Between heaven and earth
Between light and dark
Between faith and sin
Lies only my heart
Lies God and only my heart
A group of students and I went to see For Greater Glory (also known as Cristiada) yesterday night. Based on true events, the film revolves around the Cristero War in Mexico during the 1920s, when the Mexican government sought to suppress the peoples' right to practice freely their religion. In particular, the laws passed by the then-Mexican president, Plutarco Calles, sought to suppress the influence of the Roman Catholic Church on the Mexican people. In response to the stringent anti-Catholic laws enforced on the Mexican people, a group of rag-tag freedom fighters, self-proclaimed Cristeros, banded together to fight the oppressive federales of the Mexican army, sent by the government to quell them.
While not reviewed positively by many media critics throughout the United States, this movie, for me, and I believe for my students as well, was particularly moving. There are countless - countless - heart-wrenching scenes, scenes so painful to watch that all of us as a group grimaced on more than one occasion. A particularly agonizing scene involving a young boy, who we later learned was Blessed Jose Sanchez del Rio, had the student next to me in a shower of tears. Here we are, a group of young people striving after authentic holiness - witnessing in this film dozens of priests, laypeople, even children of 1920s Mexico, martyred for their faith in gruesome ways because they refused to deny their faith in Jesus Christ. And while we weren't able to discuss much of the movie after the credits rolled (due mostly to the fact that it was 12:30 in the morning and we were exhausted), the prevailing sentiments that swirled in my head as I drove home from the theater were: If faced with similar circumstances, would I be ready to die for Jesus Christ?
In my human weakness, every ounce of my being says, right now, "NO! I am not brave enough!" Yet, as seems to be the case with the probably thousands (maybe even hundreds of thousands) of martyrs throughout the history of the Church, I believe deeply in my heart of hearts that God gives a special grace to those He has chosen to be martyrs for His Church. In the film, during what I thought was the most moving scene of martyrdom, a young boy is asked to renounce his faith in Jesus Christ in order to have his life spared. He is given one last chance to deny his faith, as he stands before the grave in which he is to be buried following his execution. "Just say it," his padrino (godfather, the mayor of the town, present at the site of the execution, along with the young boy's parents) says to him. "I can't," says the boy, covered in blood from torture, yet smiling through his suffering. "I love you. Viva Cristo Rey." With that, a soldier plunges his bayonet into the boy's chest, and he begins to die. As he writhes on the ground, in visible agony, he traces a cross into the sand. "I'm going home," he whispers, before a soldier delivers a coup de grace and finally kills him. As I watched this scene with tears in my eyes, I could not help but think of the heroic courage given to this child by our good God, to withstand his torture, walk to his grave, affirm his faith in Christ yet again, and forgive his executioners.
While the storyline of the young boy was indeed moving, perhaps the most moving plot point for me was the faith journey of the leader of the Cristeros, el General Enrique Gorostieta. Throughout the film, the viewer knows that the General does not believe in God. He sees the struggle for religious freedom as a noble one, fights with the Cristeros with passion and conviction, and believes President Calles to be a barbarian, yet he lacks faith in God. In a particularly turbulent time of the war, he asks one of his soldiers, who is also a Catholic priest, the time-honored question, "Why would God permit such atrocity in this world?" The priest responds with the age-old answer, that God is able to bring about incredible triumph in the face of horrific evil, his Holy Cross being the prime example. Finally, near the end of the film, as the viewer has seen the breadth of the General's interior struggles of doubt, he asks the priest-soldier to hear his confession, moments before his death in a gunfight. This stirred in my heart so deeply - after years of doubt, the General returned to God. What a testament to the goodness and mercy of God, but also what a testament to the humility required by the General. It truly warmed my heart and gave me tremendous hope for those currently struggling with doubt to see that after years of being away from God and away from the sacraments, the General was able to make a return to God and die in the state of grace. God is good, He is very, very good.
So, in the midst of these incoherent ramblings, the bottom line is: see the film.
Be challenged by the story of these heroic Cristeros.
Believe deeply in your convictions.
Pray intensely.
Love Christ deeply.
Live your life as if ready to die for Him at any moment (however unlikely a martyr's death may be).
Viva Cristo Rey! Que viva!
picture source
