Sitting in my movie theater reclining chair, popcorn in hand, I was suddenly in a sunlit room with Jesus and his twelve apostles. He was sending them out two by two, describing how they should take no food, money, or extra clothing for the mission. The apostles asked Jesus practical questions about how they should support themselves along the way and how they were going to be able to heal people on their travels. Jesus encouraged them to depend on God alone and to trust their Father in heaven.
The notion of being sent out in pairs without Jesus’ direct guidance was alarming to the apostles, disconcerting, and challenging. This new phase of their formation came with new opportunities, responsibility, and authority, yet one of their most basic challenges was simply learning to work with their partner in this ministry.
This movie scene comes from The Chosen, the ecumenical Christian media project about the life of Jesus that is quickly becoming a global sensation and was in theaters this Thanksgiving weekend. The show, the first multi-season series about the life of Jesus ever produced, focuses on Jesus’ interactions with the apostles and his other disciples as well as the disciples’ interactions amongst each other, presenting an accessible and relatable view of early Christian life and its lessons for the modern world.
Meanwhile, Walter, an economics professor at Connecticut College, opened the door of his New York City apartment to find it already occupied—by two undocumented immigrants, the couple Tarek and Zainab. Alarmed, he immediately asked them to leave, only to find them standing with their bags on the sidewalk later that night. He proceeded to open his apartment to them, creating a space for them to live and love—until Tarek ran into a sticky turnstile at a subway station and his undocumented status was discovered when police apprehended him for stepping over the stuck gate. Walter hired a lawyer for Tarek and visited him in the detention center where he was held as often as he could—until Tarek was deported, without any notice or opportunity for goodbye.
This scene comes from The Visitor, a 2007 film starring Richard Jenkins as the introverted and modest Walter, who is in a midlife crisis after the death of his wife and realizing that his work is no longer interesting or fulfilling. Tarek taught him to play the drum, a hobby Walter eagerly continues after Tarek’s deportation. Walter’s sinuous beat fills the subway station where Tarek was apprehended, beating out his frustration, desperation, and newfound vigor in life from his encounter with Tarek and Zainab.
As we enter this holiday season, a time to give thanks and celebrate, I find myself grateful for the fateful encounters in my life, the times I’ve been given new responsibility and opportunities, and the times I’ve been faced with trying to comprehend another’s experience which is so different from my own. God is at work in chance encounters, challenging missions, and the experience of human difference, presenting a call to be selfless, to show up and do our best, and to make space in our worldview for the authenticity of others’ experiences and perspectives. Pope Francis emphasizes this call in his focus on synodality—a process of listening and learning from and with others, especially those whose voices are rarely or never heard.
As I continue to beat the drum that is daily life—listening and learning, resting and working, dreaming and loving, helping and hoping, serving and letting myself be served, being present and showing up to what life has in store each day—I feel the fading rhythm of the fall shifting into the currents of winter, the swirling winds that batter and blow and leave all living things with the task to take time and space and emerge anew.
Thomas is a student in BC’s Carroll School of Management, who fittingly serves as the current Business Manager of The Torch in addition to his position as Campus News Editor. Thomas can be found around campus singing at Masses with the Liturgy Arts Group, tabling for the BC Pro-Life Club, deep in conversation while enjoying BC Dining cuisine, or gazing in awe at Gasson Hall and its Collegiate Gothic style architectural neighbors.
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