Just watched the movie Philomena.
It is based on a true story of an elderly Irish lady looking for her long lost son who was taken away from her and given up for adoption in the US. All along a journalist assists her in this endeavour to meet her son... for a scoop. The story is BEAUTIFUL but the feelings are too hard to empathize.
I was viewing it from different perspectives. At times I found myself resonating with Martin (the journalist): his anger, his hatred for the nuns who separated the child and the mother, even when they had an opportunity to reunite them, his own growth in assisting someone discover her roots and relive the past, his flip-flops about being professional and humane...
At times I found myself in the shoes of Philomena: her simplicity and her attitude towards the Nuns who looked after her and all that they did for her. However, the ending scene is very moving. She forgives the nun who justified her actions, so convinced of her own virtue! When questioned as to how she could forgive someone just like that, she replies, “It is hard for me! But it is my choice!” The movie truly evokes contrasting emotions, giving you valid and true reasons for both the emotions... leaving you to make the decision!!
Something I learnt about religious life/ the religious: Why do we always think that it is about us? When all along our life and formation we are asked to shift the focus from ourselves to God and others! Why is it that we become so self-righteous and morally upright that all we do or say, becomes the parameter we judge others by? Why should we be anywhere in the picture at all when all along we 'vow' to let God shine through us? Why does mere practice of vows make us so proud, when they are actually mere means for a greater end: and without achieving that great end, we pride ourselves in merely, literally practicing the letter of the vows!
I'd like to get into the heart and mind of Philomena to know how on earth and at what point in her life did she learn to be a real Christian? After all she went through, how could she still be so magnanimous and forgiving? Where and how did she gain that attitude? Any 'normal' human person would grow bitter and angry and furious, if not at the treatment meted out to her all along but certainly at the insane and ridiculous justification of all the wrong, carried out by the same people, later on in years! But she chooses differently! How? Why?
It is based on a true story of an elderly Irish lady looking for her long lost son who was taken away from her and given up for adoption in the US. All along a journalist assists her in this endeavour to meet her son... for a scoop. The story is BEAUTIFUL but the feelings are too hard to empathize.
I was viewing it from different perspectives. At times I found myself resonating with Martin (the journalist): his anger, his hatred for the nuns who separated the child and the mother, even when they had an opportunity to reunite them, his own growth in assisting someone discover her roots and relive the past, his flip-flops about being professional and humane...
Something I learnt about religious life/ the religious: Why do we always think that it is about us? When all along our life and formation we are asked to shift the focus from ourselves to God and others! Why is it that we become so self-righteous and morally upright that all we do or say, becomes the parameter we judge others by? Why should we be anywhere in the picture at all when all along we 'vow' to let God shine through us? Why does mere practice of vows make us so proud, when they are actually mere means for a greater end: and without achieving that great end, we pride ourselves in merely, literally practicing the letter of the vows!
I'd like to get into the heart and mind of Philomena to know how on earth and at what point in her life did she learn to be a real Christian? After all she went through, how could she still be so magnanimous and forgiving? Where and how did she gain that attitude? Any 'normal' human person would grow bitter and angry and furious, if not at the treatment meted out to her all along but certainly at the insane and ridiculous justification of all the wrong, carried out by the same people, later on in years! But she chooses differently! How? Why?
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