Pilgrimage Ponderings
The Battle Within
Flipping channels over the weekend, we ran across a rerun of The Last Sammurai. Regardless of what you think of Tom Cruise as a person (I think he's strange), he's a superb actor.
This is not the sort of movie I would ever ask to go see. I tend to avoid overt displays of blood, gore, and violence. So I was surprised to find myself becoming engrossed in the story of the American war veteran turned mercenary who agrees to teach the Japanese army how to fight like western soldiers. The emperor has put together this army in order to battle what appears to be a traitorous band of sammurai. The sammurai live by an ancient code of honor and discipline that ultimately captures the imagination of the American soldier.
This movie got my attention because as the story unfolds it becomes clear that the bigger battle to be won is not the one on the field between the Japanese army and the sammurai. It is the one being waged within the heart and mind of the American war veteran. The internal conflict has the potential to be more destructive to his soul than anything that happens around him. And the key to his resolving this conflict has to do with hearing words of forgiveness, forgiving himself, and committing himself to something beyond his own self-absorption.
I think the movie has stayed on my mind because it has something to say to us today. Sometimes it seems easier in the short term, to focus our attention on winning battles around us then within us. But ultimately, until we have allowed ourselves to feel the pain of internal conflict and welcomed healing when it is offered, there is little hope of putting to rest the conflicts in our world.
