Specifically, with "The Walking Dead."
My older boys and I started watching this show when it premiered -
We called it "mother-son zombie bonding night."
Now Luke is at college most Sunday nights it is on and my teen daughter is watching it as well.
And my mom and 2 of my sisters follow as well.
My one sister's husband came into the room during a bloody gory scene (which really only happens about 5% of the whole show and which I usually close my eyes for), and asked "Why do you watch this???"
I had the answer.
And it corresponds to the reality of Holy Saturday.
Bear with me a little longer :-)
Sure you can cite the excellent cinematic values and stellar acting and yes, the "zombie awesomeness" factor...
But at its core, "The Walking Dead" is a morality play in the best tradition of Greek tragedies, Shakespeare, and the Star Wars saga.
The world has gone mad. Everything you relied upon has vanished. You have witnessed the unspeakable and live with pain and horror and stress on a daily... no, "minute by minute" basis...
How will YOU react???
What choice do YOU make???
To become the BEST version of yourself?
Or the WORST version of yourself?
That's what happened during the Holocaust. Eli Wiesel saw starving people giving their pathetic rations to children. And he saw starving people turning their neighbors into the SS for an extra crust of bread.
We think we will never have to live through such trauma or make such decisions... That such is the stuff or fiction or history...
But then we do.
Our child dies.
We face financial ruin.
Our spouse deserts us.
And when it comes down to it... We have to decide how we will live in the interim...
On Holy Saturday...
When the worst has happened...
And the best has not yet come.
Truly we live this earthly life BETWEEN Good Friday (pain) and Easter Sunday (joy)....
HOW will we live with the reality of BOTH??
That is the question....
"So do not allow yourself to be troubled or distressed, but believe in the joy of the Resurrection. In all of our lives, as in the life of Jesus, the Resurrection has to come, the joy of Easter has to dawn."
Mother Teresa
Great post, glad I held out past the Zombies :). Happy Easter!
ReplyDelete"We have to decide" Oh, how I know and love that decision, made possible only by our Lord's rising. What difference that decision makes. Thank you for this.
ReplyDeleteOh I wish I had seen this on Holy Saturday! Glad I am seeing it now:) We have the financial ruin thing going on and are in that "interim" you speak of. But we know the good is coming:)
ReplyDeleteJust saw MFFM. We don't know each other but I have tears. Bless you and bless Henry.
ReplyDeleteSue - WI