Book Review: The Jeweler's Shop
by Karol Wojtyla (Pope Saint John Paul II)
Reviewed by Beverly Mantyh
(Ignatius Press, translated by Boleslaw Taborski, 1992) 125 pp., $15.95
Pope John Paul II’s first words as pope were, “Be not afraid!” The Jeweler’s Shop: A Meditation on the Sacrament of Matrimony Passing on Occasion into a Drama presents marriage as fearless, heroic love in the face of individualistic modern philosophies. From his youth through his years as the bishop of Krakow, the future pope acted, directed, translated, and authored plays and dramatic criticism, bringing to life the ideals he cherished.
This play was first published in 1960 under Bishop Wojtyla’s pen name, Andrzej Jawien. The plot revolves around a jeweler and the wedding rings in his reflective display window. Three married couples, one for each act, think out loud rather than interacting with one another. Memory and current events mix as they do in our own thoughts. A chorus emphasizes important points, while the virtues and flaws of the couples and their love are revealed as through a jeweler’s eye piece.
Act I: Signals explores the beginning of love and marriage. Teresa reveals that she waited patiently for Andrew to notice and love her. Andrew allows that Teresa seemed special to him, but her distinction caused him to avoid her. Both ponder the signals that pointed the way to each other as they see both themselves and the wedding rings in the jeweler’s window.
Act II: The Bridegroom, we are given a magnified view of the dissolution and pain of lost intimacy. Anna and Stefan, although still married, allow selfishness and unforgiveness to create a chasm between them. In a moment of hopelessness, Anna attempts to sell back her wedding ring. The jeweler refuses, showing her that her wedding ring weighs nothing without her spouse’s ring. As Anna thinks outside the jeweler’s shop, a stranger listens. He then tells the parable of the wise and foolish virgins, who wait patiently for their bridegroom with their oil lamps. Anna waits, too, and to her surprise the bridegroom has the face of Stefan. She is left to contemplate how to welcome Stefan as her bridegroom when silence has grown between them.
Act III: The Children brings us to the next generation. With their eyes wide open to the flawed love of their parents, Christopher and Monica act in hope. They choose to love despite their own shortcomings and the troubled examples of their parents. Teresa, Anna and Stefan are the parents of the engaged couple. (Andrew has died.) The wedding inspires contemplation and memories for the parents. The stranger from Act II, Adam, ponders, “The thing is that love carries people away…They lack humility toward what love must be in its true essence.” Karol Wojtyla then points toward the path of courageous love through Stefan, who humbly admits, “I do not understand what it means “to reflect the absolute Existence and Love”…..(but) for the first time in many years– I felt the need to say something that would open up my soul, to say it to Anna…”
Karol Wojtyla dramatizes both the eternal significance and the daily angst of love without romanticism. In fact, he does just the opposite. He points us toward the most worthy goal of reflecting Christ in our love for others, yet he realizes with humor that even in the midst of a proposal a woman can be thinking about high heels.
The Jeweler’s Shop is a good companion volume for his papal encyclicals on marriage, showcasing the the warmth and compassion of his call to love as Christ loves. (And there's even a 1988 movie starring Burt Lancaster!)
Discussion Questions:
1. In Act One, Andrew marvels, “Several years later, I see it clearly that roads which should have diverged have brought us closer together. Those years have been invaluable, giving us time to get our bearings on the complicated map of signs and signals.” Karol Wojtya proposes that God gives us all signs and signals to find our way to love. What signs have directed me in the past? How do I become more aware of the signals God sends me?
2. In Act Two, Anna wonders, “Isn’t what one feels most strongly the truth?” Facts do get foggy when emotions run high. Is there a highly emotional issue in my own life that could benefit from an application of logic and truth? Or perhaps I am being too logical or practical; do I need to courageously make my feelings known?
3. As a single woman, Edith Stein implored women, “The Church expresses the threefold purpose of marriage in the words fides (faithfulness), proles (children), and sacramentum (sacrament). It is necessary today to preserve this traditional conception of marriage…Women must grasp these concepts in the depths of their being, and live accordingly.” She implies that everyone can support and defend the Church’s teaching on marriage. How do you support marriage?