THE SPIRITUALITY OF THE CORLEONES

Anyone who has seen the movie “The Godfather” remembers the baptism scene of Michael Corleone's sister's son (Al Pacino), who replaced his father Don Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando) in the family's mobster business. While the priest performed the sacrament ritual, in which Michael confirmed his faith in God in the Church and said that he renounced sin, New York mafia bosses, his enemies, were cruelly murdered by his order. This scene from this iconic film by filmmaker Francis Coppola makes us reflect on what it means to be a Christian.

Full of hatred of those who plotted to take his father’s life, Michael goes on a religious appointment and acts as if everything is fine, knowing, however, that people at that moment were being killed by his warrant. Although the nature of their business was anti christian, the Corleone family acted with the naturalness and decency of people of faith. Of course here we are talking about a case of extreme religious incoherence. But many who claim to be Christians sometimes without realizing live a life far from God, and their religious acts have  a purely social or cultural sense.

What, then, is being a Christian? How do you live the Christian life? What does it consist of? Once a law teacher asked Jesus, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?" Quoting Deuteronomy 6.5, Jesus answered, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength". But Jesus made a point of saying the second, remembering Leviticus 19:18: "love your neighbor as yourself" (Mark 12: 28-34). Practically, He was saying that it is impossible to love God without loving one's neighbor. 

To be a Christian is essentially to love God and one's neighbor. The Christian life consists of acts of love for God and the other people. There is no sense in a Christian going to church, attending worship, offering, and practicing the spiritual disciplines of fasting and prayer if there is no love in what he does. The Apostle Paul said: “If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing”(1 Corinthians 13: 1-3). He wrote this because it is possible to live a life of apparent spirituality, but of no value to God and the person.

Love is always a movement toward each other. It has a vertical direction towards God and another horizontal direction towards man. God's love for man brought Him into humanity, taking the form of a human being to save him from eternal death brought about by original sin. Man's love for God makes him enter the divine presence and feel some of his initial condition. In love, all falsehood, so present in human relations and religious acts, is nullified. In love there is only the truth. Jesus said, "I am the truth" (John 14: 6). May our lives always be one of approaching God and neighbor in love. In doing so, we are imitating Christ, who said, "Love each other as I have loved you" (John 15:12).

Antônio Maia – M.Div.

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