An eye catching film trailer for the latest epic movie about Napoleon was filled with noise, bluster and moving images. Napoleon at sea and by the Pyramids. Napoleon on the Battlefield, with soldiers charging on horseback, images of war and conflict, blending swiftly with the more seductive and intimate encounters between Napoleon and Josephine.
On the trailer a female voice is heard saying, “I need to warn you the storm is near, Napoleon is coming.” The reviewers promise the audience, it is a movie to “stop your breath with pure spectacle.”
For all the hype and historical inaccuracies, the real Napoleon nearing the end of his life, acknowledged his limitations.
He said: “Alexander, Caesar and Charlemagne and myself founded empires. But on what did we rest the creations of our genius? Upon sheer force. Jesus Christ alone founded His Empire upon love; and at this hour millions of men will die for him. In every other existence but that of Christ, how many imperfections.”
The season of Advent arrives more quietly, without the fanfare of a blockbuster movie trailer. A child grows in the womb, until the time is ripe and God is in our midst.
George MacDonald said: “They all were looking for a King, to slay their foes and lift them high. Thou cam’st, a little baby thing, that made a woman cry.”
Reverend Rory MacLeod, team minister, Fort William, Kilmallie.