One of my favorite movies is Rain Man, starring Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise, two estranged brothers whose father dies, leaving Hoffman, the older brother, two million dollars in an inheritance. Cruise, to his great dismay, gets his father’s rosebushes. He sells high-end sports cars in Los Angeles, and Hoffman is a resident in a home for adults with autism in Ohio. Deceitfully, Cruise hatches a plot to kidnap his brother and hold him for leverage, seeking the money.

As it unfolds, Cruise plans to fly them both from Ohio to Los Angeles. Yet Hoffman will only fly Qantas Airlines because they’ve never crashed. So, they take a week to drive. On the way, Cruise must provide for Hoffman’s daily needs, such as only wearing underwear from Kmart. This so unnerves Cruise that he stops the car, gets out, and rants: “What difference does it make where you buy underwear?! Underwear is underwear!” This scene, along with others, has me belly laughing.

An unexpected Christ figure in Rain Man

Cruise is repeatedly called out of himself to care for Hoffman, providing for his needs and gradually coming to see his brother as a human being who has much to offer. Moreover, I suggest that Hoffman is a Christ figure whom Cruise reluctantly cares for initially, hoping to get the money. Yet over time, Cruise finds himself coming to love his brother as he gives of himself to meet Hoffman’s needs, illustrating many times in the film that, as St. Paul says in his farewell address to the church at Ephesus: “It is in giving that we receive” (Acts 20:35). Conversion is a journey that ebbs and flows, gradually deepening over time through God’s grace.

The catechumenate as a journey of conversion

At its most fundamental level, the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults is a journey of conversion for inquirers, catechumens, candidates, sponsors, godparents, catechists, presiders, and the entire church. In Rain Man, Tom Cruise gradually begins to experience conversion—turning away from something he believes will satisfy his heart and turning to the living God.

Paragraph 36 of the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults teaches that in the Period of Evangelization and Precatechumenate, for example, we, the church, are to proclaim the living God, together with Jesus Christ, whom he sent for the salvation of all. The goal is for the inquirers to grow in first faith, initial conversion, and “a desire to change their lives and enter a relationship with God in Christ” (OCIA 42). This happens through encounters with Jesus Christ, even if we don’t know it is Christ, as Cruise experiences with his brother.

The goal of the entire catechumenate journey is conversion. As paragraph 76 of the rite instructs, “The catechumenate… should last long enough for [the catechumen’s] conversion and faith to mature, even over several years, if need be.” At the custody hearing at the end, Cruise says that at the start of the week, he wanted the money, yet now, he just wants to spend time with his brother.

Conversion is not a destination but a way of traveling through the initiation process and the entire Christian life.