A Tale of Two Books

Learning from the parables of the little Prince

07/27/2020

Matthew 13:31-35 Jesus proposed a parable to the crowds. “The Kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that a person took and sowed in a field. It is the smallest of all the seeds, yet when full-grown it is the largest of plants. It becomes a large bush, and the ‘birds of the sky come and dwell in its branches.’” He spoke to them another parable. “The Kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed with three measures of wheat flour until the whole batch was leavened.” All these things Jesus spoke to the crowds in parables. He spoke to them only in parables, to fulfill what had been said through the prophet: I will open my mouth in parables, I will announce what has lain hidden from the foundation of the world.

I happened to be reading two books recently that I think should always be read together, holding one book in each hand. It gives new meaning to “double-fisting.” One book is called The Little Prince by the French novelist Antoine de Saint Exupery, and the other is The God Delusion by the famous atheist and Oxford professor Richard Dawkins. Maybe you have read one or both of them. If you haven’t, I suggest you read them together, side by side. Let me share a quotation from each of them and maybe you will see why these two books were sort of “made for each other.”

Antoine de Saint Exupery writes: “ Grown-ups like numbers. When you tell them about a new friend, they never ask questions about what really matters. They never ask ‘What does his voice sound like?’ ‘What games does he like best?’ ‘Does he collect butterflies?’ They ask: ‘How old is he?’ ‘How much does he weigh?’ ‘How much money does his father make?’ Only then do they think they know him.” Exupery goes on: “If you tell grown-ups, ‘I saw a beautiful red house with geraniums at the windows and doves on the roof…’ they won’t be able to image such a house. You have to tell them ‘I saw a house worth a hundred thousand francs.’ Then they exclaim, ‘What a pretty house!’” (The Little Prince, 10). In other words, The Little Prince teaches us to see the world more as “magical” rather than as merely “mathematical.”

Here’s quite a contrary quotation from Dawkins’ book The God Delusion, who champions Darwin’s theory of evolution. Dawkins writes: “Religion is so wasteful, so extravagant, and Darwin’s selection habitually targets and eliminates waste. Nature is a miserly accountant, grudging the pennies, watching the clock, punishing the smallest extravagance.” He concludes with a French phrase that Antoine de Saint Exupery would appreciate, saying, “Nature cannot afford frivolous jeux d’esprit” (The God Delusion, 190, 191) The phrase “jeux d’esprit” means “a light-hearted display of wit and cleverness, especially in a work of literature.” Can you catch how these two books were sort of written for each other: to dispute what the other is saying? They are both offering answers on who understands the most important things in life. One says only the simplest get it (like children); the other says only scientists get it.

In the gospel today, Jesus is right in the middle of his magnificent “Parables Discourse” in Matthew 13. This is Jesus’ third great speech or discourse, which consists of a collection of parables. Today, Jesus tells his disciples the parables of the mustard seed that becomes a huge bush and the little bit of yeast that raises the whole batch of dough. If you had to compare Jesus’ teaching style to that of Saint Exupery and Dawkins, who would our Lord be most like? It’s pretty easy to see how Jesus is more like The Little Prince, indeed, he is given the title of “Prince of Peace” in Isaiah 9:5.

In other words, Jesus is also trying to answer the question: who understands the most important things in life, the simple or the scientist? Like the Little Prince, Jesus employs examples of sheep and flowers and stars to help us understand the Kingdom of Heaven, which is the most important thing in life. If you look closely at the parables, you will even detect a hint of that “frivolous jeux d’esprit” that Dawkins so despises.

Of course, my point this morning is not to deny all the benefits and blessings of serious science and knowing numbers like adults. There’s a lot of good in that. Rather, the Little Prince and his parables insist that knowing numbers alone makes us miss the most important things in life. Things like what? Things like love, like laughter, like long summer swims, like staring into a lover’s eyes, like watching your baby sleeping, like seeing children playing together, like gathering for Sunday services, like telling tale tales over a delicious dinner, like remembering family and friends who have died, like admiring “a beautiful red house with geraniums at the windows and doves on the roof.” In a word (a French word), “jeux d’esprit.” These two books invite us to live in two different worlds, and we are free to choose either one. I like the one with the pretty red houses.

Praised be Jesus Christ!