Randy Wray’s Blog

The school play turned out to be the best Christmas play we did this year.  It was everything you would expect from a child staffed production.  Wrong notes, wrong keys, missed lines, missed cues, beaming parents, proud family members and enough flash photography to brighten the holiday of any papparrazi.  Of course, it was wonderful.  I’ll tell you this much the sound guys were awesome!

While washing, drying and folding laundry late Wednesday night I watched the film Chocolat.  I enjoyed the film and related to the many applications.  One of the more memorable moments involved the town preacher.  In his closing homily, Pere Henri says:

I’m not sure what the theme of my homily today ought to be.

Do I want to speak of the miracle…

of our Lord’s divine transformation?

Not really, no.

I don’t want to talk about His divinity.

I’d rather talk about His humanity.

I mean, you know, how he lived his life here on Earth.

His kindness.

His tolerance.

Listen, here’s what I think.

I think we can’t go around…

measuring our goodness by what we don’t do.

By what we deny ourselves…

what we resist and who we exclude.

I think we’ve got to measure goodness…

by what we embrace…

what we create…

and who we include.

The narrator makes this assessment of the homily:

It was certainly not the most fiery sermon Pere Henri 

would ever preach nor the most eloquent. 

But the parishioners felt a new sensation that day. 

A lightening of the spirit. 

A freedom from the old tranquilite.