I was feeling under the weather this morning and decided it was a good morning to lay on the couch and watch some TV under my favorite blanket. I had recorded Dead Man Walking a while ago and took this opportunity to finally watch it. Wow! What a performance by Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn. In the movie Sister Helen Prejean develops a relationship with death row inmate Matthew Poncelet (the movie is based on the real life relationship between Sister Helen Prejean and death row inmate Elmo Patrick Sonnier).
I will not get into too many details about the movie other than Sister Helen shows unconditional love for a hate filled, convicted rapist and murderer. She believes he is guilty, but still loves him even in the presence of the families of the teen-age children he murdered. But what really blew me away was at the end of the movie when she is at Poncelet's funeral and one of the parents of the murdered children shows up. The man says he is still filled with anger and hate for Poncelet and looks at Sister Helen and says "I just don't have the faith you do". She replies: "It isn't faith, if it was it would be easy, but this (love) is work."
Love is work. It isn't easy, it is sometimes messy, sometimes surrounded in pain, sometimes against how we feel, and takes energy. But those who follow Jesus are called to love. Sister Helen showed love and grace to a very vile and evil man. I have trouble showing grace to the woman on her cell phone that didn't realize her lane was ending. God help me.
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