Sin most clearly manifests during the Passion

It is precisely in the Passion, when the mercy of Christ is about to vanquish it, that sin most clearly manifests its violence and its many forms: unbelief, murderous hatred, shunning and mockery by the leaders and the people, Pilate's cowardice and the cruelty of the soldiers, Judas' betrayal - so bitter to Jesus, Peter's denial and the disciples' flight. However, at the very hour of darkness, the hour of the prince of this world, (Cf. Jn 14:30) the sacrifice of Christ secretly becomes the source from which the forgiveness of our sins will pour forth inexhaustibly.

1851, The Definition of Sin section,
The Catechism of the Catholic Church

Of course, that makes so much sense and is so true.

I'm left with no insightful observations of my own because this is just something that never occurred to me. It is something I will try to keep in mind especially during Lent.

Stations of the Cross - Vatican, Bishop Barron

Sculpture at Church of the Condemnation and Imposition of the Cross, Jerusalem
Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

It is traditional to reflect upon the Stations of the Cross on Fridays during Lent and especially on Good Friday. Most churches have them at 3:00 p.m. as that is the time that Jesus died.

My problem is that I find group Stations of the Cross to be anything but conducive to reflection. Most of the time the devotions read aloud are simply sappy and, though that can be a sincere form of devotion, it doesn't do much for me. I really feel that eye rolling during the stations isn't good for anyone's spiritual health so I tend to reflect on them at home instead.

In past years I've used various meditations from the Vatican index of past years from the Way of the Cross. You get a wide range from guest meditations to papal ones and there are English translations as far back as 2000.

Bishop Barron has a series of excellent meditations as either video or audio. You can download a print pdf from the page for the video link. They are excellent.

Flying Mink

Flying Mink, Remo Savisaar

 

Prayers during this cold, cold weather

 It's not news that in Texas ... and here in Dallas, of course ... we're suffering from extremely cold weather with temperatures way below freezing and a lot of people out of power. 

We ourselves are very lucky to have not suffered any power loss, although we've got friends and family within 5 miles who have. We're doing what we can in using a minimum of power. Hannah, Mark, and Andy are on their way over to shelter here until their power comes back on.

Please keep everyone in your prayers.

When "light sins" aren't so light

While he is in the flesh, man cannot help but have at least some light sins. But do not despise these sins which we call "light": if you take them for light when you weigh them, tremble when you count them. A number of light objects makes a great mass; a number of drops fills a river; a number of grains makes a heap. What then is our hope? Above all, confession.
St. Augustine, quoted in #1863

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Sin creates a proclivity to sin; it engenders vice by repetition of the same acts. This results in perverse inclinations which cloud conscience and corrupt the concrete judgment of good and evil. Thus sin tends to reproduce itself and reinforce itself, but it cannot destroy the moral sense at its root. #1865

From The Catechism of the Catholic Church in the section looking at mortal versus venial sins.

I have to admit there is a certain comfort in knowing I'm clear of mortal sin. Unfortunately that gives a tendency to think of venial sins as light and not worth worrying about as much. Until we consider the points made above. I think of gnats which seem so little and "light" until one is caught in a cloud of them. What venial sins are clouding sight and mind until I can't even imagine life without them?

Avane Srimannarayana

In the pursuit of solving an ancient mystery of the small south Indian town of Amaravati, Narayana, a corrupt cop must battle the dangerous clan of dacoits [bandits] and it’s fierce leader.

This is a mashup of a Western, an action thriller, a swashbuckler, rivalry between murderous brothers, putting on a play, and an Indian mythological fantasy of sorts. If that sounds bonkers it is, kind of. But it is a kind of bonkers that I found really entertaining. A lot of the fun lies in all the genres that are ruthlessly shoved together with humor, excellent production values, entertaining dialogue, and engaging screen presence from Rakshit Shetty who portrays Narayana.

Despite all these elements it still remains unremittingly Indian as exemplified by four gunfighters who wear cowboy hats, leather dusters, and dhoti. And it works.

I'm pleased to hear that there is a spinoff being considered, featuring Cowboy Krishna, who is "protecting American culture" in the town with his saloon.

 This is not a Bollywood movie but a Kannada language film from "Sandalwood." (I love the creativity with the "wood" names.) 

It is a long film with a lot going on. The plot is complicated (although we kept up without more difficulty than occasionally losing track of who was who in the secondary characters. And it is loaded with visual jokes and references. Some of these are easy for Americans like the saloon and Western stuff and some are going to go right over your head (as they doubtless did for us). But it doesn't matter. The story works without getting everything.

