FATHER STU | KAIROS GLOBAL | DECEMBER 2022

Author: Joseph Anthraper

There is a popular story about St Teresa of Avila, which has its many versions, and one of them goes like this; once when Teresa and her companion sisters were going on a mission trip to establish some new convents, they had to cross a river which was deep with strong currents. Being the indomitable spirit that she is, she led on crossing the river on foot, but could not because of the strong currents and lost her footing. She beseeched the Lord to help her in her quandary, to which the Lord apparently said, ‘Do not complain daughter, for such is how I treat my friends.’ And thence, we are told Teresa retorted – ‘Ah Lord, no wonder you have so few!’ 

Pain and suffering is not something that humanity yearns for – quite the contrary; all our human instinct impels us to repel and reject pain and suffering, and quite rightly so. Yet, when the Son of God became man, he deemed it so necessary to embrace and become one with suffering in his life and death and urged his disciples to follow his path – the narrow path that leads to salvation – so much so that the blueprint of Christian living in Matthew 5, the Beatitudes, is primarily about embracing suffering and carrying one’s daily crosses. Of course, God neither causes nor wills human suffering, but suffering is all around as long as we live in this fallen world, corrupted by sin.

Father Stu is a biopic written and directed by Rosalind Ross, based on the story of Father Stuart Long, who died in 2014, aged 50. Mark Wahlberg is masterful in portraying the title role of Stu – an angry, temperamental boxer who eventually becomes a priest. Stuart Long is a middle-aged amateur boxer from Montana, who is told by the doctors to stop boxing as his body cannot take it anymore. Stu has a troubled relationship with his estranged alcoholic father, Bill and though his mother is supportive, he still carries deep wounds from the death of his only brother Stephen in their childhood. Not wanting to take up any odd blue-collar job, Stu decides to travel to Hollywood to try his hand at becoming an actor. 

And in Hollywood, working at a grocery store to make ends meet while he waits for his big break, he meets Carmen, a Hispanic Catholic girl, who is apparently ‘as Catholic as the cross itself’. Stu couldn’t care less about God, but his devotion to Carmen is resolute and although Carmen initially rebuffs his advances, she eventually agrees to date Stu, on condition that Stu become Catholic – a proposition to which Stu readily agrees as for him, it is just a hoop to jump through to achieve his goal of marrying Carmen. And so he begins RCIA and at the following Easter Vigil Mass, Stuart Long becomes a Catholic – still mad at God for the death of Stephen his brother as well as for all the other misfortunes that has beset his life.

Shortly after his baptism, while riding on his motorbike having had a few drinks, Stu has a horrible accident and is on the verge of death – but has a profound miraculous God experience before and through the accident. Contrary to the expectations of the doctors, he makes a full, inexplicable recovery, and this miracle sets him on a journey of religious discovery, with Stu finally deciding to become a priest. 

Overcoming obstacle after obstacle with his characteristic tenacity and wit, he is eventually accepted as a seminarian for the diocese of Helena. When all is well and he finally seems to have found the purpose of his life, Stu suddenly falls ill in the seminary and is diagnosed with ‘inclusion body myositis’, a rare progressive muscle disorder, and his whole world comes crashing down – a knockout punch for a onetime boxer, from which it would take a double portion of grace to recover and come through!

As he becomes more and more connected and attuned to God, although physically he is going though pain and suffering as he is fighting this terminal degenerative disease, we also see grace working a deep inner healing in the person of Stuart Long – bringing healing even into his relationships, especially the relationship with his father. The father-wound that initially portrayed itself as rage and anger in his younger days, and progressed into apathy as he became older and embraced Catholicism, has now transformed into love, with neither father nor son knowing when or how – and the way the movie portrays the transitions is delightful.

Father Stu is a beautifully crafted movie – witty and humorous all along, neck-deep in fallen human nature – especially the corruption of our fatherhood, and yet portraying the redeeming nature of sanctifying grace; with the end product being a profoundly kerygmatic piece of art.