After
a few weeks of temptation, sin, suffering, and redemption, we’re now ready to
begin on how to avoid these things in the first place. Namely, by looking beyond
ourselves and sacrificing for the good of others. And our lesson in sacrifice
comes courtesy of someone who knows the subject very well; George Bailey of
Bedford Falls.
Young
George is a man ready to conquer the world. He plans to first tour Europe, then
go to college to become an engineer and travel the world building new kinds of
structures. He wants to, in his words, “do something big! Something important!”
Something that doesn’t involve staying in the “crummy little town” of Bedford
Falls.
At
every stage, however, his dreams of success are frustrated. The sudden death of
his father makes him cancel his trip to Europe. The need to save his father and
uncle’s “Building and Loan” business causes him to abandon his college plans
and send his younger brother, Harry, instead. When Harry returns from college
with a wife and a job offer, George decides he can’t ask him to take over the
Building and Loan as planned, forcing him to remain indefinitely. Even his
Bermuda honeymoon is cancelled when he and his wife, Mary, spontaneously decide
to use the money to help the Building and Loan customers during the Great
Depression.
At
first glance, it might seem like George is simply plagued with bad luck. But
it’s not bad luck. At every stage, George chooses
his losses. A sacrifice is, by definition, a choice. He doesn’t lose his
dreams; he gives them up for a greater good. He didn’t have to give up anything. No one made him give up his trip to
Europe. No one made him skip college, or give away his honeymoon money. At
every point he could easily have gone the other way, especially when, during
the bank-run episode, all he had to do was to keep driving.
What
makes George the hero of the picture is that, whenever he is faced with a
choice between what he wants and what will help someone else, he always chooses
the latter.
Take,
for instance, the moment where George’s brother, Harry, returns from college
with a wife and a job offer. The understanding between the two brothers was
that Harry would go to college while George ran the Building and Loan, then
Harry would take over and George could pursue his own dreams. After Harry’s
wife, Ruth, let’s slip about the job, Harry quickly assures George that he has
no intention of backing out of their arrangement and that he intends to turn
the offer down to run the Building and Loan as agreed. George, though, quietly
talks with Ruth and discovers that the opportunity really is a good one, one
that would bring Harry a good future. So, he has Harry take it and assumes
control of the Building and Loan permanently.
There
are a couple things to note here. One is that, while George repeatedly
sacrifices his most cherished desires for others, he never compromises himself.
That is, he never loses his enthusiastic, romantic temperament. After the
incident with his honeymoon money, George leads the other Building and Loan
employees in celebrating their survival with a mock parade and jokes about
“mamma dollar and papa dollar.” Later on, while opening his new housing
development, George welcomes the new tenants with a ritualistic gift ceremony.
The
other thing to note is that every time George gives up something, either he or
someone dear to him gains something in return. When he gives up his college
dreams, his brother Harry gets the chance to become a great football star (not
to mention the aforementioned wife and career). When he steps aside and allows
Harry to take his job, he, George, ends up having a life-changing encounter
with his future wife, Mary. After he gave up their honeymoon, Mary and his
friends set up an abandoned house as a honeymoon suite. As their friends
serenade them from outside, Mary reminds him of a night, years earlier, when
they made wishes by throwing rocks at that same house. “This is what I wished
for,” she whispers.
So
we see, sacrifice does not mean a complete loss, either of oneself or of one’s
dreams. Rather, it means a shifting: a redirection. Our energies are channeled
towards other purposes. Our dreams and the dreams of others meld, so that when
we lose our own dreams we take up another’s and find that they are even better.
Then,
of course, comes the great crisis in George’s life: his Uncle Billy loses $5000
of their company’s money, greedy old Mr. Potter is ready to have the law on
him, and George, in despair, considers suicide so that his family can have his
insurance money.
This
crisis, for George at least, is yet another one of his sacrifices. Despite
angrily telling Uncle Billy that he wouldn’t take the fall for the old man’s
stupid mistake, when the chips are down George does indeed claim responsibility
for the accident, knowing full well what that will mean for him.
Then
the other shoe drops: Heaven sends Clarence Oddbody, Angel Second Class, and
George is given the “great gift” of seeing what the world would be like had he
never been born; had he never made those sacrifices.
There
is no need to go over the nightmare of “Pottersville” here. Some have
complained that the story stacks the deck to far in George’s favor by making
him uniquely responsible for the well-being of his community. They miss the
point. The point is that what hold the forces of evil at bay is ordinary men,
like George, making sacrifices: choosing to give up their own dreams for the
sake of others. In so doing, moreover, George doesn’t just save his town from
ruin and moral decay, but he personally gains much more than he ever imagined.
In the end, finds himself surrounded by family and friends, every single one of
them ready and eager to shower him with love and thanks for all he has done for
them. All he has given up has rendered him, in the words of his football-star,
researcher, war-hero brother, “The richest man in town.”
George’s
wonderful life teaches us three main things about sacrifice:
1.
Sacrifice is Always a Choice
Every sacrifice George he chose himself. At
no point did anyone force him, or did circumstances compel him to do what he
does.
2.
Sacrifice Never Involves Giving Up One’s Unique
Personality
George may give up his dreams of travel and
adventure, but he never loses his romantic worldview.
3.
Sacrificing what We Think We Want Often Leads to
Something Better
In the end, George is a richer,
happier, and better man than he ever would have been had he succeeded in his
own dreams. He has his family and the love of the whole town, almost all of
whose lives he has enriched and made better. Trips to Europe, wealth,
education, and fame seem trivial compared to that.
Vive Christus Rex!
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