Denver Catholic

18 NOVEMBER 26-DECEMBER 9, 2016 | DENVER CATHOLIC Perspectives On our need for the real Thomas More N ext month marks the fi ftieth anniversary of the fi lm, A Man for All Seasons. And if it's impossible to imagine such a picture on such a theme winning Oscars today, then let's be grateful that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences got it right by giving Fred Zinnemann's splendid movie six of its awards in 1967 – when, reputedly, Audrey Hep- burn lifted her eyes to heaven before announcing with obvious pleasure that this cinematic celebration of the witness and martyrdom of Sir Thomas More had beaten The Sand Pebbles, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf ?, Alfi e, and The Russians Are Coming, the Rus- sians Are Coming for Best Picture. Intriguingly, though, A Man for All Seasons is a magnifi cent religious fi lm – perhaps the best ever – despite its author's stated intentions. Robert Bolt's introduction to his play, which led to the movie, makes it rather clear that author Bolt saw More less as a Catholic martyr than as an existential hero, an approach befi tting the hot philosophical movement of the day (which was, of course, the Sixties). As Bolt put it: "Thomas More…became for me a man with an adamantine sense of his own self. He knew where he began and left o‹ , what areas of himself he could yield to the encroachments of his ene- mies, and what to the encroachments of those he loved. It was a substantial area in both cases, for he had a proper sense of fear and was a busy lover. Since he was a clever man and a great lawyer he was able to retire from those areas in wonderfully good order, but at last he was asked to retreat from that fi nal area where he located his self. And there this supple, humorous, unassuming, and sophisticated person set like metal, was overtaken by an absolutely primitive rigor, and could no more be budged than a cli‹ … "What attracted me was a person who could not be accused of any inca- pacity for life, who indeed seized life in great variety and almost greedy quantities, who nevertheless found something in himself without which life was valueless and when that was denied him was able to grasp his death." Yet this portrait of Thom- as-More-as-Tudor-era-existentialist doesn't quite convince, because Bolt, perhaps in spite of himself, gave us a di‹ erent More in his drama and later in his screenplay – a More who "grasps" his death, not as an existential stalwart, a courageously autonomous "Self," but as a Catholic willing to die for the truth, which has grasped him as the love of God in Christ. Thus when More's intellectually gifted daughter Margaret, having failed to argue him out of his refusal to countenance Henry VIII's divorce and subsequent marriage to Anne Boleyn, plays her fi nal card and cries, "But in reason! Haven't you done as much as God can reasonably want?", More replies, halt- ingly, "Well…fi nally…it isn't a matter of reason; fi nally it's a matter of love." And not love of self, but love of God and love of the truth. For the God who is truth all the way through is also, St. John the Evangelist teaches us, love itself. And to be transformed by that love is to live in the truth – the truth that sets us free in the deepest and noblest meaning of human liberation. There was something worthy and inspiring about certain aspects of exis- tentialism: not the soured existential- ism of Jean-Paul Sartre, which quickly decomposed into nihilism, but the heroic existentialism of a Camus, who could not abide the anti-clerical Cath- olic progressives of his day and who sought a world in which we could be, as he put it, "neither victims nor execu- tioners." But it was Sartrean existential- ism that won the day, at least insofar as one can trace a line from Sartre to con- temporary narcissism, displayed today in everything from temper tantrums on university campuses by over-privi- leged and under-educated barbarians to voters across the Western world who seek relief from their grievances – some quite legitimate – in adherence to some pretty dreadful characters. In this unhappy situation, we need the real Thomas More: the Thomas More who bore witness and ultimately "grasped his death," not to vindicate his sense of Self, but as the fi nal and ultimate act of thanks for his having been grasped, and saved, by Truth itself, the Thrice-Holy God. The Catholic Di¤ erence George Weigel is a distinguished senior fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C. GEORGE WEIGEL God makes straight lines with our crooked paths S ometimes one's path to God's glorious plan for human love is a crooked one. Here's Mindy's path: I was conceived out of wedlock in 1967. My birthmother, after moving to Colorado, single and eight months pregnant, chose to place me for adoption through Catholic Charities. Her desire to have me adopted into a loving family was granted when I was three weeks old. I had a wonderful upbringing, and always felt there was something very special about being adopted. I had an overwhelming sense that I was so wanted. I never turned down an opportunity to tell others my story; especially because some didn't believe me since I looked so much like my adoptive family. Over the years, I have put myself into my birthmother's shoes and all the emotions she must have felt being single and pregnant: scared, pres- sured, embarrassed, inconvenienced, lonely; yet somehow, she mustered the will to do what was best for me. I am so grateful for her tremendous courage and sacrifi ce to give me life. Sometimes we turn away from su‹ er- ing, but she didn't. Fast forward 20 years, when I met my future husband, Matt. Both of us were raised in Catholic homes, but like the majority of our gener- ation, the topics of human love and the gift of our sexuality were rarely discussed. We started our marriage o‹ on a crooked path, rejecting the Church's teaching on openness to life. I was okay with contraception at fi rst, because I wanted to be in charge of when we had children. But after a few years, I had a gaping sense that how we were living out our married love was not how God intended. When we heard Saint John Paul II's proposal on what it means to be human, along with his tender approach, I remember thinking, "Now that is what my heart longs for." Our sexuality is not for using one another, but to be authentically loved. He never began the topic of sexual morality with how we ought to live or behave, but rather helped us know who we are as male and female, made in the image and likeness of God, who is love. Once Matt and I began to understand that, the echo deep inside of us fl ung open the door to our union and we invited God into every aspect of our lives. Sexual morality, then, meant rediscovering our own God- given identity. Now I realize, God was always there waiting patiently. God had been drawing straight lines all along, only now we began to see that narrow path. We enrolled in a Natural Family Planning class, learned about the beauty of my fertility, and we desired to co-cre- ate with God. He opened our eyes and our hearts to hear that his commandments weren't meant to destroy our joy but to help us surren- der our will for his. Submitting this way reshaped our hearts in a more powerful way than the thousands of prayers I prayed searching for authentic love. Looking back, we can see that our intimacy in marriage, fully following God's will, is the key that keeps our marriage strong today. We embraced our Blessed Mother Mary's last words in Sacred Scripture at the Wedding Feast of Cana: "Do whatever he tells you." It was then that we began expe- riencing a renewal and a depth of love that we had no idea was possible. My birthmother said "yes" by giving me life. God tenderly led Matt and I to the truth, opening up our lives to receive the fruits of his love: seven children. Now he continues to bless us—our daughter and her hus- band are expecting their fi rst child, and our fi rst grandchild, in May. Praise God for making straight lines with our crooked paths. Marriage Missionaries Matt and Mindy Dalton can be reached at matt@marriagemissionaries.org, 303-578- 8287 or at www.marriagemissionaries.org. MATT & MINDY DALTON

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