The Atheist’s Mass by Honoré de Balzac
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A Morality of Friendship

When one despairs of humanity, yet experiences a friendship with another human being, how can one commemorate that friend’s life after his death? Certainly by ‘doing unto others.’ But merely passing on the gift of friendship feels an inadequate tribute to the memory of the originating friend in an unworthy society.

There is something spiritual in the relational connection itself which can’t be transmitted beyond itself. Something is ‘owed’ to the friendship. “Genius,” Balzac says, “always presupposes moral insight.” And since morality is about people not ideas, or beliefs, or principles it may be necessary to give these up in order to be authentically moral, particularly if one is an “invincible atheist.” Perhaps a spiritual offering is the only solution.

As an incidental footnote: I was for some time a member of St. Benet’s Hall, one of the Catholic colleges at Oxford University. There arose a rumour st some point, attested by several reliable folk, that Richard Dawkins was seen more than once entering the Hall on Sunday mornings for Mass. I discounted the story as an Oxford myth. After reading this Balzac story I’m not so sure. It might have been true.

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