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May 18, 2003- Fifth Sunday of Easter
"Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me. I am the vine, you are the branches."
-John 15: 1-8
THE PIANIST
The Academy Award-winning film The Pianist is the extraordinary true story of Wladyslaw Szpilman, a celebrated Jewish pianist who manages to survive the Holocaust through stoicism and luck.
For six years, Szpilman - the only member of his family not to perish in the Holocaust - manages to survive the war by hiding out in Nazi-occupied Warsaw. Neither a fighter nor a hero, he would have perished were it not for enormous good luck, the kindness of a few non-Jews - and his music. Music is his one passion and love, music is his hope and his source of his optimism. In the opening scene, for example, Szpilman is playing a Chopin concerto on a live radio broadcast. An explosion rattles the building - Szpilman ducks, wipes some plaster off his sleeve, and keeps right on playing. While hiding in a Warsaw flat, he sits by an upright piano he dare not play for fear of being discovered and moves his fingers above the keys, cherishing the silent music that is keeping his spirit alive.
In the films climactic scene, Szpilman, sick haggard and terrified, is hiding in the shell of a devastated building which, ironically, has a piano. His hiding place is accidentally discovered by a German captain. Identifying himself as a pianist, Szpilman sits at the rickety piano and performs an impromptu concert. The sight of this pathetic figure making such glorious music on this dilapidated keyboard deeply moves the German officer. Rather than turn Szpilman in (or worse), he keeps the pianist's hiding place a secret, even bringing him satchels of bread. Before he and his men withdraw from the area as the Russians approach, he gives Szpilman his coat.
In the end, Szpilman survives the war. The delicate, tender artistry of Chopin manages to endure despite humanity's most decivilizing brutality. In his music, life and hope return.
CONNECTION: As Szpilman finds hope and meaning in his music, we are able, through the gift of faith, to find hope in the extraordinary love of God, a love that has become fully alive and human in the Risen Christ. As branches of Christ the vine, we are connected to something greater than ourselves, something which transforms and transcends the fragileness of our lives. Easter invites us to center our hopes in the "music" of the love of God - a love that never wavers, a love that illuminates the darkest nights and warms the coldest hearts.
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