“And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” ~ Galatians 5:24
“Dame Richilda, inconsolable on account of her new discovery, conceived a mortal hatred against the innocent beauty.”[1]
Last week we went over how Richilda lived her life and used her gifts for her own glory. She could have cultivated godly passions and desires, but she did not. Instead, she allowed her passions and desires to take her wherever they willed; and, as we’ll see, it leads to very dark places…
Richilda’s “Passion” Begins
Lord Gombald dies on his way to the Holy Land, and suitors soon begin to flock to Richilda’s court once more. She is a very wealthy widow…but is she still the fairest in the land? That is the burning question upon Richilda’s mind as she consults her mirror.
But when Richilda looks into the mirror, she does not see her own reflection. Instead, she sees a lovely, mysterious young woman.
Flying into a rage, she soon discovers it is her stepdaughter, Blanca, Gombald’s daughter by his first wife. Richilda instructs her physician, Sambul to poison half of a pomegranate apple.
She has now become the Evil Queen we know. This deadly passion – the passion to be the fairest – will be Richilda’s undoing.
Richilda rides to Blanca’s castle with the poisoned pomegranate apple, sending riders ahead to notify Blanca that the countess was coming “to weep with her over the loss of her father.”[2] The beautiful Blanca welcomes her stepmother, and Richilda shows all sorts of “maternal affection.”[3] As if to remind us which story we are in, Johann sneaks in a reference to the dwarves, saying they set the table for the meal.
After dinner, Richilda offers Blanca half of the pomegranate apple as a “token of her affection.”[4] Richilda naturally gives Blanca the poisoned half (which is, in fact, what happens in the Brothers’ Grimm tale). Richilda leaves, and a little later Blanca becomes ill and dies.
When Richilda arrives at her own castle, she immediately asks her mirror if she is now the fairest. The mirror shows Richilda her own face – but there are now large rust spots upon the mirror.
Richilda’s “Passion” Escalates
Richilda daily asks who the fairest is…until one day, the mirror shows her the face of Blanca once more.
She calls Sambul to her, berates him, and instructs him to prepare a soap which will kill Blanca when she uses it. Richilda sends her nursemaid to the castle as a peddler woman, and the unsuspecting Blanca buys the soap and dies.
Or, at least, Richilda assumes she has died since her mirror is now entirely rusty. She can no longer use it, but this does not disturb her; after all, the mission of her deadly passions and desires is fulfilled.
Then one day, a knight comes to her court and claims Blanca is the most beautiful lady in the land. Upon hearing this news, Richilda throws Sambul in prison for failing a second time (and does some terrible things to the poor man). She commands him on pain of death to prepare a letter with a deadly poison hidden inside. The letter is taken by courier to Blanca’s castle, and when Blanca reads it she falls dead for a third time.
Thus, “the bloody step-mother afterwards heard no more of her daughter; and though she often dispatched messengers to enquire, they constantly brought word back that the young lady never more awaked out of her deadly sleep.”[5]
Sinful Passion vs. Godly Passion
I’ll be honest, I’ve always found verses like Galatians 5:24 difficult. How do you separate fleshly passions and desires from godly ones? Where does Christ end and the flesh begin? I often feel passions – both godly and fleshly – are mixed together, like a tangled ball of yarn.
The rest of the Galatians passage describes the war between the desires of the flesh and the desires of the Spirit. It is a war we know well…and yet, Paul says that those passions and desires have been crucified; he says it as a fact, not as a command.
The example of Richilda explains this quite nicely. Richilda spent a lifetime allowing her passions to control and dictate her life. Because she did not trust Christ, her deadly passions carried her to murder.
However, we who are in Christ – we who are fighting the war between the flesh and the Spirit – know that our victory is assured. The evil passions Richilda exemplifies were crucified the moment we believed….It just takes some time to retrain our habits and thought life.
Poor Richilda is trapped by her own selfish passions; thank God we are not!
Sources
[1] Heiner, “Richilda,” Sleeping Beauties, 79.
[2] Ibid., 80.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Ibid., 83
