I no longer call you slaves,
because a slave does not know what his master is doing.
I have called you friends,
because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father.
It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you.
Once upon a time there was a girl named Ella. She saw the world not always as it was but perhaps as it could be with just a little bit of magic.
Anybody know what movie it is?
Cinderella. It is a beautiful movie that Disney put out. Actually, if you watch it with Christian eyes, there is so much in it that is symbolic of our Faith and the reality of this mystery of God coming into our life as friends. That is going to be my focus today for the homily.
I no longer call you servants. I call you friends.
I am going to give you an image of a servant. We see Cinderella as the one who is the lady of the ashes and the servant, and ultimately what it means to be a friend, and how God calls us out of being servants and in to being friends.
Throughout the entire movie, it is the voice of the Fairy Godmother that does the narration.
To her mother and father, Cinderella was a princess. True, she had no crown or castle, but she was the ruler of her own little kingdom. A kingdom whose borders were the house, the meadows, and the forest edge where her people had lived for generations.
There is a beautiful image of her and her father dancing. Ella is standing on her father’s feet. The voice of the Fairy Godmother says, “All was just as it should be. They knew themselves to be the happiest of families to live as they did and to love each other so.” Cinderella’s mother’s voice singing as the father and the daughter dance: “Lavenders blue dilly, dilly, lavenders green. When I am King, dilly, dilly, you shall be Queen.”
This becomes the theme throughout the entire movie. The Fairy Godmother goes on to say, “But sorrow can come to any kingdom, no matter how happy.” [Ella’s mother and father leave her bedroom when suddenly Ella’s mother collapses.]
“And so it came to Ella’s home.” [Ella sat outside watching her mother in her room when the doctor came out to tell her father that she was going to die.] And the doctor says, “I am sorry for you.”
There is a beautiful image then which is kind of an image of the Holy family. Ella goes in to be with her mother. Her mother lies in bed and draws Ella close to her. She says to her daughter, “Ella, my darling, I want to tell you a secret. A great secret that will get you through the toughest trials that life can offer. You must always remember this: “Have courage and be kind.” It is used throughout the whole movie. “Have courage and be kind.” She said, “You have more kindness in you, Ella, than most people have in their whole body. It has power, more power than you know. And magic.”
Now magic is the key word for grace. Anytime we hear about magic and Cinderella, it means grace.
Ella looked confused and tears started to stream down her face and a tear forms in her father’s eyes. She has one final experience of this love of her mother and father. “Magic?” asks Ella. Remember grace. “Truly. Have courage and be kind, my darling. Will you promise me?” “I promise,” she says to her mother. “Very good.”
Ella begins to cry and Ella’s mother says to her, “Ella, I must go very soon. Please forgive me.” And Ella says, “Of course I forgive you.” [Ella’s mother holds her daughter in her hands and the father comes over and embraces them all.] And it is an image of the Holy family, and we hear the words of mother to daughter and daughter to mother: “I love you. I love you, my darling. I love you.” And the camera pans out of the house, and we see that Ella loses her mother.
Time passed and pain turned to memory. Years after Ella’s mother had passed away, we see Ella grown into a beautiful young girl. And her father leaves for a journey once more. As he leaves on his journey, Ella escapes to her private room in the attic and pours herself into serving.
Ella’s only comfort is knowing that her father will return one day. But he would never return from this final journey. It was his servant that let her know: “Til the end he spoke only of you and your mother and how much he loved you. And he wanted to give this to you.” It was the branch that she had asked him to think of her the first time a branch touched his shoulder. He had kept it.
After the servant left and she closed the door, her whole world would change and darkness would envelop her. It is at this point that we see what it is like to be a slave or a servant.
Her stepmother and her stepsisters moved in and they misused her. And by and by they considered Ella less a sister and more a servant.
Then we begin to see these scenes with Ella traipsing up and down the steps and gathering the laundry and doing the wash. And the Godmother says, “And so Ella was left to do all of the work. This was a good thing, for it distracted her from her grief. At least that’s what her stepmother said. And she and her two daughters were more than happy to provide Ella with lots and lots of distractions.”
We see Ella polishing their shoes and cleaning the clothes. Well, in their defense, they did share with her the very food they ate. Or rather the scraps from the table. She had little in the way of friends. Well, her friends were very little. And of course she’s talking about the mice. But those friends she had, she treated with an open heart and an open hand.
Sometimes, by the end of the day, the drafty attic was too cold to spend the night, so she lay by the dying embers of the hearth and the fire to keep her warm.