 Rating — for viewers with medium to difficult Indian film experience. (It's not rocket science, but without any cultural background at all you might feel kind of lost.) 

Watch it on Amazon Prime.

 

Living Well with the Cardinal Virtues

To live well is nothing other than to love God with all one's heart, with all one's soul and with all one's efforts; from this it comes about that love is kept whole and uncorrupted (through temperance). No misfortune can disturb it (and this is fortitude). It obeys only [God] (and this is justice), and is careful in discerning things, so as not to be surprised by deceit or trickery (and this is prudence).

St. Augustine, quoted in 1809 of The Catechism of the Catholic Church

St. Augustine sums it up perfectly. Now, getting to the point where we can live the cardinal virtues that well is a lifelong task ... a.k.a. striving toward sainthood.

Go to The Virtues section at the link above to read about the cardinal virtues which is what leads up to this quote.

Dreams

Dreams, 1896, Vittorio Matteo Corcos

 

Metropolis — Nuts in a Good Way

 

I watched this 1927  silent film as part of my 2021 Book and Movie Challenge. I knew it was really influential. I knew it was a big story set in 2026 about the downtrodden workers under the city and the rich people living in a futuristic city of splendor. This made it seem as if it would be preachy and boring, although with gorgeous sets.

Forget all that. This movie was nuts. And I mean that in a good way.

Let's start with a sexy female robot, mad scientist, forbidden love, a rooftop chase with fistfight, a horrifying chase of the heroine through the catacombs, and a really effective double role for Brigitte Helm playing both the heroine and the evil robot. All set off with amazing style in which I could see influences for Frankenstein movies, Bladerunner, Star Wars, and a ton of other movies. All the times I'd read about this movie no one said it was science fiction. I was actually on the edge of my seat at times wondering where this crazy story would go next.

I was really surprised also to see a lot of religious symbolism throughout. This begins when the hero leaves his world to see what lies below and has a vision of the workers being fed to the demon Moloch. Numerous references to the Apocalypse, complete with Biblical readings, are accompanied by Dies Irae  music to carry the theme home. Crosses, the seven deadly sins, the Tower of Babel, a flood, and the importance of the coming of "the Mediator" are just a few of the other things rounding out the religious references.

There aren't tons of title cards telling us the dialogue but we usually know what everyone's talking about. As Norma Desmond said in Sunset Blvd., "We didn't need dialogue. We had faces!" Sometimes the acting is way over the top which is understandable since a lot of these actors came from theater where you've got to go big to reach the back rows. However, there was surprisingly subtle acting sometimes where closeups allowed. 

 In many ways I was aided by many years of watching indie or foreign movies where you learn to just let them wash over you in the hopes of the big reward by the end. And, I was helped by our Indian movie watching where you learn you won't catch every line or reference but you'll get most of it by the end. Also, Bollywood has trained me to be very tolerant of "big" acting.

As you can probably tell from what I've said, this isn't what you'd call a subtle movie but it is amazingly effective at being both entertaining and getting the point across.

The Morality of the Passions

The passions are natural components of the human psyche; they form the passageway and ensure the connection between the life of the senses and the life of the mind. Our Lord called man's heart the source from which the passions spring.

There are many passions. The most fundamental passion is love, aroused by the attraction of the good. Love causes a desire for the absent good and the hope of obtaining it; this movement finds completion in the pleasure and joy of the good possessed. The apprehension of evil causes hatred, aversion, and fear of the impending evil; this movement ends in sadness at some present evil, or in the anger that resists it.

"To love is to will the good of another." (Cf. Mk 7:21) All other affections have their source in this first movement of the human heart toward the good. ...

In themselves passions are neither good nor evil ...

1764 - 1767, The Morality of the Passions
Catechism of the Catholic Church

I've been reading the Catechism very, very slowly over a few years now and have gotten to the Life in Christ section. I continually admire the clarity and depth with which the Catechism puts things. In this case I was really struck by the idea that the passions connect our sense and mind. Of course. That makes so much sense but I'd never really thought about it before. 

The whole section is worth reading if this also grabs your attention the way it grabbed mine.

Red Squirrel

 

Red Squirrel, Remo Savisaar

We've got plenty of squirrels but none with ears like those! Click through on the link to see this photo in full size glory.

Psalm 8 — the Back Parts of God

As you see the grace of the Savior extended everywhere, so many being saved, if you wish to raise your voice to the Lord, sing Psalm 8; or you can use the same psalm as well as 84 in thanksgiving for the vintage harvest.

