Episode 3 – “Mixed Blessings”
Just how mixed a blessing can be the staff of St. Thomas Catholic Church discovers in this episode. As in the first two episodes, the story begins with a cold opening, an unusually long one at 3:45 minutes. Fr. Leo is sweeping the steps of the sanctuary and greets Grace, a head-bowed parishioner in the front pew who does not respond. The other staff members are in the church kitchen grousing about finances and the decrepit parish car while drinking coffee. Sidney, opening the mail, checks their weekly lottery ticket with the newspaper and discovers they have a winning ticket. Out in the church nave Fr. Leo, discovering that the parishioner is not praying but is dead, exclaims, “Oh Grace.”
Thus begins the minor and the major story lines of this episode so skillfully woven together by the scriptwriters.
With the promise of such a windfall Fr. Eric visits car dealerships where the van of his choice sells for around $32 K. Fr. Leo shows Sidney the decrepit church boiler which needs a hard kick twice a day lest it blow up the church, and Sr. Mo talks with an Italian sculptor who is checking a damaged statute in the church about commissioning a new work. However, all their grandiose plans are doused when Sidney learns that their winnings are far short of what they had expected. And indeed will have to be split among a number of others who chose the same winning number.
Fr. Ray is dismayed when he learns that Grace had specifically asked that he conduct her funeral. Her husband Joe had been at odds with him from day one for various reasons, all of them stemming from Ray’s espousal of the Vatican II reforms. Joe had dropped out of the church, and when Ray tells him he will be conducting the service, the old man declares that he will not attend. There are two grown daughters, but they have both personal problems and issues with their father, and so it looks like Fr. Ray will need Christ’s storm-taming powers to bring peace to this troubled family. The episode ends with music being one of the answers, a sublime work set to music by Cesar Franck.
For Reflection/Discussion (spoilers at the end)
1. What are the various concerns of the staff at the opening of the episode? How is the title related to the winning of the lottery ticket by the parish?
2. What do you think of Fr. Eric’s shopping around for a new car? Of the woman salesman who accuses him of using his clerical collar to achieve a discount price? (When I began my ministry umpteen years ago, a practice that I was never comfortable with was that of stores offering a 10% “clergy discount:” why do you think this was done? How has it changed since the economic status of many of the clergy–especially Protestant–has improved?)
3. What are some of the reasons that Fr. Ray is given for Joe’s intense dislike of the priest? Do you think that Fr. Ray might have been more tactful when he first came to the parish? In this scene does Fr. Ray exhibit much understanding of Joe and his feelings?
4. What is it that Joe feels has been lost amidst the reforms, one of them being changing from Latin to the vernacular? Might the changes have been pushed too far so that the sense of mystery is lost? What is your experience at worship—has what theologians called the “mysterium tremendum” or “the numinous” been reduced to the familiar or easily digestible? How does Joe’s attempts to explain this, especially when they talk about music for the funeral, help Fr. Ray?
5. Protestant, as well as Roman Catholic, churches have gone through many changes since the 60s. What are some of the changes faced by your church, and how many people like Joe have resisted them? How have their reasons been similar to Joe’s? Have some leaders tried to help each side listen to the other and understand their reasons (and equally important, their feelings!) for their positions, or does there need to be more done on this?
a. Some churches have tried to please both sides by offering a separate “Contemporary Service” at a different time: if your church has done this, how has it worked out?
b. Other churches leaders have tried to blend the two styles—alternating traditional and contemporary language prayers; using a guitar or a band; projecting an occasional slide or video; etc. How has this gone over?
c. Many controversy-averse leaders have tried to ignore anything “new” by staying with old or traditional liturgies. What is the danger in this?
6. How do the two daughters contribute to the family strife and complications? What seem to be their own problems? Have you seen at other funerals long simmering family issues and grudges rise to the surface?
7. What do you think of Fr. Ray’s version of Grace’s letter? How does this bear out Grace’s trust in him when the real letter shows up in Ray’s Bible?
