All this past week, the first
scripture reading has been from the First Letter of John in which the
Evangelist speaks eloquently about the nature of God and the source of all
love. Rather than paraphrase his
beautiful theology of love, here are just a few of the highlights:
“Beloved, let us love one another,
because love is of God; everyone who loves is begotten of God and knows God. Whoever is without love does not know God,
for God is love.” (1 John 4:7-8)
“Beloved, if God so loved us,
we also must love one another. No one
has ever seen God. Yet, if we love one
another, God remains in us, and love is brought to perfection in us.” (1 John 4:11)
“God is love, and whoever
remains in love, remains in God and God in him.” (1 John 4:14)
“Beloved, we love God because
He first loved us. For the love of God
is this, that we keep His commandments. And
His commandments are not burdensome, for whoever is begotten by God conquers the
world. And the victory that conquers the
world is our faith.” (1 John 4:19, 5:2-3)
These are profound statements
about the nature of God and the human condition. We love, only because God loves us and
created us in His image, with the potential and capacity to set aside our
selfish interests long enough to love one another, if only imperfectly. This is, and always has been a struggle
because of our sinful nature, but it is the essence of free will that we are
capable of deciding to love or to turn inward, placing the highest value on our
personal desires.
Coincidentally, Rose and I saw
the current movie version of Victor Hugo’s masterpiece, Les Miserables this week. Besides
the fact that the movie is stunning in its visual effect, and the music is
beautifully sung by all the actors, it authentically presents Hugo’s epic story
about love and redemption during one of the bleakest times in French
history. If you’re not familiar with the
story, here’s a link to the cliff notes summary:
The story takes about 30 years
after the French Revolution, when all of France is in chaos because of the
failure of the revolutionaries to establish a republic (like we did in America,
after our revolution). The French
revolution was inspired by Enlightenment philosophers who wanted to depose not
only the king and the ruling 1% (sound familiar?) but also the clergy, and the
notion that religion could contribute anything of value to society. After the revolution, the government faltered
and rather than rebuild, simply printed money, running up astronomical debt, and
causing hyper-inflation. It was so bad
that the peasants could not even afford to buy bread. This led to crime, including the theft of food,
which Jean Valjean is imprisoned for in Les
Miserables. The revolutionaries
killed all the wealthy and most of the clergy in their country, and eventually
they ended up with a dictator – Napoleon Bonaparte.
The story covers much of the
life of Jean Valjean after he is paroled from prison and has a dramatic
conversion experience because a bishop forgives him for stealing from the
church and “claims his soul for God.”
From that point on, Valjean’s life becomes one of increasing virtue and
generosity, enabling him to succeed, even to the point that he becomes mayor of
a small town, despite having violated his parole and changed his name. Many of the songs, sung beautifully by Hugh
Jackman and Anne Hathaway, are in fact prayers during their struggle with moral
decisions, or in petition for the ones they love.
There are many majestic songs
and scenes in the movie, but it all culminates at the end of Valjean’s life in
a song with the final verse, “Those who love another person, see the face of
God.” Valjean’s life of struggle had
been a crescendo of love and sacrifice in the midst of a broken world, and in
the end… well, you really need to see it for yourself. Seriously, don’t miss this amazing,
outstanding movie. It’s hard to believe
Hollywood would produce anything so true to the message of love, forgiveness,
mercy and virtue, without tricking it up unnecessarily with sex and violence
just to sell tickets. You gotta see it!
No comments:
Post a Comment