B-Movie Catechism
David Ives
Well, Christmastime is almost over. We’ll have to wait another year for all the decorations and candy canes and radio stations incessantly playing secular Christmas carols. For some reason though, despite the fact that it never once mentions the baby Jesus, you never seem to hear this old classic on the radio anymore…
I don’t know, maybe the programmers have it in their mind that people don’t want to listen to that kind of stuff while they’re out tracking down Furbys and what not. But I don’t believe that. After all, there’s a reason the Salvation Army raises up to 70% of its total annual income during its Christmas kettle campaign. People really don’t mind being reminded to be charitable at this time of year. “Mankind is a great, an immense family. noted Pope John XXIII, “This is proved by what we feel in our hearts at Christmas.”
That’s why it’s appropriate on this 11th day of Christmas that we honor St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first native-born citizen of the United States to be canonized a saint. Among her achievements was the opening of the first American parish school, the establishment of the first American Catholic orphanage, and the founding of the first American religious community for women, the Sisters of Charity, a branch of the worldwide congregation of women devoted to corporal and spiritual works of mercy. And she did all of that while raising five children alone after her husband went bankrupt and died of tuberculosis.…
In an article entitled The Nightmare After Christmas, Jason Dietz of Metacritic speculates on why movies released in January are generally so awful. He speculations include such notions as people are still trying to catch up on the blockbuster Christmas releases (ala The Hobbit) and aren’t looking to buy tickets for anything new, that January is too far away from awards season to release anything of substance, and the simple fact that a month full of blizzards tends to discourage moviegoers from leaving the house. But is it true, are movies that come out in January really so wretched? Well, let’s think about that. Past Januaries have given us such shining monuments to filmmaking as Bloodrayne, Alone In The Dark, Paul Blart: Mall Cop, Elektra, Spice World, oh, and this…
So yeah, it’s probably safe to say that January has earned its reputation as the month bad movies go to in order to die a quick death at the box office. But hey, good movie, bad movie, those are just labels as far we’re concerned here at The B-Movie Catechism. What matters is if they entertain or not, and if the trailer didn’t already clue you in, Warlock entertains in bucket loads. How could anyone resist Julian Sands chewing up the scenery as a time displaced 17th century warlock running around in late 80s clothing. And just look at all those cheesy non-CGI animated effects. Plus, you have to admit that the MacGuffin in the movie is somewhat original.…
My ten year old is a diehard LOTR junkie, so like many other families we found ourselves going to see Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit during the holiday season. And why not? I mean, what could go together more naturally than Christmas and The Hobbit…
You know, for some reason I have this strange craving for a bubblegum precious…
Anyway, if you’ve now seen the film yourself and want to know what the rest of the Catholic blogosphere thought about it, here’s a round up of a few select reviews. I’ve purposely stayed away from the professional critics who didn’t care for The Hobbit as a film and instead linked to regular bloggers who enjoyed it for what it was. And I’ve done so for the singular reason that… me and my son liked the movie, all 169 bloated minutes of it. And for the most part, so did these folks, who not only appreciated The Hobbit, but found some Catholic goodies hidden in it as well…
So who else out there has seen The Hobbit and what did you think? I’d love to hear some more takes on it.
…
In the mind of Woody Allen, nothing could possibly be worse than a Jewish mother looking down on us from on high…
Of course, we Catholics know better, don’t we? We don’t just appreciate having a Jewish mother looking over us, we depend on it. As the Vatican II document Lumen Gentium explains, “This maternity of Mary in the order of grace began with the consent which she gave in faith at the Annunciation and which she sustained without wavering beneath the cross, and lasts until The eternal fulfillment of all the elect. Taken up to heaven she did not lay aside this salvific duty, but by her constant intercession continued to bring us the gifts of eternal salvation. By her maternal charity, she cares for the brethren of her Son, who still journey on earth surrounded by dangers and cultics, until they are led into the happiness of their true home. Therefore the Blessed Virgin is invoked by the Church under the titles of Advocate, Auxiliatrix, Adjutrix, and Mediatrix.” And, of course, by the title we revere her by on this 8th day of Christmas, Mother of God.
You know, I think I’ll save the whole defense of the doctrines on Mary for some other time. Suffice to say, scripture tells us that every member of the Church, those on earth and those in heaven, can intercede through prayer for one another. So if you’ve got the opportunity to ask the Mother of God to pray for you, it would seem rather foolish not to take advantage of it.…
Ah, New Years Eve. I never really was much one for partying on this particular day. Maybe it’s because by the time I hit drinking age I was already working at a movie theater and typically found myself ringing in the new year by locking up concession stands and covering up reel platters for the night. Or maybe I’ve just always been boring. Who knows? As for this year, well, thanks to the drowsiness inducing meds for my son’s Aspergers and my wife’s heart condition, there’s a 50/50 chance by the time midnight rolls around I’ll be watching the ball drop with as much human company as this poor schlub…
Oh well, despite all of the technical glitches, at least Marvin finally got his cup of kindness in the end. You know, like in the lyrics to that ubiquitous theme of New Years Eve, Auld Lang Syne.
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,and never brought to mind?Should auld acquaintance be forgot,and auld lang syne?
For auld lang syne, my jo,for auld lang syne,we’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet,for auld lang syne.
