I saw a movie recently entitled “Feast of Love.” It was a very profound movie.  At first glance one might say it was depressing. An older  couple who were college professors seemed to live a good life. They raised their only son well. He became a successful physician and made them proud. They were shocked when they received a call from the police that he was found dead in his home from a heroin overdose.  The husband had an existential crisis and stopped teaching because he felt he must be giving students the wrong message if his son was so tortured unbeknownst to him.

Another character was in search of love. He had two wives that he loved dearly, who left him because they did not share his ability to love deeply. For him, love was all that mattered. When he fell in love, he was all in no matter the consequences.  By the movie’s end, he finally found someone who shared his passion and ability to become immersed in love.

Yet another character had what appeared to be a tragic life. She fell in love with a beautiful young man who was a kind, but tormented soul. His mother left he and his father when he was very young. His father became very abusive and controlling and began to wish that everyone else around him was a miserable as he.  His son became a heroin addict just to escape.  The young woman and man married, got pregnant and were very happy. The man overcame his addiction but died anyway from a bad heart.

On a superficial level this movie was awful. Every person in it suffered from some catastrophe. It seemed the message was “life is tough and then you die.”  Yet, by the movie’s end, another lesson is evinced.   If you are looking at life from a results oriented perspective, it can be a cruel existence. If you are looking at life as a constant learning opportunity, as an opportunity to give and receive love, you will find that life is rich, and that each day yields a wonderful opportunity to commune with God through the driving force of this universe – LOVE.

The older couple “adopted” the young lady after her husband died. The professor husband became reinvigorated. He had more people to love and to love him. The pitiful dreamer who lost two wives, found someone who also believed that love was the most important thing there is. They married and found happiness. He also   re-established relationships with the two wives who left him and crushed his heart.  He realized they were not bad people, they were just looking for the right kind of love for themselves.  The message of the movie was that if we remain open to love, even after unspeakable things have happened to us, we will find the fulfillment that we seek. We will find that for which we yearn in the most unlikely places.

The juxtaposition between the father whose wife left him and the other characters was illuminating. One man  saw the world as a place bereft of love. He just wanted to maim, hurt or eradicate  any modicum of happiness around him. The other characters, despite encountering severe hardships, were resilient and  stayed open to the possibility of love.   They realized that everything that happens to us is merely a learning opportunity and gives us another chance to realize that love, deep, unabashed, unafraid, and  all in love is the path towards a fulfilling life. It seemed odd that this movie was called “Feast of Love,” when it was filled with gut wrenching tragedy. Yet, if one looked closer, it was a feast of love. Each character had a choice after each horrendous calamity. He could wallow in his misery or he could remain open to love. Those who made the choice to view life for what it is, “A Feast of Love,” were rewarded for their choice. Let us remember the lesson. When we are confronted with excruciating sadness, we should look upon those events as learning opportunities to remain open to love, for as we know, God is Love.  Our lives will be fulfilled in surprising ways once our focus is upon what really matters most.