It’s been called, “A Masterpiece in Acting” — The Two Popes. Have you seen this film yet? It’s available on Netflix, and it’s worth your time.
Written by Anthony McCarten, the writer of “Darkest Hour”,
and directed by Fernando Meirelles, the director of “City of God”, The Two Popes is inspired by true events
that occurred inside the papacy of the Roman Catholic Church in the last
decade. Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio (Jonathan Pryce) is the soon-to-be elected
Pope Francis to replace the aging Pope Benedict XVI (Anthony Hopkins). The
ideological and temperamental differences, and the theological debates that
spring from them, drive the movie’s action as the leaders spar over the future
of the 21st century Roman Catholic Church. And though much of the
movie is fictional, those real debates have consequences far beyond the
cloistered enclave of the Vatican. They even have direct relevance to our
sermon topic this Sunday!
Pope Francis, former archbishop of Buenos Aires, is
portrayed in the film as a strong-willed progressive, a man more comfortable
with giving open-air sermons and working on projects for the poor than
participating in the solemn rituals of the Vatican. This depiction is not far
off. As a Jesuit priest in Argentina, Bergoglio rose rapidly through the ranks
of the Catholic order. In 1973, at age 36, he became head of all the Jesuits in
Argentina and neighboring Uruguay.
In 1990, after a dispute within the Jesuit order, he was
stripped of his leadership responsibilities and exiled to Cordoba, in central
Argentina, where he spent two years in what he later described as, “a time of
great interior crisis”. When he emerged, it was as a changed leader, with a new
perspective gleaned from his interactions with the city’s poor.
Pope Benedict XVI, born Joseph Rateinger, who served as Pope
from 2005 to 2013, is portrayed in an equally life-like manner. He is shown as
a rigid, uncompromising leader who sees a return to doctrinal purity as the
best course for a Roman Catholic Church struggling with 21st century
problems. Like Pryce’s portrayal of Francis, the film’s characterization of
Benedict XVI is not far off the mark.
In the film the two meet under unprecedented circumstances.
Bergoglio travels to Rome to request permission to retire. Immediately he’s met
by Pope Benedict XVI who tells him that he will not accept his resignation, in
part, because he is about to step down from the papacy.
As the film plays out, it offers a fascinating window into
the debate between the two ideologically opposed religious leaders. The literal
veracity of these conversations and the situation that created them, are mostly
imagined by McCarten. But it’s an imagination solidly founded in the stated
positions of each expressed in their speeches and writings over the years.
It’s in one of these heated conversations, in the confines
of the Sistine Chapel, that some remarkable transparency occurs. The future
Pope Francis says to Pope Benedict XVI words with which Benedict is familiar.
He wrote them years earlier!
Angrily Benedict says to Bergoglio, “Without truth, love
degenerates into sentimentality.” Without skipping a beat Bergoglio replies,
“Yes, ‘Truth may be vital, but without love it is unbearable.’” These are the
same words Joseph Ratzinger had written years before. Bergoglio is simply
reminding him of this greatest truth.
Do you know where Ratzinger got that truth? From the
incarnation of God in Jesus Christ. That’s why the Apostle John describes the
incarnation and the crucifixion the way he does in I John 4:7-12. In the Old
Testament there are glimpses of the loving essence of God, but in Jesus we get
the full picture of it. The sad truth is that even with the full picture our
wicked hearts propel us to forget that God is Love and all that that means.
Being reminded of it changes everything, even for a pope!
In preparation for Sunday’s message, “Anticipation: Love”
you may wish to consider the following:
1. Read the following brief Old Testament texts to get a
glimpse of the power of God’s loving essence: Exodus 33:12-23; Hosea 14:1-4;
Malachi 3:1-6.
2. In R.C. Sprouls’ book The
Holiness of God he points out that the angels’ description of God in Isaiah
6:3 as the only attribute of God raised to the third power, or repeated three
times in quick succession. This implies that holiness is the paramount
attribute, the central essence of God. Do you agree?
3. In the New Testament God is described four times by the
words: “God is _____.” What are the four words that fill in the blank?
4. Why is truth unbearable without love?
5. How does the Gospel perfectly answer that question?
6. John 1:14-18 speaks of the fullness of God being seen in
Jesus. How does he describe that fullness? (see verses 16 & 17)
7. How is the reality of the Trinity a perfect picture of God’s
essence as love?
8. Charles Spurgeon once said, “The wheel of providence
revolves, but its axis is eternal love.” Would you agree?
9. Why do you think Paul tells the Corinthians that love is
greater than faith and hope? Would you agree?
10. Is it by truth or love that we best reflect God?
See you Sunday!
