This chapter ends with a grief stricken Madeliene standing and asking the three criminals who had just testified that Champmathieu is in fact Jean Valjean to take a good look at him. We don’t yet know what else is said or done but we do know that Madeleine has acted. He has acted in courage. He has acted out of conviction. He has acted out of love. He has acted from a place of being committed to doing what is right. He has acted in step with his conscience.
In one sense the outcome doesn’t matter. This step, this moment, is what matters. Seeing this man proclaim his innocence, and the kind of hard life Madeleine had once known as Jean Valjean, he is deeply moved. Then when the accusations come against him, how can he stand by and do nothing?
I hope that if I were ever put in a similar situation I would do the same thing. I likely will never be, but on a much smaller scale we all have opportunities to regularly decide whether we will operate out of a place of convenience or conscience. maybe it isn’t an issue of deep moral courage, but those daily decisions do shape the reality of who we are. I’ll be thinking about the little ways I can stand for the metaphorical Champmathieus and against the natural entropy of convenience that would lead to a regular deadening of conscience.