A young man named Joshua comes into a North American town called Auburn. He is a wood carver. He rents a place to stay, and moves around town. He comes across all sorts of people—Joan and husband, who are going through a difficult marriage; a father and son at odds with each other over music; a young woman named Maggie who feels her life is one big mess; Theo, who would love to be a preacher, but has a bad stutter; a Pentecostal healer. He also sees a Baptist church that had collapsed in a bad storm.
Most of all, he gets to know the two priests in the Catholic parish—Fr Tardone, the parish priest, and Fr Pat, the associate (assistant). Fr Tardone is ambitious and authoritarian, while Fr Pat is friendly, but unorganized. They do not get along. They get in touch with Joshua to make a statue of St. Peter for the church.
Joshua relates with all, whatever their religion or situation. His presence has a healing effect on people. He helps them to build a real community in Auburn, irrespective of which church or race they belong to. One of the practical things they do as community is to rebuild the Baptist church.
Seeing Joshua’s influence on people, Fr Tardone accuses him of misleading the people, and reports him to the Vatican. Joshua travels to Rome to be questioned at the Vatican. Unlike Fr Tardone, the cardinal who interviews him finds Joshua friendly, not dangerous.
Ushered into the pope’s presence, Joshua makes him a gift of his carpentry tools.
The key to the story is found in Joshua’s meeting with the Pope. (What comes next will remove the surprise element of the movie, and is hence a spoiler!)
Joshua tells the Pope: “The world has become a frightening place. There is an emptiness in the hearts of people that nothing can fill.” The Pope replies, “Who are you?” Joshua: “Don’t you know me, Peter?” Coming closer to the pope, he speaks of the fear in the hearts of many. “But, if they open their hearts to me, I can fill them with a peace that the world cannot give.”
The pope: “The task is so overwhelming. What should I do?”
“Tell them I love them. Tell them I died for them. The message is the same.’
The pope begins to shed tears. He closes his eyes. When he opens them, Joshua is gone.
We are left with the tools to complete his work.
The movie is based on a best-selling novel of the same name by Fr Joseph Girzone, an American priest, who wrote nine books in the Joshua series. The story is evidently a retelling of the Jesus story in contemporary setting. The author is asking: How would it be if Jesus were to come back today?
A simple, straight forward story.
It can lead to a discussion on: What would happen if Jesus were to come back today? An illustrative scene is when Fr Pat, who gets freed of his fears and hesitation, and becomes a confident pastor, tells Maggie that, before leaving for Rome, Joshua had left a gift for her. It is a crystal statue, which Joshua made from the broken pieces of what she had smashed in her frustration. “Out of a million pieces, something whole,” responds Maggie, deeply moved.
This healing and making us whole is what Jesus came for. As in the movie, the visible Jesus is gone. We are left with the tools to do his work.
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