time of the crusades, long ago. But Rainiero is a boaster and doesn't think about the moral aspects of his deeds. Thus he wounds his beloved Francesca time after time. At first she forgives him, she loves him so much. But then she has an imagination of her love, because it isn't endless. She sees it as a golden, shining piece of cloth - and every time Rainiero wounds her by his heartless actions, a little piece of the cloth is gone. At last, before the cloth will be gone totally, she leaves him and goes back to her father, to be sure not to lose her love completely.

Rainiero can't believe it, but she doesn't come back to him. His boasting increases more and more, he sends all proofs of his courage to Francesca, but it doesn't help to get her back. Finally he goes on a crusade and with Godfrey of Boulogne he conquers Jerusalem. While drinking and feasting afterwards, a fool comes and tells a story about St. Peter and the Lord, who are watching the situation below on earth. In the story the attention is drawn to Rainiero di Rainieri, and he is challenged to start an impossible task: to bring a burning candle from Jerusalem to Florence. He succeeds, but by fulfilling this task he changes completely - and in Florence, arriving there on the Eve of Eastern, he finds his Francesca again.

When our children were young, we read these tales to them, and I learned to know them in this way. The legend about the sacred flame impressed me deeply. It is an imagination for my deepest longing: that people who love each other will always come back to each other, whatever has happened before. This is not a journey without effort and endeavours. That this may be not always possible in our lives on earth will also be clear. But then it will happen in heaven, where all problems of destiny will fade away.

Then let us try to be dead throughout our lives on earth, in this context: He who is not able to die before he dies, putrefies when he dies. (Goethe: Wer nicht stirbt, bevor er stirbt, der verdirbt wenn er stirbt.
To read the full story online: http://www.mainlesson.com/display.php?author=lagerlof&book=christ&story=flame


Baptisma font of the old cathedral of Florence, the Santa Reparata, where we must think that Rainiero the Rainieri came home...The golden cloth of love... by Mieke Mosmuller