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A couple of years ago, I was channel surfing and came upon a movie
released in 2000 entitled “Remember the Titans.” I believe the
movie was mistitled because, according to Greek mythology, the
Titans were a race of powerful deities—the “elder gods”—who ruled
during the legendary Golden Age. However, the “younger gods”—the
Olympians—eventually overthrew their elders. Reflecting upon the
storyline of that movie, it seems to me that the movie should have
been titled “Remember the Olympians.”
Why?
The movie recounts when the city of Alexandria, Virginia, was
integrated in 1971, and uses what was then the newly-integrated T.C.
Williams High School and its football team to recount the events.
Most of the town’s leaders—the “elder gods,” the Titans—and leading
citizens were opposed to integration. They reasoned: “My mind is
made up; don’t confuse me with the facts.” Likewise, most
parents—and their children as well—following the lead of the elder
gods, hoped the unwanted social experiment would fail. Knowing only
the segregation and prejudice pervading the old South, everyone in
Alexandria was feeling unsettled. That attitude and those feelings
certainly presented some major obstacles that would have to be
overcome if integration was to work.
Making the citizens of Alexandria even more unsettled and presenting
an even great obstacle—remember, in Virginia, as in Texas, high
school football is a way of life, bigger than Christmas day
itself—was the decision made by the school board to replace the
team’s successful coach, Bill Yoast (played by Will Patton) with an
equally successful black coach, Herman Boone (played by Denzel
Washington). The elder gods and parents of both races responded to
the hiring by creating division and engendering dissent among the
players. For their part, the black players were led to believe the
new coach, simply because he was black, should give them
preferential treatment. Not surprisingly, the white players were
led to believe the new black coach would be prejudiced in his
evaluation and treatment of them.
Thrust into the middle of this political and social unrest was Coach
Boone, who ultimately proved himself to be an extraordinarily
courageous man and leader—the ultimate Olympian triumphing over the
Titans. Boone’s fundamental, core belief—“trust the soul of a man
rather than the look of him”—shaped his vision about the game of
football and what victory required, namely, unity. “This is no
democracy,” Coach Boone announced to the team at the beginning of
training camp. “It’s a dictatorship and I am the law.” And, as we
know, the law is blind. The merits of the case tip the scales of
justice to determine who wins and who loses.
As with all Titanic battles, it wasn’t smooth sailing. Yet,
throughout training camp and during that first season, Boone’s
players learned to accept each other and to work together. They
also learned that the game of football knows no race. As the
players learned these lessons from each other, Boone learned from
his players and, in turn, the elder gods and citizens of Alexandria,
Virginia—all of those Titans—learned from their team. Unbeknownst
to all, this learning prepared the team to deal with an unthinkable
tragedy that threatened to sink their perfect season. (I don’t want
to give away the whole story!)
This was a highly improbable outcome, one most would have never
predicted in the weeks before school opened in September 1971. Town
leaders, parents, and students were all focused upon the divisive
“things of this world”—racial, political, and social issues—swirling
around them simply because this was Alexandria’s first integrated
school and football team. But, as Coach Boone focused the members
of his team upon “the things of God’s reign”—the fact that God has
created every human being in God’s image and likeness—the Titans
(really, the Olympians) emerged victorious not only as a team but
also and more importantly as human beings who trusted each other’s
soul rather than what each of them happened to look like.
So,
what’s this
movie review about? What’s the point?
The highly
improbable can become more probable. We now what virtue
requires of us―the direction in which we should be headed―but we
more oftentimes remain mired in the past, wistful in our hope that
things would be different, thinking all the while however that the
future we desire is beyond our power to grasp. What it takes
to move away from improbability and closer to probability is the
virtue of courage.
When we allow ourselves to get immersed in and, then, embroiled in
the divisive “things of this world,” it is so very easy to lose our
moral compass pointing toward True North. When we do, we begin to
engage in plots and intrigues which introduce greater darkness not
only into our lives but also into the lives of so many other people
as well. Like the elder gods—the Titans—as the darkness spreads
around and ultimately envelops us, we find ourselves becoming
increasingly lost and incapable of knowing where to go. But,
fearful of what’s happening, we “stick to our guns,” so to speak, as
we stubborn persist in pretending that we know our way through the
darkness. And yet, when someone comes along who points out the
“things of God’s reign,” especially if that individual is young—an
Olympian—we dismiss any proposal because it contradicts the comfort
we experience by holding fast to our tired, stale, and unsupported
opinions, beliefs, and prejudices. And, that’s to say nothing about
the lengths we are willing to go to ensure that no one or anything
upsets our miserable status quo.
While the threat posed to our miserable status quo is bad enough,
worse yet is the threat posed to our identity. We really get
ourselves into quite a pickle, don’t we, when we believe the
darkness of sin enveloping us provides a protective shield from the
light of truth? However, if we reflect but for just one moment,
we’d realize that the “Titan within” actually lives in mortal fear
of the “Olympian without” and seeks to do everything in its power to
frighten the Olympian into running for cover or, better yet, out of
our lives rather than allowing the truth the Olympian speaks to
change our minds and hearts. What we need—but fear most—is to
listen and to learn if what is “highly improbable” is to become our
a “more probable” new reality.
