WARNING: This blog post contains major spoilers for the film "It's A Wonderful Life."
Gratitude leads us to prayer, which can help avoid disaster. If we just realized the power of prayer, God could save us from so much. And yet when we go through dire circumstances, we would do well to remember that Jesus suffered infinitely more than we ever have or ever will. Knowing He is with us in our suffering, we can be encouraged in our faith, to pray boldly, with much gratitude.
Receiving encouragement to gratitude and prayer, last night some of the other monks and I watched the 1946 film "It's A Wonderful Life." Many know the film, and rightly so, as a call to gratitude, for those in our lives, for the many opportunities to love our neighbor. However, in recent years I've come to see it also as a call to prayer.
At the beginning of the film, celestial beings are discussing the plight of George Bailey, the main character in the film, who lives in the fictional town of Bedford Falls. They are considering his current circumstances because so many people are sending up prayers for him. They call Clarence, a junior angel, to familiarize him with George and his life before they send Clarence down to help George.
Clarence learns that George has helped many people in life-altering, even life-saving ways. George saved his younger, eight-year-old brother Harry from drowning. Not too long later, he prevented his boss, the druggist Mr. Gower, from accidentally poisoning a young boy. When George's father passed away, George postponed his plans to travel around the world so he could take over the Bailey Building and Loan Company, so that working-class people in town could get loans so they could live in respectable homes; if George had left, then the greedy Mr. Potter, the richest man in town, would have gotten rid of the Bailey business, forcing people to live in substandard housing. Once Harry returned from college, he was married, with a lucrative job offer from his new father-in-law, so he didn't take over the Building and Loan Company. George once again felt stuck, but in time he married beautiful, devoted Mary, and with more time, they had four kids.
Coming to the end of the present day in the film, we find ourselves just before Harry's return home from the Second World War. At that point, George's Uncle Billy misplaced eight thousand dollars, which would be over one hundred thousand dollars today. George went home to Mary and his children, and was so disturbed that when he rushed out of the house, Mary picked up the telephone to alert many people that George was in trouble. Her children were already gathered around her, asking her if they should pray for their father. Their mother Mary replied that, yes, they should pray very hard. George was so distraught that he was seriously considering committing suicide, and so Clarence is sent to save George.
George discontentedly mutters that it would have been better if he had never been born. Clarence consults with his superiors, and George's wish is granted. Clarence shows George what would have happened if he had never been born.
First he sees that his favorite neighborhood bar, where his friends had gently and tenderly cared for him, has become a business where his one friend Nick now works as a cold, heartless, cruel bartender. In walks Mr. Gower, who, George learns, spent twenty years in prison, since George wasn't there to prevent him from inadvertently poisoning the young boy.
Once he gets back to the center of town, George sees the town has been transformed for the worse. It's no longer called Bedford Falls; now it's Pottersville, since Potter has totally taken it over. Not only is the Building and Loan Company long gone, but debauchery is rampant; as George looks on, one of his former childhood friends, now belligerent and combative, is being dragged into a police vehicle. He hails the cab his former friend Ernie is driving; once he's in it, Ernie tells him he's living in a slum, since the lovely home George had made possible through his loan has never existed. Later George learns Uncle Billy was committed to an insane asylum when he lost his business. His own mother doesn't recognize him since she never gave birth to him; she is cold and hardened, with none of the warmth and tenderness he had formerly received from her.
Retreating from the center of town, George goes out and attempts to see the numerous homes he had made possible, which, of course, are not there; instead he finds a cemetery. In it he sees the grave of his brother Harry. George declares it's a lie, that Harry Bailey went to war, shot down two enemy planes that were about to crash into two transports, and thus saved many lives. Clarence explains that Harry wasn't there to save them, since George hadn't been there to save Harry. Then Clarence says to George, "You see, George, you really had a wonderful life." Still George persists; he urges out of Clarence the whereabouts of Mary, whom he finds, and who, of course, also does not recognize him. George rushes back to the bridge where he had been considering committing suicide, but now he is begging God, earnestly telling God that he wants to live again, desperately imploring God to let him live again. Grateful, George is restored to life.
We can fail to appreciate God's many blessings. We can focus on what we don't have instead of what do we have. Yet when we pay attention to what we do have, then we are grateful.
Gratitude gives birth to generosity. Gratitude feeds compassion. If we are grateful, we'll take care of those in our lives. When others are in need, since we are grateful, we'll help them.
To recognize the need of another person, we need to keep our eyes open. Then we need to embrace the duty of the present moment.
I have learned these lessons in tragic ways. Ten years ago I was in a park with a group of friends. At one point I was walking along with Bob, who was the friend of a friend. He was silent. I asked him how he was. Literally, never at any other point in my life have I ever felt such unspoken darkness from another human being. He did not reply. A few days later I heard that he had committed suicide.
