Excuses for our Extremes?

The priest first read a condensed lesson of sacred history. Felicite evoked Paradise, the Flood, the Tower of Babel, the blazing cities, the dying nations, the shattered idols; and out of this she developed a great respect for the Almighty and a great fear of His wrath. Then, when she listened to the Passion, she wept. Why had they crucified Him who loved little children, nourished the people, made the blind see, and who, out of humility, had wished to be born among the poor, in a stable? The sowings, the harvestings, the wine-presses, all those familiar things which the Scriptures mention, formed a part of her life; the word of God sanctified them; and she loved the lambs with increased tenderness for the sake of the Lamb, and the doves because of the Holy Ghost.

Surprisingly enough this excerpt was taken from Gustave Flaubert's A Simple Heart (Chapter 3). The French authors of the mid-1800's were generally, and realistically, unpleasant (rather vulgar sometimes even extremely perverse). Yet here we see a man, Flaubert, author of the deadly Madame Bovary elaborating on the tenderness evoked by a knowledge of the Scriptures. Certainly the brushstrokes are broad and yet one wonders how it is possible for him to have gone from such an extreme of apparent piety to extremes of obvious evil. Yet it is not fair to ask that question of Flaubert unless we also ask it of ourselves. We too are knowledgeable of the Scriptures and have had times where intense emotions of tenderness have been evoked from within us. What is our excuse?