This is a guest post I wrote for my sister Tammi's blog. You can check out all her blog posts at www.ktmossman.com/tryinglesstrustingmore
Hello All,
Tammi did something very dangerous, which is to ask my opinion. :) While I loved seeing Les Miserables, it is my firm impression that Hollywood and Broadway need to stick to their respective coasts and stop intermingling. I went into this movie with what is for me, a fairly open mind. This is one of my favorite musicals of all time and I was trying very hard to not walk in expecting to be disappointed (I'm a music snob, I can't help it). As I watched the movie, I couldn't help but mentally criticize some of the singing, the changed orchestrations and the choice of some of the actors used to portray some of my favorite literary characters. Around the middle of the movie, I decided to let go of my expectations and just enjoy what I was there to see with a sister that I hardly ever get to see.
As I continued to watch, I was moved again by the choices the characters make. Jean val Jean had every reason to be a bitter man, full of hate for the people who wronged him. But he wasn't. Instead, he chose to live a life marked by grace, doing what he could for those around him. It didn't matter to him who needed help, all he saw were people who were less fortunate than he. Fantine chose to do whatever she could to provide for her daughter. Granted, she made less than healthy choices to do so, but in my experience desperation doesn't always see clearly. She also made a tremendously courageous choice to trust her daughter's future to a stranger. Eponine loved someone who couldn't love her in return. Did that cause her to walk out of his life to find someone better? No, she stayed and fought by his side and eventually died without ever telling him how she felt. Marius fell in love and was ready to abandon everything for the sake of a girl, but then chose to stay and fight by the sides of his friends for something that was bigger than all of them. Javert spent his entire adult life trying to live by the law and thus please God. In the end, the grace shown to him by Jean val Jean rips apart everything he has believed in for so long. So he kills himself. Gavroche is a street urchin who chose to fight the injustice that is all he has ever known and dies in the process.
We can all sit and debate the theology and morality of these and the rest of the choices made in this story but the point is this: almost every person represented chose to put the welfare of others before that of themselves. There is a famous line from this story that says "to love another person is to see the face of God." If you read this quote literally, there are all kinds of problems. I think a better way to read this quote is "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." John 15:13
I think Victor Hugo was trying to make the point that by learning to see and love people the way God sees and loves them, we cannot help but to grow closer both to people and to God.
If you want to watch a spellbinding movie with a great story, then do so.
If you want to see something deeper, then look at what drives the characters to make the choices they make. Learn from Jean val Jean that hatred and bitterness will only kill you. Learn from Fantine that you can't always solve problems by yourself. Learn from Javert that there has to be balance in your life. Learn from Marius that sometimes being a part of something great is worth personal sacrifice. Learn from Eponine that love doesn't have to be declared to be real and fulfilling.
Above all, take away from this that love comes in many forms. It can be giving someone back their life or giving up your own life for someone. But more often than not, it is simply looking around and choosing to make a difference in the life of someone less fortunate than yourself. If I were Victor Hugo and I had written this book, my famous line would have read something like this, "If you want to see the face of God, go and feed the hungry, clothe the naked, be gentle with the hurting, and love those who are unlovable."
Martha
