Tuesday of the Fourth Week in Advent
(I Samuel 1:24-28; Luke 1:46-56)
The movie It's a Wonderful Life has more than a holiday ending to recommend it as an all-time Christmas classic. More crucially, the film reflects all the hope that the child Jesus brings into the world. The schemes of the villain Potter are vanquished while poor people are enabled to live with dignity. Most of all, God comes to the help of his faithful servant, George Bailey, in his hour of desperation. Life is, indeed, wonderful because God has entered into it.
What director Frank Capra puts on film, Mary proclaims in the gospel today. She sings of how in sending His son into the world, God fills the hungry with good things and sends the rich away empty. Mary makes these claims after pondering in her heart all that the angel Gabriel and Elizabeth tell her. She is the New Testament’s first human evangelizer who after hearing the word of God reinterprets its meaning for everyday lives.
Showing posts with label Frank Capra. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Frank Capra. Show all posts
Homilette for January 4, 2007
Friday, the Memorial of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton
(John 1:35-42)
Do you remember Mr. Blue? Mr. Blue is a novel written eighty years ago by Myles Connolly. Its main character acts, like a modern St. Francis, renounces social conventions in a radical imitation of Christ. The book is said to be the portrait of a modern saint, but it is only a work of fiction.
The author of Mr. Blue may present a real candidate for sainthood. Myles Connolly wrote and produced movies in Hollywood that edified a generation of Americans. He was responsible for State of the Union, a Spencer Tracy - Katherine Hepburn classic showing how pride can corrupt a politician and how repentance can resurrect him. He also inspired Frank Capra who, in turn, gave the world the immortal It’s a Wonderful Life. Connolly shared his money with the poor and invited people from the streets to his Christmas table. After his death, his daughter told a journalist, “...my father believed very strongly that you could be a very strong Catholic without being a wimp....He never pretended to be perfect, but he would say he’d keep trying.”
We have to hear the gospel’s call to two of John’s disciples as directed to each of us. Lay women and men, as well as priests and religious, have the vocation to be holy (or “perfect” as Myles Connolly put it). Sometimes we do not like to see ourselves as holy or set apart from the sultry lights of the world. That is, again, all of us -- priests, religious, and laypersons. But like Andrew in the gospel passage, finally drawing close to Christ, we come to know such ease that we want to share him with those we love most.
(John 1:35-42)
Do you remember Mr. Blue? Mr. Blue is a novel written eighty years ago by Myles Connolly. Its main character acts, like a modern St. Francis, renounces social conventions in a radical imitation of Christ. The book is said to be the portrait of a modern saint, but it is only a work of fiction.
The author of Mr. Blue may present a real candidate for sainthood. Myles Connolly wrote and produced movies in Hollywood that edified a generation of Americans. He was responsible for State of the Union, a Spencer Tracy - Katherine Hepburn classic showing how pride can corrupt a politician and how repentance can resurrect him. He also inspired Frank Capra who, in turn, gave the world the immortal It’s a Wonderful Life. Connolly shared his money with the poor and invited people from the streets to his Christmas table. After his death, his daughter told a journalist, “...my father believed very strongly that you could be a very strong Catholic without being a wimp....He never pretended to be perfect, but he would say he’d keep trying.”
We have to hear the gospel’s call to two of John’s disciples as directed to each of us. Lay women and men, as well as priests and religious, have the vocation to be holy (or “perfect” as Myles Connolly put it). Sometimes we do not like to see ourselves as holy or set apart from the sultry lights of the world. That is, again, all of us -- priests, religious, and laypersons. But like Andrew in the gospel passage, finally drawing close to Christ, we come to know such ease that we want to share him with those we love most.
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