Athanasius, On the Interpretation of the Psalms

Did David, the shepherd, compose this after being out with the sheep all night and seeing the glory of the night sky?

This psalm gives us so many quotes that are part of Western culture, such as "what is man that thou art mindful of him?". I love this one and it has clearly touched so many deeply that they wanted to give the context of its joy and praise in their own writing.

Thierry Legault, The Veil nebula (NGC 6992) in Cygnus,
with permission
See more images and this one larger at Mr. Legault's website.

Here is the insight that I love the most.

8:1 The Lord's Name is Majestic

Only the Back Parts of God. Gregory of Nazianzus: The Majesty, or as holy David calls it, the Glory, is manifested among the creatures that it has produced and governs. These are the back parts of God, which he leaves behind him, as tokens of himself like the shadows and reflections of the sun in the water, which show the sun to our weak eyes, because we cannot look at the sun himself, for by his unmixed light he is too strong for our power of perception.  On Theology, Theological Oration

Psalms 1-50 (Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture)

This is just the best, referring back to Moses in Exodus 33:19–23 when he asks to see God's face and is told that he'd be overcome and so will get to see the back of God. Here we are with creation, as Gregory tells us, seeing God's back parts. Just wonderful.

Now on to some of the other great insights inspired by this psalm.

Balancing Deity and Humanity

It seems to me that I seldom meet any strong or exultant sense of the continued, never-to-be-abandoned, Humanity of Christ in glory, in eternity. We stress the Humanity too exclusively at Christmas, and the Deity too exclusively after the Resurrection; almost as if Christ once became a man and then presently reverted to being simply God. We think of the Resurrection and Ascension (rightly) as great acts of God; less often as the triumph of Man. The ancient interpretation of the Psalm 8, however arrived at, is a cheering corrective.

C.S. Lewis, Reflections on the Psalms

What is mankind ...?

The dignity of human beings is stressed in this passage in a way unparalleled in the ancient Near East. According to Mesopotamian sources, men and women were created to relieve the workload on the lesser gods who were forced to cultivate land in order to feed the gods. When the growing human population became too noisy, the gods thought to extinguish human existence through the great flood. As a result of the flood, food offerings to the gods were no longer forthcoming. Only then did the gods find that humans were nonexpendable after all. Although humanity survived the flood, the gods decreed certain afflictions to keep the population from ever growing out of control again. According to Ps 8, far from being expendable slaves to the gods, human beings are the special objects of the Creator's care in the vast universe.

NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible

8:3 The Work of God's Fingers

Makes One Wonder. John Chrysostom: "What is it about human beings?" ... Taking full account of such marvelous care and such wonderful providence on God's part, and the arrangements he put in place for the salvation of the human race, [the psalmist] is struck with complete wonder and amazement as to why on earth God considered them worthy of attention. Consider, after all, that all the visible things were done for their sake. For them the design implemented from the time of Adam up to his coming; for them paradise, commandments, punishments, miracles, retribution, kindnesses after the Law; for them the Son of God became human. What could anyone say of the future they are intended to enjoy? So all those things are going through his mind when he says, to be thought worthy of such wonderful privileges, what must the human being be? I mean, if you consider what was done and is being done for their sake, and what they will enjoy afterwards, you will be stricken with awe, and then you will see clearly how this being is an object of such attention on God's part. Commentary on the Psalms

Psalms 1-50 (Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture)

I also love this connection to Genesis and God's creation.

Sheep and oxen / ... birds of the heavens and fish of the sea.

The language of this compact but embracing catalogue is  a deliberate recasting in somewhat different words of the first Creation story ever, but the audience of the poem is surely meant to hear in all this a beautiful poetic reprise of Genesis 1. The eye moves downward vertically in the poem from the heavens to the divine beings who are God's entourage to man's feet and, below those, to the beasts of the field and then to what swims through the sea (which no longer harbors a primordial sea beast).

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Lord, our Master, / how majestic Your name in all the earth.

Although biblical literature, in poetry and prose, exhibits considerable fondness for envelope structures, in which the end somehow echoes the beginning, this verbatim repetition of the first line as the last, common in other poetic traditions, is unusual. It closes a perfect circle that celebrates the harmony of God's creation. ...

Robert Alter, The Hebrew Bible: The Writings

Sources are here and an index of psalm posts is here. 

A Movie You Might Have Missed: 34

It's been 11 years since I began this series highlighting movies I wished more people knew about. I'm rerunning it from the beginning because I still think these are movies you might have missed.  

