Need to share a bit of the story, shows what grace can do. The main character (Valjean)
was released out of prison after 20 years because he stole 1 loaf of bread for his starving family, this left him a bittered man. He was looking for lodging, no-one would take him in but a priest took him into his house, gave him food, drink and a warm bed, and in the middle of the night he steals all the silver from the Priest and gets caught by the gaurds:
VALJEAN ARRESTED, VALJEAN FORGIVEN
CONSTABLE ONE
Tell his reverence your story
CONSTABLE TWO
Let us see if he's impressed
CONSTABLE ONE
You were lodging here last night
CONSTABLE TWO
You were the honest Bishop's guest.
CONSTABLE ONE
And then, out of Christian goodness
CONSTABLE TWO
When he learned about your plight
CONSTABLE ONE
You maintain he made a present of this silver.
BISHOP
That is right.
But my friend you left so early
Surely something slipped your mind
(The bishop gives Valjean two silver candlesticks)
You forgot I gave these also
Would you leave the best behind?
So, Messieurs, you may release him
For this man has spoken true
I commend you for your duty
And God's blessing go with you.
(Constables leave. The bishop addresses Valjean)
But remember this, my brother
See in this some higher plan
You must use this precious silver
To become an honest man
By the witness of the martyrs
By the Passion and the Blood
God has raised you out of darkness
I have bought your soul for God!
WHAT HAVE I DONE (VALJEAN'S SOLILOQUY)
VALJEAN
What have I done?
Sweet Jesus, what have I done?
Become a thief in the night,
Become a dog on the run
And have I fallen so far,
And is the hour so late
That nothing remains but the cry of my hate,
The cries in the dark that nobody hears,
Here where I stand at the turning of the years?
If there's another way to go
I missed it twenty long years ago
My life was a war that could never be won
They gave me a number and murdered Valjean
When they chained me and left me for dead
Just for stealing a mouthful of bread
Yet why did I allow that man
To touch my soul and teach me love?
He treated me like any other
He gave me his trust
He called me brother
My life he claims for God above
Can such things be?
For I had come to hate the world
This world that always hated me
Take an eye for an eye!
Turn your heart into stone!
This is all I have lived for!
This is all I have known!
One word from him and I'd be back
Beneath the lash, upon the rack
Instead he offers me my freedom
I feel my shame inside me like a knife
He told me that I have a soul,
How does he know?
What spirit comes to move my life?
Is there another way to go?
I am reaching, but I fall
And the night is closing in
And I stare into the void
To the whirlpool of my sin
I'll escape now from the world
From the world of Jean Valjean
Jean Valjean is nothing now
Another story must begin!
(He tears up his yellow ticket-of-leave)