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Fourth Sunday in Lent. Jn 3:14-21 |
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| Background: The Gospel is taken from Jesus’s conversation with Nicodemus which is in fact a theological and mystical reflection on Jesus’s life instead of a video replay of an actual conversation (though it does not follow that the words of Jesus do not reflect the kind of things he said during his public life). Jesus, as John said at the beginning of the Gospel, is the light of the world who reveals God’s love lurking everywhere in all the events of our daily life and in all the people we encounter, especially those who are nearest to us. As Roger Ebert remarks in his commentary on the film which will constitute our story, God not only knows everything, but he understands a lot better than we give him credit for. |
read the padre |
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Story: In Lars Von Trier’s Cannes prize winning film Breaking the Waves, a dour and grim group of men (no women permitted) are apparently burying a young woman named Bess (Emily Watson) on a desolate island off the coast of Scotland. (And this film I do recommend for adults) The elders from her stern Calvinist church, so stern it has removed the bells from its bell tower, condemn her to hell for all eternity. In the meantime, her husband, for whose restoration to health she has sacrificed her virtue and her life, has stolen her body from the casket to bury with honor at sea from the deck of the oil rig on which he works. Shortly after he bids her a sad farewell, he is awakened by other members of the crew. Bells are pealing over the rig, and the North Sea and the island. God is vindicating the young woman, confirming his conversations with her (which as the film goes on have become warmer and more loving) and canceling the judgment of the elders of her wee kirk. The conversations he had with Bess (God speaking to her in her own voice) were real. God is not a stern, self-righteous church elder. In the pealing bells God confirms that his love is stronger than his justice, his mercy stronger than his anger. |
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