Unfortunately, it’s difficult to listen and learn because to do so
requires viewing ourselves as we really are. As a result, we allow
that stale old reality to lock us into a bygone past. This happens
so much that it seems as if it is natural, “the human condition,” if
you may. How hard it really is—how much courage it takes—to
lessen our stranglehold upon and ultimately to let go of everything
that has lead us into and surrounded us with darkness for all too
long.
Just think about how often parents and their children allow
themselves to become estranged! No matter what the reason that
begets the animosity leading to family division, all hold each other
in contempt. Living in the darkness caused by sin—and, yes, sin did
cause the original division and introduce the darkness—parents and
their children adamantly defend themselves by pointing out the
other’s faults and failures. Stubbornly, no one musters the courage
it takes to admit how much, and deep down in the darkness of sin,
they desperately want not just to get along, but to rekindle and
renew what they all have grown deprived of, namely, the love of
family that provides the animating soul of those family celebrations
that have fallen by the wayside and been neglected over the years
and decades.
Don’t believe me? Just tell those Titans to stop living with the
wounds of their pained past that is now infecting the present. Tell
those Titans to offer the olive branch of forgiveness and the pardon
and peace that it implies! Any Olympian knows all too well what
follows in the next scene of this movie.
The highly improbable—animosity and division giving way to
reconciliation—becomes the new reality, only if family members would
listen to and learn from the Olympian whom God has sent to show the
way they can overcome the effects of sin and death in their family
life.
Consider, too, how often spouses allow themselves to become
estranged! What otherwise would be tolerable in the past now breeds
intolerance in the present as spouses allow themselves to become
increasingly contemptuous in their attitudes and behavior toward
each other. Forget about the words love, honor, and obey once
vowed. No, one “little thing”—like a single gnat darting around
one’s eyes—now gets piled upon another “little thing”; then, the
“mole hill” starts developing into a big mountain. With each spouse
believing oneself fully and completely justified to behave
contemptuously toward the other, husbands and wives keep pushing
those boulders of feces up that mountain, day in and day out, week
in and week out, perhaps even, year in and year out. That is, until
the weight and stench become unbearable, especially with the swarm
of gnats that is now nipping at the sweat pouring from one’s brow.
Worse yet, even if one or both spouses makes it to the mountain’s
top, it violently erupts with unquenchable fury, having grown over
the years into a volcano! At this point, as the ashes and cinder
increase the darkness, the only answer spouses are willing to
consider is “talk to my attorney.”
Don’t believe me? Just tell those Titans the only reason they can
be so angry with each other is because they really do love each
other. Think about it: if they were indifferent to or really could
care less about the other, then why would they be wasting all of
that energy pushing their boulder up the mountain and simultaneously
allowing all of that molten lava to build up within? Tell these
Titans to offer the olive branch of forgiveness and the pardon and
peace it implies, after all, “I do” means “I do,” not “as long
as….” Any Olympian knows all too well what will follow in the next
scene of this movie.
The highly improbable—animosity and division giving way to and being
replaced by reconciliation—becomes the new reality, if spouses were
only to listen and learn from the Olympian whom God has sent.
As Christians, we leave behind our Titanic impulses when we are
courageous enough to forgive one another as God has forgiven each of
us in Christ. The darkness of sin and death did not imprison
Christ; no, God raised Christ from the dead and he has ascended to
his Father’s right hand in heaven. But, we have not been left alone
like orphans. No, Christ has breathed into each of us the power of
the Holy Spirit, symbolized in that tongue of fire, which burns
through the darkness of sin that leads to death.
It’s of the Holy Spirit that Saint Cyril of Alexandria noted
centuries ago, “it is quite natural for people who had been
absorbed by the things of this world to become entirely
other-worldly in outlook, and for cowards to become people of great
courage,” just like those folks in Alexandria, Virginia, and all of
those family members and spouses who have offered the olive branch
of forgiveness.
But, do
you see how we get things backwards because we have chosen to live
in the darkness of sin and death? We believe it unnatural
to forgive! We believe we are alive but, having chosen not
to love others, we’ve
not lived one day of our lives since we’ve chose not to forgive!
St. Cyril of Alexandria reminds us that we’ve got to reverse course.
We need to seek the things of God―to become other-worldly in our
outlook―and to straighten out our lives―to live not as cowards do
but as people of great courage do.
Each of us already possesses that power within our souls. In the
sacraments of baptism and confirmation, we have received the gifts
of the Holy Spirit. All we have to do today is to allow these
gifts to transform our stubbornness into courage so that, as one of
the Eucharistic Prayers of Reconciliation notes: “Your Holy Spirit
changes our hearts: enemies begin to speak to one another, those who
were estranged join hands in friendship, and nations seek the way of
peace together.” Or, as we heard Jesus teach his disciples in
today’s gospel: “Peace be with you....Whose sins you forgive, they
are forgiven them.”
The highly improbable will become more probable, in fact, our new
reality—family members and spouses living in peace and harmony—as
that Titan within becomes the Olympian within through the power of
the Holy Spirit already breathed into us. |
HOMILY