I'll just get this out of the way first. This might be the worst poster/dvd cover I've ever seen for a movie.

Be not afraid. Watch it anyway.

This movie's unique blend of talent includes Jack Black, Mos Def, Danny Glover and Mia Farrow. If it is hard to imagine what they all have in common, then you are in the right frame of mind for Be Kind Rewind.

Mr. Fletcher's (Danny Glover) Be Kind Rewind VHS rental store is in decline. Despite his claims that jazz pianist Fats Waller was born there, the building housing his business is going to be demolished unless he can finance renovation. When Mr. Fletcher goes on an annual trip to memorialize Fats Waller, he leaves sole employee, Mike (Mos Def), to tend the store.

Naturally this is when things go very wrong. Through a freak magnetic accident, all the tapes in the store are erased, leaving Mike and his friend Jerry (Jack Black) to come up with a way to satisfy rental customers. They reshoot movies on demand using their own cameras.

Part of this movie's charm is the combination of standard bumbling comedy with wacky brilliance. Fair warning: the first part is a bit more of what one expects from a Jack Black movie. When we watched it with friends during a movie night, my husband and I looked at each other thinking, "What have we done?"

However, the middle and end suddenly take an unexpected turn which winds up combining a love of movies, personal creativity, history, community, and ... of course ... Fats Waller, whose story is wound through the movie. (For the record, our friends loved it.)

By the way, this was directed by Michael Gondry who is known for his distaste of CGI. This has led to some very creative sets and movie making in order to come up with effects in his movies. A wonderful example in this movie is when Mike and Jerry are on the chain link fence. Just watch for it. You'll see what I mean.

If the divine creator has taken pains to give us ...

If the divine creator has taken pains to give us delicious and exquisite things to eat, the least we can do is to serve them with ceremony.

Fernand Point, La Pyramide

Ida Lupino, They Drive By Night

 

Ida Lupino in They Drive By Night, costume by Milo Anderson
via Silver Screen Modes

The Qianlong Emperor in Ceremonial Armour on Horseback

Giuseppe Castiglione, The Qianlong Emperor in Ceremonial Armour on Horseback, 1758
Via Wikimedia

No special reason for this ... I just liked it!

None of the virtues are simple.

"Dealing with him was distasteful," she said. "He was similar to some of our donors. Outwardly quite charming, but I don't value charm. There are other qualities I value, such as perseverance and honesty." My face must have changed. She smiled again. "You have a right to disbelieve that, after what you've heard, but honesty is a complicated virtues."

"I always thought it was one of the simpler ones."

"None of the virtues are simple," Margaret O'Connor told me. "Only the sins."

S.J. Rozan, Concourse

A Movie You Might Have Missed #33 — Sunset Blvd.

It's been 11 years since I began this series highlighting movies I wished more people knew about. I'm rerunning it from the beginning because I still think these are movies you might have missed. 

"The poor dope. He always wanted a pool."

This movie starts off watching a dead man floating in a pool, with a voice over from the man himself. You then hear this quote and you remember that Billy Wilder's dialogue crackles with verve and multiple layers of meaning. We then flash back to see the story of Joe who is an aspiring screenwriter but on the run from repo men when he dodges into a driveway to throw them off the track. He finds a dilapidated house from the 1920's and Gloria Swanson as the equally dilapidated former silent screen star who lives in the past and is planning her comeback. Joe finds himself lured into becoming her rewrite man and gigolo.

It is an unforgettable film that is a blistering expose of Hollywood which still holds true today. Interestingly many stars of the silent screen had parts in this to add authenticity and Cecil B. DeMille actually played a much more significant role than we would have thought ... and did so with surprising gentleness and charm.

Cemetery Gates

Cemetery Gates, Marc Chagall, 1917
via Wikipaintings

This painting fascinates me. First, because I love cemeteries. Walking in them, photos or paintings of them ... I am drawn to them and, to a large degree, find them soothing. This is not really soothing, instead being energetic.

The gate is marked with Hebrew. The shape of the sky behind the tombs looks like crosses rising into the air (that is my Catholic lens, I realize), the blue is bright and full of energy and draws me up away from the somber lighting around the gates and ground. It seems full of hope ... expectancy ... and active.

"Me," said Poirot, "I lead a very moral life."

"The English," said Poirot, "are a very moral people."

Lord Dittisham said: "Confound them, they are!"

He added, looking at Poirot, "And you?"

"Me," said Poirot, "I lead a very moral life. That is not quite the same thing as having moral ideas."

Agatha Christie, Five Little Pigs