Saving Private Ryan and Colossians 1:24

Saving Private Ryan has been on TNT this weekend, and I would like to point out what I think is the most central message to the whole movie.

Just for some context, the movie is about a group of soldiers led by Captain John Miller (Tom Hanks) in WWII who are searching for Pvt. James Ryan. Private Ryan has two brothers who have already been killed in the war, and Hanks' group is searching for him, so he can be sent home and his mother will not lose all of her sons in the war. Now to my main catechetical point from this movie.

The last thing that Cpt. Miller says to Pvt. Ryan after his long difficult journey to find and save him is, "Earn this!" The Captain's dying wish, after he and most of his troops had died to save Pvt. Ryan, is that Ryan will live a life that is worth saving. To me this is what St. Paul is saying to us in Colossians 1:24, when he asks us to fulfill "what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ."

Obviously Jesus does not need our help in saving the world. Personally, and I think Paul would agree, I think he did a pretty good job of that. Regardless of how perfect a job he did, we now have to live in a life that was worth being saved. If Pvt. Ryan left that war and wasted his life away instead of living honorably, why did such valiant men lose their lives to save him? For us, if we are simply going to waste our lives on sin, why did Jesus even bother? For me to fulfill what is lacking in Christ means that I need to live a life that is worth him dying for.

At the very end of the movie, Pvt. Ryan returns to Cpt. Miller's grave to assure him that he had lived a life that was worth saving. My only hope and prayer is that Christ will feel the same way about me when I finally get to meet him.