A Prelude to a Dream

Originally posted in March 2017. Movie seen at Oswego 7 Cinemas in Oswego, NY.

A REFLECTION ON THE FILM THE SHACK

Michael DeNobile discusses the 2017 box office hit, The Shack and provides insight regarding the film’s ethical questions. 

To where shall we go to lay down the burdens of this life?--for the yolk is heavy, and I am weary that I will not finish the work.

Time and time again, man is faced to reconcile himself to suffering, of the presence of evil on this side of Paradise. Ideally, goodness and joy would be the absence of pain, a world where we individually get to judge what is right and what is wrong, to decide who gets to be put asunder in Hell and who gets a Golden Ticket to the top floor of the Observation Deck.

However, Michael DeNobile notes that if we get to judge others by the way they treat us, where shall we go when others judge ourselves? Will we be worthy of a Golden Ticket or will the elevator be sent to sub-level 4 of the Seventh Circle?

In the age of innocence of our youth, simplicity defined our world view: our parents were saints, criminals were jailed, and the hero came running in on a white steed. All the players had their part, and those parts where all black and white.

But in the mystery of the spiraling chaos, when it is our parents who are the sinners, when the marauders rob the vaults, and when the heroes are a day late and a dollar short, where do we go to drive the nails deeper in and the spear straight through so that we may be delivered justice? Where do we go to slay the dragons, the demons, the monsters of this world that go bump in the night and return to the garden of our youth, where there is purpose in sand and dirt and  butterflies? Where do we go to hide from the ugliness and grayness of this world and still believe in the colorful beauty we desperately hope still exists?

In the silence of the void between us and Truth, will we have the courage to understand and say, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do," when the wolves come knocking in our fences and steeling our sheep and chickens? Will we have the courage to seek not revenge but love our enemies when they don't deserve it?

Michael DeNobile believes that the past is past, a prelude to a dream. But that dream is only attainable if we can leave our luggage in the baggage claim. May the conveyor belt be burdened so that we may be free to fly and find Golden Tickets for us all.


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