Invictus

[Francois Pienaar (Matt Damon) is the captain of South Africa, he stares out the night before the game of the world cup. His wife comes and talks to him.  He is thinking about the life of Nelson Mandela, his president.]

First I apologize for having been gone so long.  I am learning to balance work and being a father.  

So what can we learn from so short a clip?  About the power of one man to change a country.  One man, Mandela, comes out of prison ready to forgive the very people who put him them.  That kind of forgiveness, that strength of soul has a way of moving men beyond themselves.  This is exactly the reason why, on the night before the greatest event for this athlete he is not thinking about the sporting event, but something that moves his soul.  Most people would be thinking about the world cup that he will be playing in the next day, but inside he cannot stop thinking about this amazing man he met, Mandela.

I am always surprised that so many people in the Church do not have a relationship with Christ, they are never truly meet this man who is present before us.  If we but open our eyes to the fact that there is a Face, a Person, who moves us in a way that even before the greatest event in the world like the World Cup, and we were focused on the witness of a Man.  I often hear that people think Christ was something that happened 2000 years ago, and that He was, but He is not regulated to the past unless you put Him there.  He moves through those men and women that we were so touched by this person that they could not help but pursuing and live as this man lived.