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It’s been awhile since I’ve seen the movie Ghost (and I don’t really remember if I ever actually sat down and watched the whole thing from start to finish before), and it was proposed in our cinema group to watch and discuss it (slight spoilers ahead if you want to stop here, go watch the movie, and then forget to come back and read this).
One of the guys – we’ll call him Robbie – has this amazing ability to find a profound message of God’s love in any movie we watch. During our discussion of Ghost, Robbie commented on Sam’s unwillingness to say “I love you,” using “Ditto” instead. I was going to paraphrase him, but honestly, his direct words are so much better:
In the beginning of the film, Molly yearns for love to be announced. She won’t force Sam to say it, but in her honesty, she relays to Sam that “Ditto” isn’t necessarily the same as the more vulnerable, “I love you.” “Ditto” therefore almost carries a feeling of distance to Molly; like a kind of guardedness. Over the course of the film, “ditto” then becomes something akin to a term of endearment – a sweet term between two lovers, the depth of which known only by the two. This term, “Ditto”, becomes a term of endearment only when Molly comes face to face with the astounding self-gift enacted by Sam (even unto death). Sam is almost saying, “I’m willing to leave everything for you, my preference is for you; I choose you and never want you to feel alone.” In this human drama, we see a sense of how beautiful and exceptional the Incarnation is. For the Word to take on flesh is an announcement of His preference of us, His nearness to us; a constant reminder in both word and deed, that His love risks it all in order to be near, to be in proximity to my pain and anguish, that I may have life and life in full. This is truly a profound claim of Church!
I don’t know about you, but the way Robbie can express these thoughts is such a reflection of God’s love and beauty. He just allows the Spirit to flow through him.
Robbie’s reflection prompted me to think about who, in the relationship between us and God, is saying, “I love you” and who is saying “Ditto.” I think too often many of us, in response to Christ’s sacrifice and the love we know we have from God, is “I love you.” Which you would think is a good response, except when you take Sam’s thought on it prior to his death:
“People say ‘I love you’ all the time and it doesn’t mean anything.”
Sam Wheat – Ghost
Our idea and our ability to love is limited by not only our humanness but by our sinfulness. The absolute unconditional love of God is something we simply cannot fathom. Instead of our love being this unceasing giving of our very selves to God, we put parameters on that love. We will follow God’s will as long as He let’s us do what we want. We will give to the poor as long as we are still comfortable. We will volunteer our time as long as it’s convenient.
Instead of saying, “I love you,” back to God, with our concept of love, we should instead say, “Ditto.” Instead of “You love me Your way, and I’ll love You my way,” we are saying “How You love me, I will love You,”
