La vita è bella

Buried at the bottom of a lecture playlist, someone recommended La vita è bella.

Watched it last night, haunted by the fullness, the beauty, the suffering, world without end, of a chosen people, just and unjust. When tempted to lay all at the feet of judgement, or to decry such pronouncements, I remember

If you think you understand, it isn't God.--St Augustine

Cuts both ways.

But what is God
and where is God
when his face is turned away?

He is both justice and goodness, in perfect fullness, a ring of pure and endless light, too complete for the crescent human mind to contain.

The Psalms are a comfort. He does not silence when we cry, how long?

When he slew them
then
they sought him
and they remembered that God
was
their rock
and the high God
their redeemer

So we will not go back from Thee:
quicken us
and we will call upon Thy name
Turn us
again
O Lord God of hosts
cause Thy face
to shine
and we shall
be saved

And yet, life is full, and life is beautiful.

1 comment:

sally said...

Oh, that was one of the saddest movies. It reminded me of Gallipoli.