Christian Reflections on Movies

On November 5. 2020, I received this email from Magis Center founded by the Jesuit scholar Fr. Robert Spitzer (Can you find God in science? "Against the Tide," a new documentary featuring Dr. John Lennox, says you can. In theatres on Nov. 19, 20, and 23, "Against the Tide" is a new feature-length documentary on the life, work, and mission of legendary University of Oxford professor, mathematician, and philosopher Dr. John Lennox) - A trailer can be seen here. I am reminded by the review of movies made by another Catholic scholar, Fr. Daniel Callam; CSB in 2018. Fr. Callam wrote a book "A Catholic Goes to the Movies". He was interviewed by Catholic Focus here. In the interview Fr. Callam explains the moral reasons that drove him to watch and review the movies. This is how Catholic Focus presented it...(In the episode of Catholic Focus, Noel Ocol sits down with Basilian Theologian and movie critic Fr. Daniel Callam, C.S.B and talk about his book, "A Catholic Goes to the Movies". They also review some of the big block buster hits of the past years. Fr. Daniel Callam, C.S.B., was born in Amherstburg, Ontario. He is a graduate of the University of Toronto and the University of St. Michael’s College. After receiving his doctorate in theology from the University of Oxford, he was Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Saint Thomas More College in Saskatoon. He founded the Canadian Catholic Review, which he edited for fifteen years until 1997, when he was appointed to the faculty of theology at the University of Saint Thomas in Houston, Texas. He returned to Canada in 2008, first to Holy Rosary Church, Toronto, and then to Cardinal Flahiff Centre) Fr. Callam lives today at Presentation Manor in Toronto. It is great to learn how Christian moral teachers provide insights in today's movies especially that some movies present violence and other immoral scenes.

Conservatives Vs. Liberals

In his General Audience on Wednesday November 4, 2020, Pope Francis said "I cordially greet the English-speaking faithful. In this month of November, let us pray especially for our deceased loved ones, and for all who have died, that the Lord in his mercy will welcome them to the banquet of eternal life. Upon you and your families I invoke the joy of our Lord Jesus Christ. God bless you! In these days of prayer for the dead, we have recalled and still remember the help-in-waiting victims of terrorism, whose hardening of cruelty is spreading throughout Europe. I am thinking in particular of the serious attack in Nice in recent days on a place of worship and the attack the day before yesterday on the streets of Vienna, which caused dismay and resentment among the population and those who care about peace and dialogue. I entrust to God's mercy the tragically killed people and express my spiritual closeness to their families and to all those who suffer as a result of these deplorable events, who seek to compromise fraternal collaboration between religions through violence and hatred. Today is the liturgical memorial of St Charles Borromeo, a solicitous pastor, dedicated to the good of the people. I urge you to make your own that virtue that this great Archbishop of Milan chose as his motto: humilitas. Humility is the attitude with which you seek and serve truth and good. Finally, as usual, my thoughts turn to the elderly, young people, the sick and newlyweds. I encourage everyone to offer a sincere witness to the primacy of prayer in the lives of believers. Prayer is always a source of hope and consolation." TO BE CONTINUED

