True love, fairy tales and the Gospel: The Fifth Sunday of Easter

Readings for the Fifth Sunday of Easter

Have you ever seen the Rob Reiner movie, The Princess Bride? A beautiful woman, Buttercup lives on a farm and she loves the farmhand, Westley. She bosses him around, but he always replies, “as you wish.” She eventually understands that “as you wish” means “I love you” and she loves him in return. Westley must go away to seek his fortune and Buttercup learns that his ship was attacked by the Dread Pirate Roberts. Alone, circumstances force her to marry Prince Humperdinck. Is she betraying true love?

On her way to wed her prince, whom she does not love, she is kidnapped by three outlaws, a short, evil Sicilian named Vizzini, a man trapped by his desire for revenge, the swordsman Inigo Montoya, and a giant named Fezzik, who apparently wanders aimlessly through life and is easily influenced and in a bad way. The kidnapped Princess Bride is pursued by a mysterious masked man and Prince Humperdinck. The story quickly escalates.

The mysterious masked man catches up to the outlaws at the top of the Cliffs of Insanity, defeats the swordsman, renders the giant unconscious and defeats the evil Sicilian in a game of wits. He takes Buttercup prisoner and they flee, stopping to rest at the edge of a gorge. She guesses rightly that he is the Dread Pirate Roberts, but when she shoves him down the slope, (yes, she is a princess, but not a pushover) he cries out “as you wish.” She realizes that the Dread Pirate Roberts is actually her beloved, she takes a leap of love after him. They are reunited but must flee Humperdinck and his soldiers. So, they enter the dread Fire Swamp. No matter, they are captured. If you have seen the movie, you know what happens next. If you haven’t seen the movie, treat yourself.
 
Why do fairy tales about true love work? Why do they make us root for Buttercup and Westley, and boo Humperdinck and Vizzini, not to mention the six-fingered man? The Princess Bride works as a story of love, because the lover leaves and promises to come back. Love and loss and true love forever. Every true love story is an imitation of the Gospel, the Divine Bridegroom and the Bride. We have our place in that story and so stories of true love appeal to our hearts.
 
The Gospel of John: The Divine Bridegroom
How do love stories work? First, they are about something far more profound than the merely hormonal. In The Princess Bride, the story is structured around love lost and found, the lover goes away and promises to come back. Something about that dynamic is what forms Westley and Buttercups love and redeems other characters. plays a role in the story told in the Gospel of John.
 
First, what's the context of today’s Gospel reading? Jesus tells the apostles that he is going to be crucified, that they're going to betray him and that they're going to scatter and deny him, but assures them “don't let your hearts be troubled because in my Father's house there are many rooms.” See also, Jn. 15:4  Jesus will die, go away and return. How is this a love story?

The Jewish Bridegroom
Jesus is the Divine Bridegroom. John the Baptist says that Jesus is the Divine Bridegroom,

John answered and said, “No one can receive anything except what has been given him from heaven.^t28You yourselves can testify that I said [that] I am not the Messiah, but that I was sent before him.^u29The one who has the bride is the bridegroom; the best man,^* who stands and listens to him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. So this joy of mine has been made complete.^v30He must increase; I must decrease.” John 3:27-30

 The story of Jesus in the Gospel of John begins at the Wedding of Cana. Jn. 2:1-12. A Jewish bridegroom, any bridegroom, has obligations. A Jewish couple would be betrothed for a year, separated, while the bridegroom would go off and prepare a place for his bride and, hopefully, his new family. He had tasks to perform:

• House: He would build a home to house his new bride and family.

• Wedding festivity and dinner: He would plan the wedding ceremony and dinner celebration, having the duty to provide the wine. As you know, Jesus assumes that duty at the Wedding in Cana.

• The Wedding ceremony was when family and friends would carry the bride to the couple’s new home prepared by the bridegroom, so that the marriage could be consummated.

Jesus is doing what the Bridegroom does in a wedding; he is leaving to prepare a place for his bride, the Church.

