In the fifth class we watched clips from the movie “The Giver”. The Giver, based on the book of the same name, focuses on the theme of suffering, which we touched on briefly with Lion King. At the heart of the movie, we can perceive a fundamental human desire – to live in a world without suffering, without heartbreak. This desire, in and of itself is not bad; we are, in fact, made for Heaven, made for a place without war, pain, illness. But here on earth, suffering is a part of life. How will we face it? The world of The Giver has planned everything, down to the last detail, to avoid pain, but in turn, has sacrificed things like love, family and uniqueness. What do you think about the trade-off? What life would you rather? We have the same choice today. We can try to plan out our lives to avoid suffering, or we can take life as it comes, knowing that we have faith, the ability to “see beyond”, and a God “with us” – Emmanuel.
Everyone: Please review the posted material and answer the homework questions. Reflection questions + Homework questions are BOTH on the same Google Form at the end of the page; everyone must complete the Homework questions.
If you missed class: Please watch the following clips (password is: smaconfirmation (no spaces, no punctuation, no capitals), look over the related materials and answer the reflection questions + homework questions. Reflection questions + Homework questions are BOTH on the same Google Form at the end of the page; everyone must complete the Homework questions.
Scripture Passages
The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. – Psalm 34:18
Catechism Quotes
God is infinitely good and all his works are good. Yet no one can escape the experience of suffering or the evils in nature which seem to be linked to the limitations proper to creatures: and above all to the question of moral evil. Where does evil come from? “I sought whence evil comes and there was no solution”, said St. Augustine, and his own painful quest would only be resolved by his conversion to the living God. For “the mystery of lawlessness” is clarified only in the light of the “mystery of our religion”. The revelation of divine love in Christ manifested at the same time the extent of evil and the superabundance of grace. We must therefore approach the question of the origin of evil by fixing the eyes of our faith on him who alone is it’s conqueror. #385
Movie Quotes
At the bottom of the hill I saw something, like a place… home. Home? Like a dwelling? No, it is different. A dwelling is not a home. A home is more.
Music… just like music, there’s something else you can’t see with your eyes. Something that lives deep inside you, something those morning injections take away… they remove something. What? Emotions. You mean, like, feelings. Feelings are just fleeting, on the surface. But emotions are very deep, primal, they linger… Listen to what is calling from inside… Why would anyone want to get ride of this?
Have faith, the Giver told me. Faith, that was seeing beyond. He compared it to the wind – something felt but not seen.
The emotion was so strong. And at the wedding – everyone all together, laughing and dancing, the old with the young, the bride and the groom… there was something there. Different to what we have. Yes. We don’t have “that” anymore. What do you mean by “that”? I’m talking about what you feel for someone else. The mind can’t explain it and you can’t make it go away. What is it? Love. It’s called love.
Quotes to Ponder
To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket—safe, dark, motionless, airless—it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. […] We shall draw nearer to God, not by trying to avoid the sufferings inherent in all loves, but by accepting them and offering them to Him; throwing away all defensive armor. – C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves
Most people, if they had really learned to look into their own hearts, would know that they do want, and want acutely, something that cannot be had in this world. There are all sorts of things in this world that offer to give it to you, but they never quite keep their promise […] If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. […] Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing. If that is so, I must take care, on the one hand, never to despise, or be unthankful for, these earthly blessings, and on the other, never to mistake them for the something else of which they are only a kind of copy, or echo, or mirage. I must keep alive in myself the desire for my true country, which I shall not find till after death; I must never let it get snowed under or turned aside; I must make it the main object of life to press on to that other country and to help others to do the same. – C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
SMA Confirmation 