All Saints

Today, November 1st is the Solemnity of All Saints. The Holy Father Pope Francis spoke in his homily about becoming saints. Since the Gospel reading for today is that of the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:1-12), he commented on 2 of them: "Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted" and "Blessed are the meek,for they will inherit the land." How are those who mourn blessed? he asked, then replied: Those who persevere in their difficulties yet trust in God are blessed in eternal life. Pope Benedict XVI had interpreted "Blessed are they who mourn" in a deeper contemplation...He wrote "Let us go back to the second Beatitude: 'Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted' (Mt 5:4). Is it good to mourn and to declare mourning blessed? There are two kinds of mourning. The first is the kind that has lost hope, that has become mistrustful of love and of truth, and that therefore eats away and destroys man from within. But there is also the mourning occasioned by the shattering encounter with truth, which leads man to undergo conversion and to resist evil. This mourning heals, because it teaches man to hope and to love again. Judas is an example of the first kind of mourning: Struck with horror at his own fall, he no longer dares to hope and hangs himself in despair. Peter is an example of the second kind: Struck by the Lord’s gaze, he bursts into healing tears that plow up the soil of his soul. He begins anew and is himself renewed...He doesn't stop there. Benedict XVI wants to make sure we get it, so he digs back into the Old Testament: Ezekiel 9:4 offers us a striking testimony to how this positive kind of mourning can counteract the dominion of evil. Six men are charged with executing divine punishment on Jerusalem—on the land that is filled with bloodshed, on the city that is full of wickedness (cf. Ezek 9:9). Before they do, however, a man clothed in linen must trace the Hebrew letter tau (like the sign of the Cross) on the foreheads of all those “who sigh and groan over all the abominations that are committed in the city” (Ezek 9:4). Those who bear this mark are exempted from the punishment. They are people who do not run with the pack, who refuse to collude with the injustice that has become endemic, but who suffer under it instead. Even though it is not in their power to change the overall situation, they still counter the dominion of evil through the passive resistance of their suffering—through the mourning that sets bounds to the power of evil (Ratzinger, Joseph (2007-05-15). Jesus of Nazareth (pp. 86-87). Random House, Inc.. Kindle Edition.). If you suffer today because of evil in the world, then you are in mourning. We Christians are in many battles these days. In some countries, it's not just a battle with immorality, but a battle that could end in the loss of life and other forms of physical suffering on top of the emotional and spiritual forms. "Blessed are the meek,for they will inherit the land." In the encyclical Veritatis Splendor, Pope St. John Paul II addresses the beatitudes and calls the Sermon on the Mount the Magna Carta of Gospel morality. He writes: “The beatitudes are not specifically concerned with certain particular rules of behavior. Rather, they speak of basic attitudes and dispositions in life and therefore they do not coincide exactly with the commandments. On the other hand, there is no separation or opposition between the Beatitudes and the commandments: both refer to the good, to eternal life. The Sermon on the Mount begins with the proclamation of the Beatitudes, but also refers to the commandments (cf. Mt 5:20-48). At the same time, the Sermon on the Mount demonstrates the openness of the commandments and their orientation towards the horizon of the perfection proper to the Beatitudes. These latter are above all promises, from which there also indirectly flow normative indications for the moral life” — (No. 16). The second version of the sermon is in Matthew’s Gospel, where it covers three whole chapters (5-7). Here it is said to have been delivered “on the mountain,” the intent perhaps being to liken Christ to Moses on Mount Sinai receiving the tablets of the law and presenting them to the people. The sermon has two parts: first a statement of broad moral principles, the beatitudes, then their application to particular issues, together with a brief treatise on prayer that includes the Our Father. The continuity between Moses and Jesus is crucial since Jesus’ moral doctrine by no means replaces the Ten Commandments. Rather, as Jesus himself says, he aimed “not to abolish them but to fulfill them” (Mt 5:17). Two persons of particular connection to us have been beatified in October 2020: Father Michael McGivney, a diocesan priest and founder of the very active charitable Catholic organization the Knights of Columbus - His beatification Mass can be seen here; and Carlo Acutis who died of leukemia in 2006 at the age of 15, but not before he had the chance to make an impact on this world. The Italian teenager was an example of holiness to those around him, and he used his computer skills to create an online database documenting eucharistic miracles. On Oct. 10 of this year, his beatification Mass was held in the Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi, Italy. His beatification Mass can be seen here. Following the beatification of Carlo Acutis on Saturday October 10, Pope Francis invited young people to look to the late Italian teenager as a model of holiness. He also urged Catholics to take part in a Rosary campaign led by Aid to the Church in Need. See it here. On All Saints Day, Pope Francis spoke of the Blessed Virgin Mary "She is called Queen of heaven - She is the mother who directs humanity to her Son who reigns in his eternal kingdom"...Here the reader can see the November 01 2020 Angelus prayer with Pope Francis.