I had recently purchased the book Enchanted Love: The Mystical Power of Intimate Relationships Much of the second chapter has a great deal to offer, I think, particularly as it seems to capture the painful momentum of this film and of Jack and Ennis's relationship. Where you see parenthesis, I have edited the original text a little to include some post remark or to better fit in with the film so that it makes more sense.
"How weak we are when we are not yet ready to let love rip us open. Is this thought - (that a person's love cannot transform the person to whom it is devoted) - really to be heralded as some kind of wisdom? It is not wisdom. It is a poisonous emotional pesticide that kills the fruits of love. It is a denial of the deeper regions of the heart, a resistance to the experience of freedom, an anguished, 'No, I cannot go.' when someone has said, 'Come with me now. My love is the key to your prison door.'(*)
Such thinking, if not outgrown, is the deepest trap of all. It is not a repudiation of powerlessness, but a commitment to it. It is the cornerstone thought of a small and ultimately unlived life.
The miracle of love is expressed through other people. When a beloved is sent from God - and no one can tell you if they are, but the spirit within you - then they do hold the key to your soul's liberation. God has given it to them. They contain, in every touch and sigh, the information you need, the miraculous power to alchemize your weaknesses and turn them into strengths, to dry your tears and turn them into genius, to release your chains and set you free to be your passionate self at last. Woe to the one who does not yet know enough to say a deep and robust 'Yes!' to such love, to bow before its truth, to be humble before its power, to surrender to the gales of wind that storm through lovestruck hearts.
How tragic it is when we are too arrogant to defer to love, to put all small considerations aside and say, 'I am going there.' How stupid it is to say no to the power of God's loving choice for us. How sad it is to think so little of ourselves that we cannot believe that he or she who stands before us, sent by God, is an angel to give us wings (*). We have so little awe these days before the mysteries of the universe.
Yet if we are in the habit of denying God, then of course we deny His angels, too. And they hold, like pietas, the bodies of our unchosen loves. Angels weep - because their hearts are open - and I think God weeps as well to see such joy denied. And you continue to pray for what you've already received, and will one day realize that what you let fly by was a miracle intended to heal you. You might even say so, but by then it will probably be too late.
Angels do not light for long; they fly away when love denies them. They do not linger in the regions of earthly fear. Angels only come to pick up passengers, to fly away with them to paradise. Everything else is so ultimately silly, and everything else is so sad.
There is one more thing to know about the angel who came for you. The angel who came to fly you to paradise in reality had only one wing. (He) needed the angel in you to come forth, to be to (him) what (he) was willing to be to you. Thus your need for, your dance, your flight with each other. Together, you had one set of wings.
Next time (he) comes - whoever (he) is - perhaps you will not deny (him). Next time (he) comes, be humble before God. Next time (he) comes, admit your pain. Next time (he) comes, come forth yourself. Next time (he) comes, let go your resistance.
Next time (he) comes, be brave."
Postnotes
"My love is the key to your prison door." I posted "an interesting story" from The Five Stages of the Soul in this forum as well - as a seperate topic. This particular statement is interesting because of the archetypal imagery found in that story which now seems to resonate with more meaning thanks to this writing.
"wings" - This writing uses "wings" repeatedly. Gives a whole new meaning to the final piece of music with the same title, doesn't it?