In the many e-mails that were exchanged in our social circle as we struggled with the reality that Bob had taken his own life, a friend of mine asked, "Where was Clarence?" He was referring to the guardian angel in the movie "It's A Wonderful Life," who appeared to save George Bailey from committing suicide. I sent a group e-mail to those in our social circle, pointing out that in that movie, many people were praying for George. In contrast, I asked how many of us had been praying for Bob before he committed suicide. A crowd was storming Heaven on behalf of George Bailey because his wife Mary had urged them to pray for him; I had reason to know that Bob was in trouble, but I did and said nothing.
On the Feast Day of the Guardian Angels, back on October 2 this year, this blog post had occurred to me, yet I said nothing. Now I am conveying it to you. Yes, there are angels. Yes, they have jobs to do. We also have jobs to do. One of our jobs is to pray. Prayer is power. Power is exerted when it is used. If you don't use your hand to pick up a telephone off of a table, it remains on the table; if someone else doesn't come along and hand it to you, you won't get it. If you don't pray, and if no one else does, no request is made.
We are called to care for each other, including by praying for each other. We are not without models to follow. Jesus came and cared for us. We follow Him by caring for each other.
Some of us could point out that we have not been well taught in caring for each other since we have not had exemplary families. Earlier this year I met a woman who asked me how to cope with a parent who inflicted trauma and who continues to inflict trauma. Twenty years ago when I made a new friend, she told me that as a young girl, she watched until her father beat her mother until her mother was bloody.
Yet when we have been mistreated, we do well to keep in mind that often those who have abused others were themselves gravely injured. A couple days ago I received a letter from someone I met years ago. Back soon after I met him, repeatedly I heard that he hit his cohabitant very hard. Then in this letter from him last week, he told me that he is still grappling with the reality that his father killed his mother.
Knowing of his emotional and psychological wounds, I became compassionate toward him. Learning of his deep scars, I was brought out of myself and into communion with him.
We are called to solidarity with our neighbors in their suffering. They are not to be left alone, and we must remember we are not alone in our tribulations, when we feel tortured and agonized. In Jesus, Mary and Joseph we not only find our models. In them we also find spiritual family members who share and feel our pain because they too felt such anguish.
In Mary, Joseph and all the Saints, we find our spiritual family members who are waiting for us to call out. If we simply ask them to intercede with Our Father in Heaven and with His Son Jesus, they will pray for us and thus show us the love they have for us as our spiritual family members.
A couple days ago we celebrated the Feast of the Holy Family, the family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. That day at Mass we heard of Mary and Joseph taking Jesus to the Temple to present Him to the Lord God. At the Presentation, Simeon, an elderly devout man, prophesied that Jesus was destined for the fall and the rise of many, and that a sword would pierce Mary's soul too.* A sword pierced Mary's soul partly because her Son, though he would never sin, was put to death. He was condemned to death although He was innocent.
Jesus stands with those who are murdered yet are guiltless. Today we honor the Feast of the Holy Innocents, those boys two years old and younger in Bethlehem, who King Herod ordered murdered, as he attempted to wipe out Jesus, who had been born in Bethlehem, The One who would become King.**
It is often asked how God can exist when innocent people are victims of tragedies. When we are crying out in disbelief over how God can allow such catastrophes to occur, let us not doubt the love of God. God let His own innocent Son die. God let His guiltless Son die to save us, because God infinitely loves us. God loves us limitlessly because God made an infinite sacrifice for us: God, the Divine, is infinite; God sacrificed His Son, who is Divine and thus infinite, for us; God's sacrifice for us is infinite and never-ending.
God's love is greater than any catastrophe that befalls us. The Holy Innocents died as King Herod ordered their massacre. God gives us free will. Unfortunately, some people misuse the free will God has given us. God takes the risk, that free will might be used inappropriately, because God loves us. Love does not force itself on another.
God also takes the chance of the improper use of free will because tremendous good can ultimately come out of this situation. Here we delve into mysteries which will not be fully revealed to us this side of Heaven. For now we are called to trust that through these perilous waters we will be strengthened. Now we see what we are; what we will be has not yet been revealed to us.***
In the end it comes down to what we believe. Belief is crucial. What you believe determines what you pray. What you pray decides the result. We reap what we sow.
When we fail to pray, tragedy unfolds. By contrast, we avert tremendous suffering when we pray.
In our prayer, or lack of prayer, we determine the course of events. Simply in being grateful, we are transformed. Having become grateful, we are more likely to pray. Being more prone to pray, we are more likely to be turning to God in all circumstances, including in rather trying situations. Turning to God, and enlisting others to petition God, together through our prayer God delivers us. God transforms the world through our prayer.
* Luke 2:22-35
** Matthew 2:16
*** 1 John 3:2
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