April 15 , 2010

Jesus at the Movie 2- Chocolat

The movie, Chocolat, is set in a small French town in the 1950’s that is occupied by a traditional, tranquil group of townspeople. The town is led by its Mayor, Comte de Reynaud, whose image of God is led by rules which he forces upon many of the people. This is until a woman who owns a chocolate shop, Vianne Rocher, challenges Comte de Reyaund’s traditional set of believes with her own healing methods. Comte’s traditional practice of God’s rules is like the hypocritical Pharisees in Jesus’s time, whereas Vianne’s loving practices that defy the social norm are much like Jesus’ message.

Comte de Reynaud believes one must follow God’s every rule, just going through the motions without looking at the bigger picture of loving one’s neighbor. His image of God and reality is set in stone, much like the Pharisees of Jesus’s time. The Pharisees were too concerned with holding true to the practices of Jewish tradition, that they were being hypocritical in their actions by failing to practice God’s love. This is just like the Comte de Reynaud, he was so caught observing every rule, like Lent, fasting, denying himself goodness, that he failed to notice that the bigger picture which is loving others. Also like the Pharisees, Comte de Reynaud’s attitude toward others is judgmental and negative, he is so focused on making the town perfect that he does not notice how much people are suffering. For example, Comte de Reynaud thinks that if he forces an abusive husband to go through the motions of repentance, their marriage will be saved. However, like the Pharisees, Comte de Reynaud he so caught up in the motions that he fails to understand what repenting truly means. Due to Comte’s harsh judgement, the townspeople who listen to his criticism and follow his strict rules end up denying themselves a lot of goodness in life. Those who choose to follow Comte de Reynaud are like Jesus’s lost sheep led astray by the Pharisees, because they are misguided into the darkness. Caroline Clairmont is like one of those sheep, because when she followed Comte de Reynaud’s lead and caused her mother, son, and herself pain. It was not until Comte de Reynaud decided to embrace the goodness in life, and stop paying so much attention to the rules, that he and others around him were happy. Overall, Comte de Reynaud’s strict interpretation of religion causes him to become hypocritical because he is causing pain to those around him and himself instead of love, much like the Pharisees were.

Vianne Rocher has a daughter, no husband, does not attend church, and does not observe lent. Right away she is a social outcast in her town, yet her positive image toward life allows her to gain genuine loving relationships. Following Jesus’s message, she teaches others how to truly love themselves, and she does it without following a traditional set of rules like Comte de Reynaud. Vianne image of God and reality is led through practice, she befriends other social outcasts in the town, she even has a romance with a “river rat”. She also does the unthinkable and dines with the “river rats”, much like Jesus dines with those considered sinners and outcasts. Following the message of Jesus to love one’s neighbor as themselves, Vianne loves everyone around her unconditionally without caring about social stigmas. Vianne’s untraditional, yet positive attitude influences others to break out of the mold and embrace goodness. This is seen through her friendship with Josephine Musca, a housewife with low self esteem whom she helped gain self-respect and leave her abusive husband. Also, Vianne even showed Comte de Reynaud endless compassion and patience, like Jesus does, that he eventually embraces change. Vianne’s actions, practicing loving ones neighbor, are an example for those around her to transform from emotionally injured to healed. Vianne’s loving actions spoke much louder than Comte de Reynaud’s words because she led by a positive example, befriended everyone, and showed patience like Jesus would.

Pere Henri said that one should measure goodness not by what they deny themselves, by what they do not do, but by what they create, who they include. I agree with Pere Henri, a lot of the time people will measure goodness by the important people they surround themselves by and focus a lot on what they do not have. However, what Jesus teaches us is to count of blessings and live with tolerance and patience toward others. In my case, I try to measure my goodness by counting my blessings and having tolerance and patience. However, I usually fall victim to not counting my blessings, especially when it comes to coveting my neighbors goods and talents. I spend a lot of time thinking about talents or things I have not accomplished, instead of counting this gifts I have been given. Also, I try to have patience but sometimes I fall victim to a need for things to get accomplished quickly instead of just enjoying the little things. However, I can measure my personal level of goodness through the high amount of tolerance I show toward other people, I get a joy out of helping others out because I know someone else would do the same. Adding onto what Pere Henri said, I also measure goodness by what people are willing to sacrifice for someone else, even if that person is not a friend. For example, I think someone shows true goodness when they will give a stranger a dollar, stay in and help a friend clean, etc. A lot of people will only help out others when it is convenient for them, which it not a way to measure true goodness. Many people, including myself sometimes, are in such a rush that they do not take time to think about Jesus’s message.