Web Theologian

***Warning this post does have a spoiler for the final episode of Downton Abbey, so if you haven’t seen it yet and want to be surprised on every point come check it out later.

Just last night I caught with on the final episode of Downton Abbey with my family and it was a evening well spent. Just a quality ending to a great show. My favorite moment came from a line involving a subplot, please bear with me as I set it up.

Maggie Smith as Violet Crawley, whom many credit the shows existence to, plays the family matriarch. With wit, wisdom and sometimes spit she throws herself into the thick of family business with great seriousness and playfulness. For such a powerful character she has a rather humble number of servants we are aware of. Denker, played by Sue Johnson, her lady’s maid and Septimus Spratt, played by Jeremy Swift, the butler. Denker is not a kind person and often know to take advantage of others and just be cruel. Spratt has a a secret that Denker listen’s in on and at first attempts to blackmail him, then eventually turns the information over to Violet Crawley in a way expecting Pratt to be dismissed. Nothing becomes of this revelations other then Violet having a good laugh and Spratt later give his reflection on the event in speaking to Denker:

The one thing you did not take into account with Lady Violet, in trying to get me dismissed, is Lady Violet’s tendency to react in a way that is not predictable. -spoken by Spratt with a grin

And that is what makes her so amazing. This morning at mass we looked at the unpredictable response of Jesus having an expensive perfume lavishly poured over his feet by Mary Magdaline. A year of wages poured over his feet, and he responds to the question of why this was not sold and given to the poor by saying an act of lavish love is priceless. Not the response expected from the leader of a new movement or someone fiscally responsible.

There are many places in my life where my reactions are predictable, why and what do I fear? In this last day I have been greatly encouraged and inspired to move past that and live in place where there is freedom, lavish acts of love, and unpredictability.