Cinema Scene

"Sister Act"

 

 

 

 

By Sister Hsu Tsai Xia, Taipei, Formosa

This movie is about a female singer who was intoxicated by worldly pleasures, and how she, by sublimating her life, became an exemplary nun. Circumstances dictate that the heroine goes into a monastery. While there, she soon notices, though the nuns have devoted their valuable lives to serve God, they were not accepted or loved by other people. Loitering on the streets and playgrounds, or wasting time in cinemas and games-room parlors, was much preferred to attending church to be near God because most people simply couldn't find any trace of God in the church rituals. Moreover, the nuns live within a wall, which the Mother Superior saw as their only means of protecting the religious life-style devised long ago for serving God. However, their secluded lives hindered them from observing the outside world and understanding the needs of others on the other side of the wall. Therefore, they had no idea about how to effectively disseminate God's love.

The nuns began to question themselves as to how best to serve God while helping others. How could they pursue the monastic life and display their love and loyalty towards God? Does God really wish for Hiers servants to stick to old rules? God surely wants Hiers children to be loved and happy, but they certainly were not, so this proved that the sisters had not spread God's love to Hiers children. God surely wouldn't like to see monastic children stick stubbornly to a way of life that was established centuries ago and which didn't accommodate inevitable social change.

So the heroine, who is a competent folk singer, taught the other sisters to sing. Through the singing practices, she encouraged them to listen, feel, and assimilate each other's voices with their own. She taught them how to inject life, emotion and their love for God into the music to yield an interesting and joyful atmosphere. Their singing attracted many of God's children outside the church walls. People began flocking to the church as if responding to the sound of heaven.

Apart from transforming the hymns, the nuns also began mixing with the secular people, learning to help others in their everyday life, and making the church a place where people loved to go. They delivered the gospel to the people in a contemporary way so many started really enjoying going to church each Sunday. The miraculous revival of the church attracted a visit from the bishop.

The heroine, who in the past had always been manipulated by men, knew that a reliance on God was of paramount importance; Hes will never lie to her or forsake her. Her motto is: "Anything is possible. God works in mysterious ways." She used to be arrogant, disobedient, mischievous and proud of her talents but God had truly reformed her. She formed bad habits not because she didn't love God, but because no one taught her how to experience God while she was growing up.

Although she first took shelter in the monastery reluctantly during a bout of depression, a month later when she returned to the outside world she realized she had profoundly changed and become a real nun! She sincerely prayed for the two gunmen who were planning to kill her, and hoped that God would forgive their ignorance. In bringing new life to the monastery, she had become an example of magnanimity, love and beauty.

God shows us many roles and characters, so that we can observe Hiers many faces. In doing so, we have the opportunity to compensate for our shortcomings by developing our noble qualities and working towards perfection. This was demonstrated by what the nun had given to the other sisters, and what the sisters had given her. The enthusiasm, friendship, acceptance and trust of the sisters changed her passionate, lively but restless heart, and made her become more graceful, pure and strong.

Reflection

To fully utilize the power of the Quan Yin Method, we should observe the changes in society meticulously. Let us be the torches of society by rendering better service to sentient beings; by being a better tool for God and attracting more people to the spiritual path. Aptly, the movie ended with the popular, contemporary song praising God called, "I Will Follow Him": (I will follow Him)

I will follow Him
Follow Him wherever He may go
And near Him I always will be
For nothing can keep me away
He is my destiny.

I will follow Him
Ever since He touched my heart
know there isn't an ocean too deep
A mountain so high it can keep, keep me away
Away from His love.

I love Him, I love Him, I love Him
And where He goes I'll follow
He's always be my true love
From now until forever.