To Read: Click on song title to watch a video 

Come What May

from ‘Moulin Rouge’

Never knew I could feel like this
Like I´ve never seen the sky before
I want to vanish inside your kiss
Every day I´m loving you more and more
Listen to my heart, can you hear it sings
Telling me to give you everything
Seasons may change, winter to spring
But I love you until the end of time

Come what may. Come what may
I will love you until my dying day

Suddenly the world seems such a perfect place
Suddenly it moves with such a perfect grace
Suddenly my life doesn´t seem such a waste
It all revolves around you
And there´s no mountain too high
No river too wide
Sing out this song I´ll be there by your side
Storm clouds may gather and stars may collide
But I love you until the end of time

Oh, come what may, come what may
I will love you, I will love you
Suddenly the world seems such a perfect place

 

From the Scriptures:

Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. ⁸ Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. ⁹ God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. ¹⁰ In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. ¹¹ Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. ¹² No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.

1 John 4.7-12

To Reflect: 

The story of Moulin Rouge is more than just a love story – it is the story of Love.

The young aspiring writer with everything to lose is determined to win and cherish the consumptive showgirl who is beset about by the rich and the powerful who only want to use and abuse her.

It is a tale of a lover who pursues his love regardless of cost to his future and risks to his life.  It is the tale of a woman who has found herself to be the plaything of others, desperate for redemption yet not feeling she is deserving of any love.

And so it is also a parable of the love of Our Beloved, who, ‘Come what may’, will risk everything, even life itself, to ‘love us until the end of time’.

So much of my faith journey has been in one direction only.  Too often I look at Him through the eyes of my own situation, my failings, my circumstances, my inabilities, and I forget that He looks at you and I with nothing other than love.

A few of the saints of the Church have learnt to speak of the deep passionate love God has for us.  The nature mystics Francis and Clare, the deep thinkers Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross, and some contemporary writers such as Maggie Ross and R.S. Thomas, have all called us to drink deeply at the waters of Our Beloved’s love.

The church has strangled this passionate response to God’s passionate love.  I suspect that the reason for this is that when we surrender to a God who loves us ‘Come what may’ it may mean we find ourselves wanting to love in a similar way.  That is a frightening prospect if you want to retain control of things.  If we let go of everything we might be lost.  But how can we ever be lost in Love’s arms?

I wonder why we are so frightened of this ‘no mountain too high, no river too deep love?’  Satine, the abused showgirl with tuberculosis shows us the way. Knowing she is dying she gives herself to a love that will hold even if it be for a too short a time.  Have we not yet learnt out of the morass of all our mistakes that we are not so much living a life as acting out a death?  Have we not yet learnt that everything we chase after and greedily grab is but sand which, when we think we hold it fast slips through our fingers? Have we not yet learnt that the only answer for this death we endure is the eternal life His Love brings? Have we not yet learnt that we are loved, deeply and perfectly?

In the coming days we will spend time looking on His sufferings for us and for the world.  Sometime in the middle of HIs passion try to look on His face and see past the suffering and find in His eyes the deep love He has for you and say  ‘yes’ to that love ‘Come what may.’

 

To Pray: 

Lord of Light – shine on us,
Lord of Peace – dwell in us,
Lord of Might – succour us,
Lord of Love – enfold us,
Lord of Wisdom – enlighten us.
Then, Lord,
let us go out as your witness,
in obedience to your command;
to share the Good News of your love for us
in the gift of your Son,
our Saviour, Jesus Christ.

St Asaph Mothers’ Union. Wales

 

To Do:

1)    Do one thing less today and spend the time you saved in
looking at a picture of our Beloved, be it in a icon, a painting, a cross, or your mind’s eye.
2)    Tonight Jesus lovingly washes even the feet of the one who
betrayed Him.  Ask God to show you which of those you feel ‘betrayed’ by needs an act of service from you.

Encore: Click on song title to watch a video

Originally made famous by the legendary Nat King Cole Moulin Rouge sees a haunting version of Nature Boy sung by David Bowie.  For many it speaks of our Beloved. ‘The greatest thing you’ll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return’.

 

Acknowledgements:

Prayers are from ‘Prayers Encircling the World’ and are copyright © SPCK: 1998.
Scripture quotations are copyright © New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
These Reflections, ‘A Song for Lent – 40 Days in the West End’ are copyright © Andrew Dotchin 2018