8. What probably drew Joe to attend the funeral? What does the inclusion of “Panis Angelicus” tell us about Fr. Ray and his tact as a pastor? Granted that this ending might be a bit theatrical, what do you think is the meaning of Joe’s joining in at the point when the chorus accompanies the soloist? And of Fr. Ray’s?
9. A side issue but one some might want to think about concerns the sculptor’s explanation to Sr. Mo that the statue was to be of Peter’s wife. Had you ever thought about how she must have felt when the apostle Peter left her behind? How is this also related to the Roman Catholic’s rules on the priesthood?
10. Earlier Joe had said that knowing what the Latin words of the song meant did not matter, that he knew that what it conveyed was holy and beautiful. Have you had this experience also with vocal music? (Note how, long before opera companies began posting electronic subtitles, audiences enjoyed the sublime music of operas in their foreighn tongues.)
11. Below are the words and translation of the Latin text, based on a hymn by Saint Thomas Aquinas “Sacris solemniis” with music Composed by Cesar Franck in 1872. Note how the inclusion of the hymn in the service is not only a good pastoral response to Joe, but also pertains to the healing power of the Mass they are about to partake.
Panis Angelicus fit panis hominum
Dat panis coelicus figuris terminum
O res mirabilis! Manducat Dominum
Pauper, pauper, servus et humilis
Pauper, pauper, servus et humilis
The angel’s bread becomes the bread of men
The heavenly bread ends all symbols
Oh, miraculous thing! The body of the Lord will nourish
The poor, poor, and humble servant
The poor, poor, and humble servant
(translation courtesy classicalmusic.about.com)
To see and hear a soaringly beautiful rendition of the hymn by Renee Fleming, choir, and orchestra go here. Indeed, you might close a group session with this.
Episode 4 – “Parents and Children”
In the cold opening Fr. Ray, leading the morning Mass with just Fr. Leo in the front pew, sees that Rachel has spent the night in the church. She shrugs him off when he asks about it later. Sidney mentions that since he is divorcing his wife, he has moved back in with his parents for economic reasons. Fr. Leo makes a quip about an extended childhood.
Rachel asks a slightly older girlfriend who has had an abortion about the procedure. The friend assures her that it is not a painful experience. Reflecting a Feminist position, she talks about the Church, preaching about the sacredness of life while upholding killing in war, and also that the rule against abortion might be another way of keeping women in their place. The friend offers Rachel a small loan and gives her a card with the clinic’s address and telephone number.
Outside the church building a woman named Sylvia talks with Fr. Ray about the terrible living conditions in the housing complex owned by a parishioner named Quinn. He has good connections with City Council, she says, and then almost demands that Fr. Ray denounce the slumlord from the pulpit and excommunicate him if he refuses to fix up the building.
There are a series of encounters between Fr. Ray and Rachel as she reveals that she is pregnant. She wants the priest to tell her what to do, but he keeps telling her that he has told her the Church’s teaching, but that it must be a matter of her conscience for deciding. He and Fr. Leo heatedly discuss Rachel’s situation, the older priest accusing Fr. Ray of giving the girl permission to have an abortion. When he hears Fr. Ray during a phone conversation with Quinn threatening the man with denunciation and excommunication, he points out Ray’s inconsistency—he certainly did not leave it up to Quinn’s conscience as to what he should do!
With a dramatic climax that equals the earlier powerful scenes, Sidney’s story is given little time, just one in which he talks with his atheistic father and mother who put their faith in therapists and the “unconscious,” rather than priests and God. They suggest that he quit his church job, but he tells them he likes hanging out with people who believe.
For Reflection/Discussion (the last three questions contain spoilers)
It is a bit amazing that the producers of this series would deal with such a heavy and controversial issue as abortion so early on, rather than waiting until they had built a loyal audience. If you are discussing this in a group, the leader should try to get the group to agree at the outset that this session is not intended to be a debate but a mutual exploration of an issue that some people have been willing to kill for, and others to die for. They will disagree, and thus all the more need to listen to each other.
