The Scandal of Father Brown

This may come as no surprise to some, but my favorite mysteries are written by G.K. Chesterton and star the a Roman Catholic priest named Father Brown as detective. Sometimes appearing comical, inocent, childish, often misunderstood and overlooked, Father Brown has not only a keen intellect but is extremely well grounded in the priorities of life and maintanes a focus on men and their souls instead of the intricacies of the crime.

I finished rereading The Scandal of Father Brown a couple days ago and was struck with the ending. This mystery involves no death but rather a married woman who attempts to elope with a famous poet but instead returns to her husband with some assistance from Father Brown. As the escapade ends, a journalist who happens to be on the scene believes that Father Brown assisted the woman in her elopement instead of her return. He promptly wires off the story only to realize that his perceptions of people caused him to see the story backwards. The journalist then wires the true story, but it is not in time to replace the first one from being printed. Thus, Chesterton describes the two stories of Father Brown chasing each other around the globe, the true one always at least five minutes behind the extravagant damning one.

"And so the two Father Browns chase each other round the world for ever; the first a shameless criminal fleeing from justice; the second a martyr broken by slander, in a halo of retribution. But neither of them is very like the real Father Brown, who is not broken at all; but goes stumping with his stout umbrella through life, likeing most of the people in it; accepting the world as his companion, but never as his judge."

What a perfect description of what I want to be. Good happens. Shit happens. Oftens its the same thing, only seen from two different perspectives. People see and believe all sorts of things about me, but such beliefs and consequent actions do not break me untill I give them the power to do so by elevating the people around me and their perceptions as my God. I like most of the people in it; now to hold onto people, even the ones "in power" as my traveling companions instead of as my superiors, inferiors, or judges. I too want to go "stumping... through life." Majestic through despised, I will still be Curran following Jesus. And that is as it should be.