Holy Week 2017 Thoughts: Taking Care of the Oppressed

I asked Laura and Dylan if they had any idea what they were doing and they said they didn't.

I told them I didn't really like what Palm Sunday signified because it shows one of the fatal weaknesses of men - and it's a pattern of behavior that has been exhibited all throughout history.

I explained to them that the people of Jerusalem welcomed Jesus so warmly, expecting him to thwart the reign of the Roman empire, and when that didn't happen, in a dramatic turnaround, they turned their backs on him and wanted him crucified.

When Jesus was being persecuted and ridiculed, none of them came to his defense or aid.

It takes a very brave person to turn against popular sentiment. We saw that happen when the Jews were being persecuted in Europe. A few brave people hid them from the Nazis knowing very well, that if they were discovered, they would pay for their offense dearly.

Today, the Syrian refugees who have nowhere to go are being turned away by their European neighbors and are caught in the crossfire between government and rebel forces.

Even in my own country, everyone has to be labeled either for the Yellow group or the Duterte group, which I find very simplistic. There have been so many political machinations on both sides, I have decided to just not listen anymore and just concentrate on the work that I can contribute to the society.

Movie Review: A Heart as Big as a 'Lion'

I've always thought that people who adopted children will surely go to heaven because it's such a noble thing to do. Taking care of your own flesh and blood is hard enough, but taking care of someone who has no blood relations to you and having to deal with all the complications of raising a child - shows how big your heart is.

The foster mother in the Oscar-nominated movie, Lion, played by Nicole Kidman, is one such person. Living in relative comfort in Hobart, Tasmania, she and her husband adopted two young boys from India and took care of them like they were their own.

This is, by far, Nicole's most restrained performance because for movies like this, it would have been very easy to go through the MMK route and have fountains of tears.

However, be sure to bring a box of tissues when you watch the movie, because it's a tearjerker with such wonderful performances from the two kids in the first half of the movie.

If you still plan to watch the movie, spoiler alert, coming up.

I only started crying though towards the end of the movie - in the reunion scene which was built up wonderfully by the accompanying music and the beautiful cinematography - and it does help that Dev Patel, who played Saroo, the lost boy, is such a sensitive actor.

I think that because Saroo's brother died that same night he was left in the train station, that his life had to go through a circuitous route so that he could return safely to his mother and sister, even if it took more than two decades to happen.

I also thought that revealing his brother's death at the end of the movie was pure genius, because it added to the emotional baggage you had to carry while watching the whole movie. At least now you know that his brother didn't have to worry and carry the burden of losing his younger brother in a train station. Ironically, his accidental death saved him.

The reunion of Saroo with his mother also wouldn't have happened without Google Earth - and it also couldn't have happened earlier since he was too young when he disappeared and only knew snatches of information, which is normal for most five year olds.

In the scene where the two "mothers" met, I was a mess. Just the thought that these two women took care of this wonderful boy - a man now - at different times in his life - makes you feel that there are still good people within our midst.