You have faith in God; have faith also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If there were not,  would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be.” Jn. 14:1-4

 This is a love story. The Bridegroom is leaving, but will return. He will then bring his bride to himself. The imagery reveals Christ promise that we will dwell in the Divine and the Divine in us. God is a Trinity of Three Persons, one God. Heaven is dwelling in God and God in us. This love story begins now.
 
How can we know the Way?
How can we know the way?” Jesus explains what it means to be the Divine Bridegroom, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but by me.” Last week, Jesus described himself as the Sheep gate.
“So, Jesus said again, “Amen, amen, I say to you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved and will come in and go out and find pasture. A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy. I came so that they may have life and have it more abundantly.” Jn. 10:7-10.
 
So, Jesus is the Way and he is the Gate. He is the ‘way, the truth and the life.” He is not talking about natural life, but supernatural life. In Greek the word for biological life is bios. The world used in this passage referring to Jesus as the life is zóé, which means essentially, life above nature or supernatural life. It is the eternal life of the Trinity, the life of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
 
The Way, the Truth and the Life: Love goes somewhere!
Phillip wants Jesus to show them the face of the Father. Jesus responds,

Phillip said to him, “Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you for so long a time and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? Jn. 14:10-11

 Moses and Elijah, neither one of them saw God’s face. Moses saw only his backside and Elijah heard only a still, small sound. Jesus bears the image of the Father in what he says and does. That is how you see the Father, in what the Father does. God is what God does. But then Jesus says,

Amen, Amen, I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works that do, and will do greater ones than these, because I am going to the Father.” Jn. 14:12

 Jesus healed the sick, blind, lame and raised the dead. What could possibly be greater? Why the sacraments of course?
 
Which is more powerful; a bull elephant of gigantic size, or the miniscule coronavirus?  Size doesn’t necessarily equate to impact.  We shouldn’t confuse greatness with what is of only limited importance. The eternal is more important than the temporal because the eternal effects salvation forever. 
 
When a priest hears the confession of a person and forgives mortal sin, in a real sense the act of forgiveness effects is eternal. By contrast, the big bang, as massive as it is, has a limited impact. The heaven and the earth pass away. They are finite, they are temporary. Eternal life lasts forever. Baptism, the Eucharist, the Sacrament of Confession are greater miracles than what Jesus did during his earthly ministry because of their eternal effect. Love goes somewhere; to eternal life.  
 
The Princess Bride, that is, the Church
What makes Buttercup and Westley’s love interesting? If they just continued to live on the farm, would Rob Reiner have made a movie about their love? Wesley leaves and becomes the Dread Pirate Roberts. Buttercup, disappointed in true love, accepts the illusion of position and honor marriage to Humperdinck seems to promise. That false love is a lie; there is nothing but death for Buttercup if she follows that way.  True love is threatened by evil Prince Humperdinck, but you know that he can’t win: Westley and Buttercup’s love will prevail.
True love redeems and condemns:  The three wicked henchman,

• Vizzini (“You've fallen for one of the two classic blunders! The first being never get involved in a land war in Asia but only slightly lesser known: never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA”),

• Inigo Montoya, who can’t get over the past, (the swordsman who must avenge the death of his father) and

• Fezzik, who apparently had nothing better to do than fall under the influence of ne’er do wells.

Three men, wandering through life, two of whom will find redemption in the love of the Bride and her Bridegroom. Does this story sound familiar? Yes, it is a rip-off of the Gospel of John.
 
The Gospel is the true story of true love, the Divine Bridegroom Christ for his bride the Church. The Princess Bride is effective and heart-warming as a movie because it imitates the story of the Gospel. Love broken by separation (Adam and Eve) and love restored by the bridegroom’s relentless search for his bride down into the depths of sin and death. It seems too good to be true, if you have a heart for true love distorted by distrust of God. As Buttercup and her true love escape Humperdinck by fleeing into the dread, fire spurting, quicksand filled Fire Swamp with rodents of unusual size, she says to Westley, “We’ll never survive!”  Westley rightly responds, “Nonsense. You’re only saying that because no one ever has.” Well, we know that’s not true. In fact, the Bridegroom has gone to prepare a place for us and will return for us. The Gospel is the pattern of True Love.