As a society we tend to put celebrities on a pedestal, treating them as larger than life. And to a certain extent this makes sense. They are recognized by millions of people and their faces are found on huge movie screens and billboards. So quite literally, images of them are larger than life. I find it really interesting when you have a window into their true lives. Because as much as we might idolize these people, at the end of the day they are really just people, with the same needs and deep desires as you and me.
Recently I was able to get a window into the humanity of one such celebrity by viewing a conversation between him and a Catholic Bishop on YouTube. I first came to be aware of this actor when I was just a kid, seeing him as a goofy supporting character on the Disney Channel show Even Stevens. Then I saw him graduate to the big screen, most notably in movies like Transformers and Disturbia. That celebrity, as you may have already guessed, is none other than Shia LaBeouf. Unfortunately, in more recent years he developed a bad reputation for personal outbursts and strange behavior.
So when I heard that Shia LaBeouf was slated to appear in a movie playing the role of Padre Pio, and that he had entered the Catholic Church, you can imagine my surprise. It was extremely interesting for me to see this famous actor sit down with Bishop Robert Barron for an extended conversation on many topics, but at its core was a conversation about his coming to faith in Jesus. This newfound faith was something very unexpected for Shia. He had grown up nominally Jewish and from an early age was sucked into the Hollywood machine, which drew him away from almost any active religious practice.
For me, the most compelling part of the interview was where Shia described the process of his coming to encounter God in an unexpected way. He speaks of how he was at an extremely low point, sometimes contemplating taking his own life. He had spent so long feeding his own ego and working on becoming a great and successful actor, yet was still incredibly unhappy. Then he speaks of how God used his ambition to draw him into considering taking on the role of Padre Pio, an Italian religious brother and priest who is a canonized saint. Shia looked on this as an opportunity for a career comeback, but God used it as an opportunity to draw Shia to Himself.
Through his preparation for the role, Shia came into contact with some young priests and had great, deep conversations with them about life. At the same time, he also got to know other Catholics who were truly living as disciples of Jesus. All of these people took him in and just loved him as a person. They didn’t want anything from him, but simply accepted him and shared life with him. Through these interactions and his learning more about prayer from different people, Shia was drawn into the Church.
You should definitely check out this conversation between Bishop Barron and Shia LaBeouf. It is a beautiful testimony to God’s work in the ordinary circumstances of a person who was severely hurting and longing for Jesus without knowing it. I know his story has impacted both me and countless others. The comments section of the video is filled with people expressing how much they were encouraged by Shai’s honest conversation about his own struggles and the hope he found in the Church and in prayer.
These stories of conversion move us because deep down, we all have that thirst for meaning. If we are sufficiently reflective, we all ask ourselves those fundamental questions over and over again throughout life. Who am I? Where am I going? What is the meaning of this life? Seeing a very well known person like Shia LaBeouf give voice to that search for identity and direction allows us to reflect on that same journey we are all called to take.
Today we celebrate the Solemnity of Christ the King as we close out another liturgical year. The King we celebrate today couldn’t be a more unexpected type of king. This is abundantly clear from the Gospel reading we just heard. When we think of an earthly king, we expect someone powerful. But the King we see in the Gospel is one who is nailed to a cross and whose kingship is mocked by those who are executing him. They mock Jesus by hanging a sign above his broken and dying body which, in multiple languages, reads: “This is the King of the Jews.” We expect earthly kings to have wealth. But Jesus on the Cross is even stripped of his clothes. Worldly kings command respect, but Jesus is jeered at by those standing around the cross and is abandoned by most of his closest followers. So what are we to make of this King? How is it that we are celebrating a feast for His Kingship almost two thousand years after His bloody and violent apparent death?
We celebrate this feast because the Kingship of Jesus goes deeper than worldly kingships that ultimately fade away. Wealth, power, influence–all of these things die with those who gained them in a worldly sense. But Jesus is the King of a heavenly Kingdom which offers eternal wealth, true power and influence far beyond what any of us could ever dream of. Let us listen to the words of the thief hanging beside Jesus. This man is justly condemned, as he freely admits. He had likely spent his life trying to build a kingdom for himself, but in the crucial moment, he glimpses in Jesus something of a new Kingdom, one not based on worldly wealth, power or influence, but based on a love stronger than death. In Jesus, he sees not just a crucified preacher, but a man pouring out love with each ragged breath. Somehow, the thief saw God present to him in Jesus. Perhaps when he heard Jesus pray, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do,” he heard those words addressed to himself in the depth of his own pain. Whatever the case, this thief is able to turn toward the Lord and unironically say to Him, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” In that moment, the heart of the repentant thief becomes set on that Kingdom of Jesus which is beyond anything in this world, a Kingdom made up not of earthly territories but of human hearts conquered by the love which conquers death itself. This was the Kingdom he recognized with Jesus as its King. He is our King.
This Kingdom grows when we allow Jesus to rule within us. You can see it at work in stories like that of Shia LaBeouf. In his life leading up to his encounter with Jesus, Shia wasn’t so different from that thief. He experienced the paradox of spending so much time trying to build himself up that he ended by almost destroying himself. He was working on a personal kingdom, but then encountered the True Kingdom. And how did he encounter it? Through the selfless love poured out by disciples of the King. Through encountering hearts that have been claimed by Him and are living for Him. The Kingdom grows when we allow Jesus to reign in us and through us. I pray that the fruits of Jesus’ Kingship continue to grow in Shia’s heart and in all of ours as we celebrate our King’s feast day today.
The awesome thing is that we are in an even better position than the good thief who turned to Jesus in his heart. The thief made a leap of faith and begged Jesus to remember him when He came into His kingdom. Now we know that Jesus reigns as king. His Heavenly Kingdom is now established through the definitive victory of Jesus’ overwhelming, victorious love on the cross. So the question we each need to deeply consider is this: whose kingdom do I want to build? My own or the Lord’s? How do we extend Jesus’ kingdom? By being with Him in prayer and the Sacraments; by praying for and reaching out to those who are far from Him; by constantly repenting of those ways in which we fail to let Him rule in our hearts. Let us never forget that our lasting joy, and that of those around us, is most complete when we allow Him to reign in and through us.
+ Father, thank you for your great love in giving us such a glorious King in your Son. Jesus, please reign in our hearts and show us how to help your kingdom spread here on earth so that we might reign with you in the Kingdom of Heaven. Holy Spirit, soften any areas in our hearts which are hardened to the reign of Jesus so that we can be better channels of the life-saving and life-changing grace of His kingdom. We ask this through Christ, our risen King. Amen. +