LIFE’S LESSONS
By Henrylito D. Tacio
There’s this new movie on Netflix that has been making Filipinos cry out loud and leaving them heartbroken. Although set in the Netherlands, Doll House tells the story of a troubled rock musician who follows a journey to reconnect with his long-lost daughter.
Playing the coveted role of the father is Baron Geisler, who delivered a tour de force performance of his career. His acting was so natural that it seemed he was not acting at all. Just when we thought he would be a star of the past, he has proven all his detractors wrong.
With all the troubles he had been involved in before, many people thought he wouldn’t be able to revive his career.
Wikipedia chronicles: “During the early 2000s, while his performance as an actor was going stellar, his career on the other hand went lagging. He has confessed to being addicted to alcohol after his father’s demise and his own break-up with actress Jodi Sta. Maria.
He was involved in numerous brawls. One of those brawls left him with two visible scars on his left cheek. He was found guilty and received jail sentences multiple times. He tried to change himself when he went to rehab several times but to no avail.
Alcohol, depression and drugs almost destroyed his life. But it wasn’t until he accepted Jesus Christ as his personal life and saviour that he completely turned around his life. Doll House is a manifestation that he is a new man and that people now completely embrace him.
“I recommend that you watch this movie and see the new and good Baron,” one netizen wrote. “Good job to all of the cast, especially Baron.”
“I never liked Baron but when I watched this movie, he’s so good here. I watched it three times already,” raved another netizen.
Still another wrote: “No one has the right to condemn anyone for we are all sinners in the eyes of God but a second chance is a way to get back on our feet again and be reborn. Ironing all the tangled episodes of our past and having a fresh new start. Everybody deserves a second chance.”
“A second chance doesn’t mean you’re in the clear,” wrote Ling Ma in Severance. “In many ways, it is the most difficult thing. Because a second chance means that you have to try harder. You must rise to the challenge without the blind optimism of ignorance.”
And that’s where forgiveness comes in. I was reminded of a scene from Amos and Andy. There was a big man who would slap Andy across the chest whenever they met. Finally, Andy got enough of it and said to Amos, “I am fixed for him. I put a stick of dynamite in my vest pocket and the next time he slaps me he is going to get his hand blown off.”
Andy had not realized that at the same time, his own heart would be blown out. The dynamite of hatred may inflict some injury on someone but also blow out our own heart.
The words “forgiving” and “forgiven” are inseparable twins. They go together; one is useless without the other. At the death of Queen Caroline, Lord Chesterfield said a sad thing: “And unforgiving, unforgiven dies.”
I had a friend who was engaged to be married. Three months before the actual wedding, his best friend “stole” his bride-to-be. Today, he is still bitter with the man whom he considered as his brother. “Sure, I’ll forgive that man, when I’m good and ready,” he said.
“What must I forgive?” asked Dr. David Augsburger, author of The Freedom of Forgiveness. “Not just the small things, the trivial irritations, the tactless, thoughtless mistakes others make. But everything. Even the hurts that cut and sear. There are no exemptions!”
That’s a tall order! “Forgiveness is something we discover, more than something we do; it is something we gratefully receive, more than something we faithfully give,” Dr. Augsburger explained.
How many times should you forgive someone? Once, twice, thrice? Or seven times, as the apostle once suggested? No, but 70 times seven. That was the message of Jesus Christ when He shared this unforgettable story (Matthew 18:21-35).
A certain poor man owed his boss more than PP2 million. He couldn’t pay, so the boss ordered the man, his wife, and children to be his servants, and the property to be sold to pay the debt. The man, face in the dust, pleaded with his boss, “Please, be patient with me. I will pay it all.”
“Two million pesos? Where will you get that amount?” the boss asked. But then, in pity, he forgave him all his debt.
The man, overjoyed, left his boss. Outside, he met a neighbor who owed him P10,000. “Pay up,” he demanded. The neighbor replied, “Just be patient, and I’ll have it for you next week.
“Nothing doing,” said the man and had him thrown in debtors’ prison. When his boss heard the story, he summoned the man again. “You evil wretch,” he said, “here I canceled that tremendous debt for you, and you have the nerve to be unforgiving over ten thousand pesos? You have sentenced yourself! You have to go to prison now!”
When Jesus taught us to pray, He said, “Forgive as we forgive.” And as Alexander Pope wrote in An Essay on Criticism: “To err is human, to forgive, divine.”
To end this piece, allow me to quote the words of Gordon B. Hinckley, author of Standing for Something: 10 Neglected Virtues That Will Heal Our Hearts and Homes: “The willingness to forgive is a sign of spiritual and emotional maturity. It is one of the great virtues to which we all should aspire. Imagine a world filled with individuals willing both to apologize and to accept an apology.” – ###
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