“Going out”
This lesson is based on the Short Film, Butterfly Circus. Watch the video and then reflect and discuss the lesson.
How is the Butterfly Circus a modern day parable similar to the workers in the vineyard? Mr. Mendez (the landowner) goes out to find people for his circus (the vineyard). All the performers were in a sense standing idle (the were not being used). The first workers and the last (Will) get the same reward. All are part of the circus and gain benefits of being a part of the circus.
What do the follow selected quotes teach us?
The man leading the sideshow says of Will, “A perversion of nature…who God Himself has turned his back upon.” Mr. Mendez says to Will, “You are magnificent!” Will spits on him and then Mendez says, “Maybe I got a little too close”
How many times have others and we been told we are no good, even a perversion of nature? If we are told this many times and in many ways we begin to think this of our self and even when God says to us, “You are magnificent!” we don’t believe Him. When God calls us to work in His vineyard, we spit in His face. God is patient with us and continues to draw close to us, even though we might spit in His face. What things in life cause us to not trust God, just as Will did not trust Mr. Mendez? Did Will have a reason to not trust Mr. Mendez? Do we have a reason to not trust in God?
Mr. Mendez talks to Will about people coming to the sideshow and asks, “Why do they come? There is nothing inspiring about man’s imperfections here in this place.”
What is the difference between the sideshow and the Butterfly Circus? In the sideshow people are used and imperfections are highlighted, there is not an interest in the person but rather the deformation. At the Butterfly Circus the focus in on the person, not imperfections, but rather perfections, what man can do in the midst of challenges. How is this like the vineyard? God does not ask if we are perfect or imperfect, rather He is focused on each person and what they uniquely can contribute to the vineyard. It is not a contest, only we can give what we have to give, no one can contribute the gift that we have. God is not going to use or exploit us, but rather He will help us reach our full potential. Each performer’s talents in the Butterfly Circus were unique and so to each one of us is unique and needed. There is no comparison because all of us have something unique to contribute and if we don’t give the gift we have to give, it won’t be supplied by anyone else, the vineyard will have a void, it will be lacking.
When Mr. Mendez spoke mean to Will, Will asked Him, why he said those things and Mendez’s response was, “Because you believe it, if you could only see what can come from ashes.” Mr. Mendez continued, “You have the greatest advantage, the greater the trial the more glorious the triumph.”
The performers in the Butterfly Circus were considered “last” in the eyes of the world. How were they “last”? One was a violent drunkard, one a pregnant prostitute, one a washed up old man out of work and finally will a limbless man who seemed to have no potential. How did they go from being “last” to “first”? Mr. Mendez believed in them and saw in them what they and others did not see in themselves. They went from being outcasts to heroes. It is God that makes the last first. In what ways in our lives have we been considered or perhaps are still considered “last” but through the Grace of God have been considered “first”?
God wills for all to be saved and to know the truth. “This is good and pleasing to God our savior, who wills everyone to be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth.” (1 Timothy 2:3-4) If God wills all to be saved and know the truth then, He will give all people a way to be saved and come to knowledge of the truth. He will never stop calling and inviting us. The question is whether we are listening, whether we are responding. How is God’s desire and passion for our salvation and our knowledge of truth expressed in the parable of the vineyard and “The Butterfly Circus”? In the Butterfly Circus, Mr. Mendez is always on the lookout for people to join the circus and is always gently sending out the call to invite people in. In the parable of the vineyard, the landowner goes out five different times, all times of the day, to call and invite people into the vineyard.
Abigail Van Buren (Dear Abby) said, “A church is a hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints.” Is Dear Abby right or wrong? This statement is wrong, the Church is a hospital for sinners, but it is also a museum for Saints. The Church is a place of conversion in which the last become first, the sinners can become Saints. The Church is not just those on earth, but also those in purgatory and those in heaven. This is what we call the Communion of Saints. If we only see the Church on earth, this we will only see a hospital for sinners. If we only see the Church in heaven, then we will only see a museum for Saints. We must see the whole Church, the Communion of Saints.
What is the Communion of Saints? The Church on earth is the Church militant, we are repentant sinners fighting against the devil, world and flesh avoiding evil and pursuing good. The Church in Purgatory is the Church suffering they are repentant sinners that are being purified of the temporal punishment due to sin. It is in purgatory that Jesus’s phrase, “the last shall be first and the first shall be last” begins to make sense. Those who were first on earth doing whatever they pleased rather than following God’s will but in fact repented in the end, will be the last out of purgatory. Those who were last on earth, who put God’s will “first” and their own will “last” will be the first out of purgatory. The Church in Heaven is the Church triumphant; they are the Saints, sinners no more, but rather immaculate and full of Grace through the power of God.
“Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future.” [1] How does this quote and the Dear Abby quote related to the parable of the vineyard and the Butterfly Circus?
[1] Oscar Wilde