A World In Desperate Need of Jesus
Henri! Hey there!
In this letter I'm going to reflect on the next essential point of the Gospel: "…be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." (Acts of The Apostles 2:38) Specifically, let's focus on the need we all have to seek forgiveness of our sins by "baptism" – that is, immersion in God's Love through the gift of the Holy Spirit. Even your journey and mine to the fullness of God's Love in us must be out of and from a world steeped in sin. We too have been in that world and part of it.
But before we get into that, remember how I told you that I thought it might be fun if we used "Under The Tuscan Sun" to illustrate the meaning of the Gospel. So this morning I was reviewing the film on the Internet. Don't tell anyone, but I've come to love computers and the Internet – it puts a whole world library right at your fingertips!!! Believe me, the Doug Michaud of ten years ago would never have said something like that about computers.
I love "Tuscan Sun" because of the whole "Paschal Mystery" framework of the film. "Paschal Mystery" is the death and resurrection of Jesus, which we participate in through our communion with Christ. Through the Power of Christ, communicated through the Word of God and sacraments, we too pass from "death" to "life" in union with Him. This means that through the Power of Christ's Love we pass from brokenness to healing, from despair to hope, from darkness to Light; from being scarred, wounded, hurt and torn apart by sin in the world to being made whole and strong and free to love once more even as Christ loved us.
The whole California sequence in "Tuscan Sun" shows a broken world, a world in "sin". I don't remember if I taught you that the Greek word for "sin" is "harmartia"? Well, it is. And "harmartia" is actually an archery term, meaning to "miss the mark", "miss the target". "Sin" therefore is human lives "missing the mark", falling short of the ideal of Christ's Love, human lives twisted out of focus, human hearts and souls becoming cold and hardened to love because of the way sin and wickedness in the world have hurt us. (Matthew 24:12)
Thus, you have in the film the divorce (brokenness!) that tears Frances apart, the apartment house filled with divorcees, where you can actually hear people "weeping and wailing in this valley of tears." (Words from the prayer, "Hail Holy Queen")
It's also a twisted world, a disordered world that militates against the plan, order, and design that the God Who is Love (1 John 4:8) wants for our world. Consider the lesbian couple who want to toast over dinner to Frances' new found "freedom". Yet it is not at all a concept of "Christian freedom" that they are toasting to, but a "license" for Frances to do now whatever the "hell" she wants to do. There is no "right" or "wrong"; no natural written upon our hearts; no absolute Good or absolute Evil – kind of like what liberals want us to believe in contemporary American culture, and perhaps even more so in California!
So California in the film is the disordered world, a world in sin. Yet don't be mistaken here. Frances is part of that world – and so are you and I. Remember Jesus words to the people who wanted to stone the woman caught in the act of adultery: "Let him among you who are without sin be the first to cast a stone at her." (John 8:7) Remember also Jesus' story of "The Pharisee and The Publican". (Luke 18:9-14) Jesus condemns the Pharisee who felt He could stand righteous before the Lord in the Temple and say, "I thank you, God, that I am not like other men." But about the Publican (A Tax Collector), Jesus says, "…he went home at rights with God…" Why? It was because before God in the Temple, he would not even dare to raise his eyes. But bowed low before the Lord, he only repeated over and over, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner."
So Frances begins a journey – both an actual geographical journey to another place, but also a spiritual journey to healing and wholeness through the Power of Christ's Love. That love is imaged to her through Mary, the ultimate "transparency" of God's Love.
Now any window is a "transparency" – something that we do not look at, but rather something we look through. In "Tuscan Sun" Mary is a transparency to the Sun – or if you are open to the symbolism of the film, to the "Son", to her "Son", Jesus. Mary is a transparency to the Love of the Son, a window through which we can reach for and touch the Love of the Son, the fullness of the Love of God.
The name of the Villa that Frances purchases is called "Bramasole", which means "pining" or "yearning for the Sun" ("Son"!!!). But everywhere in the Villa are signs of Mary – 3 actually that I remember - and ever so slowly Frances will learn that Mary will be the medium, the vehicle, the window through which Frances will touch the "love of the Son". Through Mary, Frances will reach for and achieve the Love of the Son for which she is really yearning.
Henri, do you remember the night of the storm? When her friend Patti mentions "Tom", the husband that left Frances, the deep night "storm" outside in the Tuscan countryside ignites with fury. It is a metaphor for the storm within Frances, for her soul and heart torn apart.
But when in the fury of the storm, she "touches Mary", immediately there is a "sharp cut" in the film to a beautiful and peaceful morning. The "stormy night" is over; there is peace. It is a very significant scene that in many ways symbolizes what is going to happen in the film – and in Baptism as well. Through the Power of the Son's Love that we touch through Mary, darkness gives way to Light, a heart torn apart and broken is healed and made whole again.
Did you know that the Greek word "diabalein", from which we get the English word, "diabolic", means "to tear apart". It translates a Hebrew word that means the same, but which also means "to tear a man limb from limb". Interestingly enough, that Hebrew word also means as well "to gossip".
Now we're only scratching the surface so far with the Gospel brought to life through the film, "Tuscan Sun". There's so much more! But as you know from eating so many Italian meals, you shouldn't have all the courses of the meal all at once. You must have pauses between them to allow yourself the chance to savor what you have eaten.
So let's pause here and try to digest what we have looked at so far: 1.) Making a "leap of Faith" by accepting Jesus as our Lord and Savior; realizing too that we need a Savior. 2.) Allowing the Power of the Spirit to help us turn from the darkness and sin of this world to the Light of His Love. That will be the way we most powerfully experience God's Grace in our lives. It will be in the healing of our own sin by the power of His Risen presence anointing us in and through the Person of the Holy Spirit. 3.) That the world apart from God is in sin, twisted out of the true pattern and design which God's Love had planned for it; that we are part of that world, and by our own power cannot break free of it. We can and will experience God's Spirit empowering our own "Paschal Journey" from the world steeped in sin to "Church" in a most authentic sense – "Church" understood as a people filled with the Spirit of His Love and having the courage before the world to be the Face of Christ's Love for each other.
As always, I fear I may be getting too deep; or, giving too much of the "Gospel meal" all at once. But I pray that the Lord may use these words I write to lead you more and more into the Light of His Love for you.
For now it is enough. Next time we'll look at that last part of the Gospel proclamation by Peter: "…and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." (Acts 2:38)
Until then I pray that in ever-deepening ways, our Lord may continue to bless you with the fullness and Power of His Love.
Peace,
Mr. Michaud +
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