As we see Ella laying down by the fire, we hear this voice: “Cinderella. Names have power, like magic spells.” All of a sudden it seemed to her that her stepmother and the stepsisters had indeed transformed her into merely a creature of ash and toil. We see now that she becomes this slave. She becomes this servant.
We hear the image in the Gospel today that Jesus says, “I no longer call you servant; I call you friends because a slave does not know what his master is doing, and I have told you everything that the Father is doing so I called you friends.”
I want you to think about times in your life where you have felt like a slave, times where you have felt like a servant, times where you have felt like you have lost everybody.
Today we celebrate Mother’s Day. Maybe you have lost your mother. We realize that God gives us people who love us. He gives us mothers for a time. And I think as we grow older, our mothers turn out not to be only mothers to us, but they become friends. Sometimes they even become our best of friends. But at some point we even lose our mothers.
So we have this change now from Cinderella, who has become the slave. She has become the servant. She has become the worker. She is lonely and she has lost her parents. She has no friends. Her only friends are the mice and the animals. And all of a sudden something begins to transform.
The King puts forth an invitation. Now, in the Christian world, this is like Christ putting forth the invitation for all of us to come to the Eucharist. The King puts forth the invitation. He does not limit it to only to royalty. He wants everyone to have the invitation, even those who are poor, even those who are servants. The prince shall choose his bride. Let the invitations go out to everyone, not just the nobility.
Through this time, Cinderella hears conflicting voices, that of her mother: “Have courage and be kind. I love you.” And that of her stepmother: “Just remember who you are you wretch, Cinderella.”
At the end of the movie, when the glass slipper finally fits on to her foot, she realizes her true identity. Perhaps the greatest risk any of us will ever take is to realize who we truly are.
As she walks to meet the prince, she looks in the mirror once more and she hears her mother’s voice saying, “Have courage, and be kind.”
The music streams elegantly as she walks down the stairs and sees her prince. She bows humbly before him and he asks, “Who are you?” She says with a smile, “I am Cinderella, your Majesty. I am not a princess. I have no carriage. I have no parents. I have no dowry. I do not know if this beautiful slipper will even fit, but if it does, will you take me as I am? An honest country girl who loves you?”
And the prince says, “Of course I will. But only if you take me as I am. An apprentice still learning his trade.”
He sits down as the attendant looks on. They look into each other’s eyes. She closes her eyes and he slips the glass slipper on, and it fits perfectly. The music begins to escalate. They stand only to be interrupted by their stepsisters, apologizing.
He takes her hand and says, “Shall we?” He nods and they begin to leave Cinderella’s home, where she was once a slave. As they walk out the same stairs that Cinderella walked on, the evil stepmother walks down poised, distressed. Cinderella looks back at her and says three simple words: “I forgive you.”
See, the truth is, forgiveness doesn’t need to be asked for nor does it need to be received to be freeing.
Dressed in their wedding garments and ready to present themselves to the crowd, the prince says to her, “Are you ready?” And Cinderella says, “For Anything, so as long as it is with you. Will you take me as I am?”
They would come to live and be the fairest and kindest rulers the kingdom had ever known. And Ella continued to see the world not just as it is, but as it could be.
If only you believe in courage and kindness and occasionally just a little bit of magic. Grace.
The truth is love finds us no matter where we are. So think of Cinderella and that image of her hiding near the embers of the fire trying to keep warm, lonely, alone, without any friends, without any family, without any parents; being treated as a slave, being treated as a servant. And finally at one point love enters her life. It comes through her Fairy Godmother.
Now, as Christians we know that this is her Godmother. And God often places people into our lives at times when we need it the most. Times when we are missing our loved ones. Times when we are without friends. When we go through difficult times and transitions in our lives. God does place fairy Godmothers into our lives. He places people that will be like mother and father to us. He places people that will be friends to us. And ultimately, friendship is an image of God’s love.
Jesus says, “I no longer call you slaves.” You are no longer covered in embers. You are no longer a slave to this world. I call you friends because I have revealed to you everything that the Father has revealed to me.”
And through it all, Ella’s spirit was not broken. She continued to have that wonderful life that she dreamed of. And just as they are about to leave the house together, we hear the angelic voice echoing her mother’s song, “lavenders green, dilly, dilly, lavenders blue. If you love me, dilly, dilly, I will love you.”
Ultimately, it is that same love that God is calling us into. He is calling us into this love of friendship. This love of family. This love that will get us through any distress that we face in life. Ultimately we realize on this Mother’s Day that God has blessed us with human mothers. God has blessed us with Godmothers. God has blessed us with our Mother Mary, and ultimately God has blessed us with His friendship.
You are no longer slaves, but you are friends.
