Like Sunshine, Go Everywhere
Homily | May 23, 2021 |Rev. Julie Lombard
On Wednesday, I attended my first memorial in a long time for my husband’s aunt. I was an online guest and joined a hybrid service with masked people in the pews as well as others joining online. It made me aware that the pandemic has made us miss out on many of the rites of passage ceremonies we relish. This all brings me back to a wedding I officiated not too long ago. Like many rites of passage, I offer up ideas, however ultimately the people decide the details.
In that wedding, one of the readings they chose was by the author, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. The reading was a beautiful one from the Airman’s Odyssey, the chosen reader told how their French teacher at the high school made students read another one of his famous works- The Little Prince.
Up front at the wedding, standing between the wedding couple, I had the best view and I could see the nods of all the there who attended. Those who had been in Madam’s class and remembered reading the story.
But secretly, I had to admit, I hadn’t read the story myself. So, afterwards, I went in search of the book. I found it in the children’s section of the library.
I had no preconceived ideas about the fable. All I was familiar with was the illustrations from the book of a boy with a mess of hair and his scarf flying in the wind.
The narrator introduces himself as a person who learned as a child that adults lack imagination. He’s a pilot who has crash-landed in a desert. There, he encounters a small boy who asks him for a drawing of a sheep. The narrator, calls the child “the little prince” and learns that the boy comes from a very small planet with overgrown trees and a few volcanoes.
Over the course of the next few days, the little prince tells the narrator about his life. One day a rose grew on his planet, and the little prince loved her with all his heart. However, her vanity and demands became too much for him, so he left.
He traveled through space and visited other planets, each featuring an adult who had been reduced to a function. For instance, the little prince encounters a lamplighter, who follows orders that require him to light a lamp each evening and put it out each morning, even though his planet spins so fast that dusk and dawn both occur once every minute.
The little prince meets a poisonous snake along the way. The snake tells him that she can return him to his home and his flower. She affirms what the little prince already knows- that people are not grounded, they lack roots.
While on Earth, the little prince discovers a rose garden which he finds very depressing. He learns that his beloved rose is not, as she claimed, unique in the universe. A fox appears and tells him that if the prince tames the fox—establishes ties with it—then they will be unique and a source of joy.
By day eight of the journey, the narrator and little prince have run out of water. The two go in search of a well, which, miraculously, they find in the desert. The little prince tells the narrator of his desire to return to his planet and his flower. After that, he suggests, the stars will forever be more meaningful to the narrator, because he will knows that his friend, the prince lives there on one of those stars.
Returning to the little prince’s planet requires allowing the poisonous snake to bite him. The story then resumes six years later. The narrator says that the prince’s body was missing the next morning, so he knows that little prince returned to his planet. The story ends by the narrator imploring us to let him know if we ever see the little prince.
This parable draws unbecoming portraits of adults as being hopelessly narrow-minded. In contrast, children come to wisdom through their open-mindedness and a willingness to explore the world around them and within themselves with curiosity. The main theme is expressed in a secret offered up by the fox.
Many critics have drawn parallels between the various characters and events with the life of the author, having fled the turmoil of WWII in his homeland, France. Like the narrator, Saint-Exupéry was a pilot who experienced a plane crash in a desert. His wife was also said to have had erratic behavior similar to that of the prince’s flower —a parallel further emphasized by her autobiography, The Tale of the Rose: the love story behind the Little Prince.1https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Little-Prince, 05/11/2021
During the little prince’s journeys, he meets the residents at each stop and he learns a valuable lesson from them. From the king- he learns the futility of power; from the conceited man- he learns the vanity of praise; and from the drunkard- he learns the destruction of shame.
Ultimately, he learns that many people live somewhat meaningless existences that produce little benefit to others. Upon reaching Earth, a planet that came highly recommended by a geographer who never travelled, he learned lessons that impact him personally after seeing the thousands of roses that look just like his beloved rose that makes him feel he was duped by her; she had told him she was unique flower, and he had believed her.
A fox comes along and teaches him what it means to be tamed, and he realizes that his rose truly is unique: She had tamed him, and he tamed her. The fox, as his parting gift to the little prince, shares a secret with him.
“And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”
The fox explains that one becomes responsible for what one has tamed, and the prince realized that he is responsible for his rose and wants to go home to be with her.
The moral behind this lesson is that the meaning of life can be found through relationships. Loving someone causes us to commit ourselves to another, and that makes even the most humdrum occurrences of life take on a deeper significance. Love is the spirit of this church and it is all that truly matters.
The only way we learn in our lives is through experiencing life and love ourselves first hand. We cannot rely on others telling us, teaching us, or trying to get a message across. Unless we are there experiencing it ourselves, we will not be able to learn and transcend. This story teaches the importance of friendship, of being invisible, and of responsibility.2https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/what-moral-lesson-story-create-your-own-idea-s-6423, 05/11/2021
Through our experiences of love and relationships, we learn and grow our spirits. Care for your flower and they will care for you in return. I use the word care while the author used the word tame. Either way, it is all about the way we choose to be in relation with one another.
Saint-Exupéry flew his last missions during WWII. Years after he lost his life, his aircraft was found by a diver and the first hint that it might have been his plane was the scarf found within it. Serial numbers from parts of the plane later confirmed the diver’s suspicion. Saint-Exupéry was no longer lost, but found.
The Little Prince was his final story and its moral is his lasting legacy. Do not fear being tamed or cared for by another because with it comes love, friendship, and a greater responsibility that will deeply reward each and every soul that embraces it. I thank you for the experience to be here with y’all this year to stretch our souls, grow, worship, and love and live out this faith we share. Go ever onward knowing that you are surrounded by love ones in this oasis in the dessert. Life and love go on.
May it be so. Amen.
References
| ↑1 | https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Little-Prince, 05/11/2021 |
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| ↑2 | https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/what-moral-lesson-story-create-your-own-idea-s-6423, 05/11/2021 |