A JESUS LOOKING LIFESTYLE

The German Army Occupies Rome following the Italian Armistice in 1943

Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty begins to help former prisoners of war

using the neutral status of the Vatican as an operational base

O’Flaherty gains covert support from the Vatican diplomats

A team is formed to organize the expanding secret operation

Many wealthy business people of Rome became supporters

O’Flaherty’s work comes to the attention of the German Security

Forces in Rome

Especially to its commanding officer, Colonel Herbert Kappler

One of the priests is captured helping the resistance and is shot

Himmler puts pressure on Kappler to break O’Flaherty’s operation

Pope Pius XII informs O’Flaherty of a rumoured invasion of the Vatican

And warns that it must not be provoked

O’Flaherty continues the work and uses disguises to avoid capture

Kappler becomes obsessed with O’Flaherty’s capture

O’Flaherty finds new ways to slip through the blockade

O’Flaherty dresses as a German Officer to visit another priest in prison

With the Allied forces about to enter Rome, Kappler’s attention is turned to finding a way for his wife and children to get

safely out of the city.

He forces O’Flaherty to a secret meeting.

Colonel Kappler was arrested and interrogated by the Allied

forces

and makes a surprise discovery

Pope Pius commends O’Flaherty for the work of protecting 6,000+ people from more than 25 different nations

But the movie script has him

observing a sad reflection on the failure of the church to represent genuine Christian

experience

Everyone is supposed to get this from the same place as Hugh O’Flaherty got it

Ma#hew  5  43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?48 You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

JUST TELL ME EVERYTHING IT SAYS

1.  The  religious  deal  of  knowing  who  to  love  and  who  to  hate  (ignore  èdespise)  is  a  human  idea  that  has  nothing  to  do  with  God.  

2.  The  kingdom  way  is  to  be  acBvely  loving  your  enemies  and  prayerfully  redempBve.  

3.  This  is  what  God  is  like,  and  when  you  live  the  “God”  kind  of  life  other  people  can  experience  the  presence  of  God  through  you.  

4.  The  “reward”  for  God’s  people  is  that  enemies  get  to  experience  God  and  get  a  chance  at  redempBon  as  a  result.  

JUST TELL ME EVERYTHING IT SAYS

5.  They  get  to  see  the  difference  between  ‘ordinary  human’  and  ‘God.’  

6.  The  calling  of  God’s  people  is  to  be  people  who  bring  the  presence  of  God  into  a  given  human  situaBon  that  needs  to  be  redeemed.  

IF NOT WHY NOT? What you can do to see transformation

1.  I  believe  that  the  revelaBon  from  Jesus  is  the  way  God  has  created  me  and  intends  me  to  live.  

2.  I’m  going  to  see  how  Jesus  did  it                            (gospels)  3.  I’m  going  to  go  to  God  for  what  I  need              

                                                                                             (harp  and  sword  prayer)  4.  I’m  not  going  to  accept  any  result  other  than  the  

one  God  works  in  me                                                    (“My  help  comes  from  the  Lord  who  made  heaven  and  earth”  Ps.  121)  

5.  I  am  going  to  make  myself  accountable  in  this  to  my  team                                      (tell  a  few  people  I  share  life  with).