Giver and Gaudete

When my sons were in middle school, or perhaps grade school, they had to read the book by Lois Lowry entitled The Giver. I read the book at the time, and recently found myself ordering the 2014 movie from the local library. My spouse and I watched the movie Friday night. It is likely just coincidental, but I find some parallels between this movie, and what some Christian faiths will celebrate today, Gaudete Sunday. If your family had the tradition of lighting an advent wreath, this is the Sunday when the rose colored candle is lighted. In the Catholic tradition, the other three candles are purple. The rose colored candle acknowledges that we are at the half way point of advent, but also that we are in joyful anticipation of the coming of Jesus. Gaudete is Latin for "all of you must rejoice." It seems more an order than a request, meaning that the preparation of advent now changes to a joyful attitude.

Book cover

Yet, we should of course always be joyful.  Pope Francis himself has said that there should be no sourpusses in Christianity.  Of course, we are all human, and thus have some frailties.  Frailties are part of our human existence, Just as there would be no resurrection of Christ, without his death, so to how would we know joy if we do not know pain and suffering?  Joy is different than happiness.  But, you may ask how does the movie "The Giver" relate to this Sunday of advent?

Jonas and the Giver, movie scene

The Giver (book) and  "The Giver" (the movie) take place in a society that is very antiseptic, no real feelings are evident.  Those that do  not meet the prescribed standards of what they consider human development are, as the book puts it--"released."  Of course, released is simply the euphemism for euthanasia, It is a colorless world, as portrayed literally, and of course figuratively.  The book is named for a person within this society who is called the Giver.  His job is to pass down all of the information from prior ages.  In this it includes the good and bad.  He is an oracle for the community. The antiseptic world was created to guard people against war, riot, and other unpleasant circumstances which often pit man against man.  But, in doing so they have no feelings, and are so automatized that they do not comprehend their situation.  With a lack of human emotion, they do not understand feelings. This is shown when the Receiver, a young 18 year old man, after some instruction by the Giver, approaches a lifelong female friend of his and grabs her hands and kisses her on the lips.  In this society, one cannot touch another who is not part of their unit--what we would call the family.  The girl has no way to describe what she felt, the terminology has ceased, there is no room for expression of thought, for expression of hate, or expression of love.  The Receiver understands, as he has the "capacity to see beyond" which is to see color, and in this case both literal and figurative.  Literally he will see colors where the world is a black,white and 50 shades of grays.  Figuratively he is beginning understand human emotions.

Jonas and female friend, movie scene

Children are not produced by a mother and father, but only by those authorized.  The woman does not care for her child, the care is provided by a Nurturer, one of who is the Receiver's older adult male in the unit.  Jonas, who is the Receiver, comes to a realization when he sees his father "release" a young baby from the bonds of earth, in other words, kill the baby, as it did not meet the prescribed community standards in its development.  Jonas' sister is helping the family unit care for a baby named Gabe (Gabriel), to see if he will  be able to meet the community standards of child development.  Upon arriving home one evening after another session with the Giver, Jonas is told that Gabe did not meet the standards and is being prepared to be released. At this point, Jonas escapes with the baby and goes beyond the borders of the community.  He and Gabe overcome rocks, deserts, heat, cold, mountains and snow.  Climatic variations are not allowed in the community so Jonas has his first experience of snow in the mountains, although he had a dream earlier in the movie that portended the event he is now experiencing.  He has reached his physical, and likely mental limits and at the lowest point of his life, wondering if what he had done was the right thing, would he and Gabe survive?  

Advent wreath

Then, they hear voices coming from a distance, providing him sufficient strength to make his way down the next slope he sees a home nestled among the pine trees and the snow.  People in the home are singing, 'Silent Night".  It is likely Christmas Eve or early Christmas morning.  It is here the movie ends.  Jonas has seen deprivation, and despair, but now he is not simply happy, but joyful.  Mike Jordan Lasky writes that "joy is something deeper than happiness;" he quotes Henri Nouwen who says of joy: it is "the experience of knowing that you are unconditionally loved and that nothing -- sickness, failure, emotional distress, oppression, war, or even death -- can take that love away." Nouwen continues: "I remember the most painful times of my life as times in which I became aware of a spiritual reality much larger than myself, a reality that allowed me to live the pain with hope ... Joy does not simply happen to us. We have to choose joy and keep choosing it every day."

Jonas with Gabe, movie scene

This is what Jonas, and the Giver, who plied Jonas to leave and find his way, and bring promise of human feeling and experience to the full community by his action of leaving and escaping to the non-controlled world. Jonas, gave Gabe a new life, but it was the impending death (release) of Gabe which was the spark that drove Jonas to realize he lived in a community that lacked human feeling and emotion.

Patricia Datchuck Sanchez wrote this past week: "Jesus warns us against the security of isolation from human misfortune," and then she quotes Pope Francis: "we are, instead, to enter into the reality of other people's lives and know the power of tenderness. Whenever we do so, our lives become wonderfully complicated and we experience intensely what it means to be a people, to be part of a people." Jonas would understand what Pope Francis was saying. yes, we have Ferguson, choke-holds, war and death, but we also have kindness, generosity, life, and joy.

Church of the Nativity, author photo

So, yes, I see a connection between The Giver and Gaudete Sunday, The community in which Jonas grew up was secure, but it was isolated from misfortune. Jonas found joy when he found human emotion and his final realization was that one snow filled night hearing Silent Night radiating from a lodge nestled among the evergreens and slopes in the mountains. I am not sure whether it was intended by the author or not, but Jonas realized joy on the most holy of nights, with a child bearing the same name as the angel who had appeared unto Mary. As we prepare to celebrate this Christmas, and the birth of Jesus, let us recall that joy needs to fill our hearts and that we cannot let the misadventures of humanity be in our way. Use joy as a way to better understand and appreciate our humanity. We need the full range of emotions to have, as Pope Francis has said, that "wonderfully complicated" experience that means we are part of a people, not isolated from difficulties, differences, or disasters.Being human, we all we struggle with the concept of seeing joy in the face of despair. Yet, it strengthens use and makes us better. Joy leads to love, and love gives us joy. An unending circle, not unlike the circle of the advent wreath.

Unless otherwise noted, images are from Google images