The Parable of Freddie Mercury

“...reject Godless ways...live temperately, justly, and devoutly in this age...” Titus 2:12

The underlying theme of St. Paul’s letter to Titus is the need for righteous Christian living in the midst of an evil world. If we think the world today is hostile to Christians and full of corruption and deception, it was the same in Paul’s time. 

I can’t help thinking the fascinating life of Freddie Mercury, the main character of the biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, could have been one of the parables Jesus told. “There once was a man, so gifted and talented, that he had the whole world at his feet. When he would sing and strut on the stage, tens of thousands would sing and dance with him. But when he was alone with his cats in his magnificent Georgian mansion in London’s upscale Kensington borough, he was tormented by demons and loneliness. He thought that crowding his house with music and drinking, and guests and raucous laughter, would fill the emptiness in his heart. He thought that tempestuous relationships would still the hunger inside him for more, but only betrayal and disaster greeted him.”

What do we fill our life with? What do we hunger for? Freddie Mercury’s life shows that even if we attain the highest peak in our career, and could have anything in the world money can buy, we still would not have the peace and joy we need to live a full, satisfying life. St. Augustine said it best, “Our hearts are restless until it finds its rest in Thee”