Some of you have seen the film Philomena. Based on the true story of Philomena Lee, an Irish single mother whose son, Anthony, was taken from her at the age of three by the nuns with whom she had taken refuge. Judi Dench plays the title role, with Steve Coogan as Martin Sixsmith, the journalist who used his connections and investigative skills to help her track down her son, and uncover the truth of what happened to him. The story opens on Anthony’s 50th birthday, when Philomena tells her daughter about the half-brother she never knew she had. Philomena has looked for him several times over the years and has never stopped thinking about him, but now feels the need to share her secret for the first time. One of the nuns, Sister Hildegard, admits the pregnant Philomea to the convent in 1952, keeping a stern eye on her while she works off the penance they impose for her sin. She appears again at the end of the story, elderly and frail, as the sole surviving nun who knew both Philomena and Anthony. Sixsmith suspects that Sister Hildegard knows far more than she has ever let on about Anthony’s whereabouts and, at the film’s climax, bursts into her room to confront her. The nun is unmoved. Yes, she caused ongoing pain to a mother and child – and hundreds more like them – over decades, but she saw that as just retribution for the mother’s sin of unchastity. Sixsmith is furious. He wants Hildegard to feel a sense of shame and regret, to experience some tiny portion of the pain she caused in return, but Philomena stops him. Quietly, simply, she says to Sister Hildegard, “I forgive you.” There’s a stunned silence. “What, just like that?!” Sixsmith demands, outraged. “It’s not ‘just like that’,” Philomena says, “That was hard for me.” But, she says she doesn’t want to be like him, consumed with anger all the time, because “It must be exhausting.” Philomena knows that harbouring anger against Sister Hildegard and the other nuns won’t solve anything: it won’t turn back the clock, it won’t put the wrongs right, and it won’t cause any pain whatsoever to the elderly nun whom she will never see again. All anger will do is cause her, Philomena, to live a life consumed by the bitter poison of resentment and regret. The only way for Philomena to rise above the pain and move on in her life is to grant the gift of forgiveness, even to someone so undeserving. Max Lucado once put it like this: Forgiveness is unlocking the door to set someone free, and realising you were the prisoner. Resentment, anger and bitterness are powerful things, they can wreak havoc in a person’s life, damaging health, marring happiness, and destroying relationships (even with those utterly unconnected with the source of the anger), but they can be overcome by the power of forgiveness, no matter how undeserving the recipient. As Philomena said, it’s hard. It takes courage and strength of character. It doesn’t happen just like that. But it is the only cure.
Posted on: Sun, 17 Aug 2014 21:04:34 +0000
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