Redemption Story

I beat Jason to posting about the movie (I'm more of a night owl, Jason's pretty good at mornings). I'd never seen the movie Chocolat before tonight's Core Community and to be honest, I never thought I had missed anything at all. How wrong I was! It still amazes me how a visual story is so powerful to us - how it can take something abstract, something complex, and lay it out in the open for us. I found many things in the movie interesting, but there was one aspect that I found quite appropriate for our group because it had to do with community. When Vianne arrived in the village, she and her daughter came to a community that was held together by tradition. The mayor saw to it that tradition ruled the town. Relationships were broken all over town. You see this poignantly in his own life (his wife has left him) and obviously with Caroline and her mother Armande. But still, everyone in town showed up to Sunday mass because it was what they did. For the most part, everyone in the town kept to themselves. It took someone - that was perceived as an evil person because she was outside of what they considered proper - to shake the town up little by little just by caring for people. Vianne didn't march to the mayor's office or bust into church to declare how women were being wronged. No, she offered what she had - chocolate and some good company.

It's a wonderful story of a town's redemption, and I long for these stories to exist where we live. I don't believe we change the world thousands at a time - I think it has to be done on a one-on-one basis. By forming relationships that are based on true compassion and concern, that's how our communities are redeemed. When our communities - whether it be a group of friends or a church body - come together as a group that cares for each other unconditionally, we thrive. And it is these thriving communities that draw people to them. Would anyone really want to move to that town to live - to join in the misery? I'd bet that people would be far more likely to buy a house in the post-chocolat town. I think it is important to note that the town wasn't good because people stopped going to church and were living a sinful life. The young priest, Pere Henri had a great quote at the end of the movie:

“I want to talk about Christ’s humanity, I mean how he lived his life on earth: his kindness, his tolerance. We must measure our goodness, not by what we don’t do, what we deny ourselves, what we resist, or who we exclude. Instead, we should measure ourselves by what we embrace, what we create, and who we include.”

I'm excited about our Core Community group. I've longed for the fellowship since leaving Blacksburg over a year ago. A true community is a powerful thing and I have high hopes for this one.

Feel free to comment on the movie - you can talk about something I've touched on, or bring up a new topic all together.