My wife and I have been visiting north central Pennsylvania in the U.S. It is a very rural area and we are trying to get used to life with slow or non-existent internet. One of the sacrifices is not being able to get Netflix. So, we have been renting movies from the local library.
One movie we checked out is a film starring Russell Crowe and Amanda Seyfried. Crowe plays the single father of a young girl. He struggles with seizures, and his work as an author, that hamper his abilities to care for his daughter, Katie…though it is obvious they love each other greatly. Bruce Greenwood plays the girl’s uncle who, along with his controlling wife, wants to adopt Katie out from under Crowe. In a tense scene in the movie, Greenwood lays bare all the reasons he feels Crowe should give up his daughter to them. His seizures, financial struggles, up and down success in his writing career. This is not done for Crowe’s benefit but to pummel him into submission and relinquish his daughter. Crowe refuses.
In today’s first reading, we hear how the word of God is like a two-edged sword dividing soul and spirit, joint and marrow. In other words, God’s word gets to the point and can function to expose to us our weaknesses and failings. It is kind of like the 12 step program of Alcoholics Anonymous. There is no way that we can improve our behavior unless we are made aware of the problem behaviors we have. It is as simple as reflecting on the 10 commandments and seeing where we fall short. No, we may not have murdered anyone lately, but maybe we are in the habit of letting our tongues murder the character of another. Maybe we didn’t shoplift today, but did we steal someone else’s ideas and claim them for our own.
In Fathers and Daughters, Bruce Greenwood took Crowe’s failings and used it to tear him down. It was not meant to heal. But in today’s Gospel, Jesus calls Matthew out from his sinful life and in a sense puts him on display for others when Jesus dines with Matthew. But he does not do this to carve up Matthew in front of all, but does so to heal. To bring Matthew in as one of his apostles and begin the journey to health. Health coming from the great physician.
God’s word reveals, but doesn’t stop there. It instructs us on how next to proceed to gain spiritual healing. And Jesus was able to do this because he is able to show empathy for us as sinners. Empathy meaning the ability to not only listen to someone but to FEEL what they are feeling. And Jesus can do this because he became one of us. He walked in our sandals. A very special high priest.
And Fathers and Daughters provided an example of this point as well. Crowe’s daughter, Katie (played by Amanda Seyfried) suffered greatly over the loss of her Mother in a car accident when she was only 2 or 3 years old and then, just 1-2 years later, her Father died as well leaving her without parents. As an adult she became a psychologist and was assigned the case of a young girl (Julie) whose Mom was murdered and, as a result, had not spoken a word for a year. Katie was able to connect with her and begin her on the road to healing because she could understand Julie’s pain and grief. Julie and knew that Katie not only listened but she felt this pain.
Jesus does not know us in the abstract. He knows us in person. He knows our weaknesses, the temptations we face and the struggles we go through every day. And as the great healer he has the medicine..the word of God.. that shows us how to go from illness to healing, from sin to life.