1. Did you wonder why Rachel has spent the night sleeping in a church pew? How does the story tie in her seeking shelter in the church with that of the people from Quinn’s decrepit housing project?
2. Sylvia tells Ray he should use the pulpit to force Quinn to do justice by his tenants. Note that many years ago Episcopal lay theologian William Stringfellow pointed out the problem of wealthy urban slumlords serving on the boards of suburban churches with no one pointing out the inconsistency of this. What do you think of Sylvia’s request to Fr. Ray? Should the church become involved in such issues as housing and other “non-church” issues (as labeled by some)? What would you say to someone who says the church must “stick to preaching the gospel”?
3. What do you think of Fr. Ray’s insistence that Rachel must decide what she should do? How does his position differ from the older stance of the church, even while supporting its teaching that abortions are forbidden? And yet, what do you think of Fr. Leo’s pointing out that this is inconsistent with the way Ray deals with Quinn?
4. How is the freedom of conscience the absolute bedrock of moral choice? If the church or other authority agency makes a member choose what it teaches, is the person any longer free? Is an act under duress really a moral (i.e., “free”) choice? (Note that this was too often the stance of churches before the Anabaptists in the late 16th century and Quakers in the 17th century raised such issues as freedom of conscience and of religion.)
5. How do we see that Rachel wants the priest to choose for her? How is this avoiding responsibility? What do you think of her lie to her boy friend at school? Why do you think she did this: i.e., what did he say that must have led her to lie? How is she wiser than he, realizing that neither of them is ready for marriage?
6. What do you think of Fr. Ray’s telling Rachel that the world would be a better place with her child in it? How is this as close as he can come to leading Rachel to make her decision? What do you think of the support of Rachel’s community of believers? Who all spoke to her and offered their support? How might this overcome her feeling that she expressed after Fr. Ray had told her she must make her decision, “That is so cold!”
7. Young pregnant women in Rachel’s position often resort to desperate measures: what does she do that violates her principles?
8. How did you feel when you learned what Rachel had decided? Do you agree or disagree with it? Were you surprised, given that the script was written by Roman Catholics? Earlier, during the night of her soliloquy addressed to the unborn child she said, “I don’t want you to feel that you’re a mistake.” Could this have been a deciding factor?
9. What does Fr. Ray waiting outside for Rachel reveal about his theology? And even more, his answer to her comment, “I guess that’s it between me and God.” How is Ray’s concept of God far greater than Rachel’s? What does she apparently believe God is like, and how widespread have you found this view of God to be?
10. How is Fr. Ray like his Lord in that he respects rules/laws, but bases his faith on something far greater than any system of laws, the boundless love of God?
For a film about a woman who in the near future will be canonized as a saint, and yet who had an abortion as a young woman, see the delightful film Entertaining Angels: the Dorothy Day Story. A good way to end the session would be to sing “Amazing Grace” or “There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy.”
Edward McNulty is a Presbyteian minister with a D.Min. in art, film & theology. He is the author of three books from Westminster/John Knox Press:
Praying the Movies, available via Amazon, which includes meditations on Star Wars, Schindler’s List, Pulp Fiction and 29 scenes from 29 more films.
Praying the Movies II: More Daily Meditations from Classic Films, which includes McNulty’s reflections on Gandhi, It’s a Wonderful Life, Harry Potter, O Brother, Where Art Thou? And 28 more.
Faith and Film: A Guidebook for Leaders, which includes a section on film & theology and how to set up and lead a film group, plus discussion guides for Amistad, Erin Brockovich, the Matrix, Shawshank Redemption, and 23 more.
Currently his exploration of 8 different versions of Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables can be found at the online religious journal Read the Spirit
Ed’s own website is Visual Parables, where you can see issues of his bi-monthly film journal of that name.