The Giver shows the value of each person

I saw the movie The Giver this week and I would recommend it to those who like sci-fi but who also like a pro-life message. The movie revolves around a dystopian view of the future where everything is the same. Everybody wears the same kind of clothing, everyone is assigned a job, a family and a death. Yes, you read that correctly, they are assigned a death; they just don’t know it. When they reach a certain age they “retire” to “elsewhere.” if a child is born “defective” in any way they send the baby to “elsewhere,” which we find out means they kill the person. All of this is done to preserve the human race, they claim. There is no love. They don’t wear colors. They all go about their lives following rules that are in place to keep them in line. There is no independence; there is no independent thought. One boy who has been chosen to be the receiver of memory leads a revolt of some sort, and he rescues a baby who had been given to his family unit to take care of. The baby didn’t thrive so it was going to “elsewhere” and the hero, Jonas, decides that since he has learned that “elsewhere” doesn’t exist he must save his foster brother. The movie shows what happens when society places too much emphasis on unrealistic perfection and utility of purpose. As Christians we certainly strive to be perfect in our faith but we also realize that every person has value even if he or she isn’t a perfect specimen physically. We cannot treat human beings as though they are commodities. This includes the human being in the womb and the elderly who some view as inconvenient.

As some folks are aware and I hope more will become so, we have our main office of the collaborative in the Parish House at Blessed Sacrament and we, the priests, live in the rectory of Saint Mary’s. To endeavor to have more availability to the parishioners of Our Lady of Sorrows I will begin to hold Saturday morning office hours beginning October 11th from 10am to 1pm. The only caveat is will be if I have to celebrate a funeral Mass or if there is a pastoral emergency that takes me away from the office. I hope that this will make it easier for folks to drop by and hopefully if will allow more priestly contact. I thank you for your patience as we continue this transition. I assure you we are doing what we can to make this as painless as possible. We will have successes and we will have setbacks, but we are trying. Thanks for your time and God bless!

Fr. Chip