Kingdom of Heaven

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Movies
Genre:	Action & Adventure

In Ridley Scott’s “Kingdom of Heaven,” a “spiritual” film released last year but hardly caught our attention perhaps because we were too busy handling our own spiritual crises, Orlando Bloom portrays Balian, a young French knight who assumed his father’s highly reputed knighthood in the time of the Crusades in the 1100s.

The film hews a story of how Christians in the twelfth century defended Jerusalem from the invading Moors. At the time when rulers of the holy land thought of achieving for themselves personal glory instead of preserving human life, Balian stood out to be the redeemer of them all, when he acceded to surrender Jerusalem to the rule of Saladin in order to save more human lives.

When the king and all his other army fell into the trap of moor leader Saladin, Balian was abandoned by his comrade Tiberius and his army (who fled to Cyprus). Now the sole knight in the kingdom, Balian instead knighted hundreds of men in order to defend the people. His idea was to preserve human life, not to protect the city’s walls, which was being bombarded by Saladin’s army. Balian and his “knights” also hid the women and children underground, away from the exploding battlefield, while they went on to defend themselves from thousands of armies of the invaders. Inspired by his being knighted by his “father” Sir Godfrey, who died of a disease before being able to go back to Jerusalem, Balian carried on to sustain and counter Saladin’s attacks, overwhelming a number of Saladin’s men but sacrificing some of his.

When he saw the bodies of his fellowmen in Jerusalem which they burned to get rid of disease which might create a plague, he finally decided to surrender Jerusalem to Saladin, a decision much applauded by his people.

Telling everyone there that the kingdom of God is in the hearts of men and not in the fortresses of the city, Balian inspired everyone to move on. Eventually when Saladin captured the city, Balian along with many Christians were ushered out to the sea to be exiled.

Later, in history, Jerusalem, like other Christian holy places in Palestine, would be recovered by European powers until the 13th century, but all in vain.

For the centuries-old rift in the Holy Land, a crisis which dominates the world headlines, year in and year out—the never-ending bombings in Lebanon and the ensuing social unrest in the Arab countries —Balian’s story gives an example to rendering peace to the people—and even to us, who are constant witnesses but mum spectators of this unending conflict.

If only people could see the inner peace in themselves, they do not have to kill each other to achieve peace among their own race. World leaders like Sharon, Arafat and throngs of political leaders have tried to assume their respective stances, to no avail. Peacemakers and political figures come and go, live and die, without achieving anything peaceable.

Perhaps this troubled land, ironically called the Holy Land, is indeed the land of redemption because here one must come to his senses that the deeper trouble lies within himself, not anywhere else.

And it is never trite to say that change starts within the individual person—the virtue begins with one’s effort to be humble and forego his wants and whims. For it is only through the grace of God that one is steered clear of himself, his own pride and sense of judgment—which is usually narrow-minded and self-oriented—that the inner peace can reign in us. After all, the kingdom of heaven is the human person himself, who is the seat of Godliness, if and only if we recognize it.