And surely ye’ll be your pint-stowp!And surely I’ll be mine!And we’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet,for auld lang syne.
And so on and so forth. I’m sure you know how it goes, more or less. Actually, being first written down in old Scottish by Robert Burns in 1788, “For Auld Lang Syne” has had a number of interpretations into modern dialect.…
Today on this 6th day of Christmas we celebrate the feast of the Holy Family, a group of people Pope John Paul II once described as an “example for all Christian and human families… [one which] radiates genuine love and charity.” And they were pretty much perfect when you think about it, what with the family including an incarnated God, his mother made sinless by a special grace and privilege, and a stepfather who was a proper saint in his own right. But with such an overwhelming amount of perfection concentrated in one family, one can’t help but wonder about enantiodromia, that old Greek idea expounded upon by Carl Jung which The Collins English dictionary defines as the concept that an abundance of any force can cause an opposite reaction. If there’s any truth to be found in enantiodromia (always questionable with Jung), then just imagine what opposite reaction the abundance of perfection found in the Holy Family might produce. Perhaps it would look something like this…
Okay, so obviously all families aren’t as perfect as Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. Not to worry though, you won’t find us judging anyone around these parts (when your own family tree has a branch way down the trunk that ended in the electric chair you tend not to throw stones at others). But even those of us who struggle with trying to keep our less than perfect families on a Christian path still understand the importance of making the effort.…
With the combination of festivities and reflection that make up Christmastime, it’s often easy to forget there are plenty of folks out there who don’t celebrate the same things we do during this time of year…
According to the latest U.K. Census figures, Jediism is now the most common “alternative” faith and the seventh most common declared faith overall in England and Wales (go ahead and laugh, but remember, nobody took Scientology seriously to begin with either). And here in the States, Jediism is now recognized by The United States Department of Defense as an official religion and cannot be discriminated against. So it’s not out of the question that sometime soon an acquaintance might just ask you to celebrate Life Day with them. But could a Catholic in good conscience participate in such an observance?
Well, to try and answer that, let’s see how things work with something that’s going on right this minute, Kwanzaa, a holiday that’s not much older than Life Day, but is a bit more widely celebrated. Kwanzaa is a week long holiday beginning on December 26 which was created in 1966 by African American activist, Dr. Maulana Karenga. While purportedly intended as an alternative to Christmas for African Americans, the official Kwanzaa web site currently states that Kwanzaa is to be considered a non-religious cultural celebration of African identity rather than an alternative to other religious holidays. In Dr. Karenga’s words, “The holiday, then will of necessity, be engaged as an ancient and living cultural tradition which reflects the best of African thought and practice in its reaffirmation of the dignity of the human person in community and culture, the well-being of family and community, the integrity of the environment and our kinship with it, and the rich resource and meaning of a people’s culture.”
That being the case, the apologists over at Catholic Answers suggest that “if Kwanzaa is an authentic cultural holiday and not an alternative to Christmas, it would not be wrong for African-American Catholics to celebrate it, just as it is not wrong for Chinese Catholics to celebrate the Chinese New Year.…
Ah, Christmastime. No matter what circumstances we find ourselves in, we always try to make this time of year as pleasant as humanly possible for our children don’t we? Why, I bet if the zombie apocalypse were to ever actually happen, we’d still be bending over backwards to make the season perfect for the kiddies. (Fair Warning: This short is a Walking Dead parody, so there’s a naughty word and more than a few zombie headshots.)
As a dad, I gotta say, Rick’s plight just hits home with me. The, um, parenting part that is, not the blowing out the brains of zombies bits. Real fathers just really want to do the best for their children. That’s true even when they’re not technically their real father. Just think of the inner turmoil Joseph went through trying to take care of his adopted son Jesus; struggling to find a place on that first Christmas so he wouldn’t have to be born in some alley, keeping him safe during their escape to Egypt, the day to day travails in providing for him during his childhood in Nazareth. And all the while knowing he wasn’t the biological father of the child he was raising.
In fact, Randall Smith, associate professor of theology at the University of St. Thomas, wonders just in what sense Joseph could be considered Jesus’ ‘father’ at all? “The question is not an unimportant one theologically.” The professor writes, “In fact, because Jesus is called ‘the son of David,’ and according to both Matthew and Luke, it is through Joseph that Jesus’ lineage is traced back to David.…
On the third day of Christmas we celebrate the feast day of St John The Evangelist, Saint John the Divine, one third of the Triumvirate along with Peter and James, one of the Boanerges (sons of thunder), traditionally represented in Christian art by the mighty eagle, and remembered most of all as THE BELOVED DISCIPLE… it seems like all day long I’ve been hearing how great John is at this or how wonderful John did that! John, John, John!
Okay, so maybe that’s a bit of an overreaction. After all, Msgr. Charles Pope suggests that the title of “Beloved Disciple” might not actually mean that John was Jesus’ favorite out of the original twelve apostles. “John never uses his name to refer to himself anywhere in his gospel. What is clear is that John knew and experienced that he was loved by God and that was apparently all that mattered to him in terms of his identity. This would also help to explain that this title was not an attestation that the Lord had favorites. Jesus himself does not use this title for John or any of the apostles. This is merely John’s self description of the fact that he was loved by the Lord and he knew that personally.”
But whether that’s true or not, it still seems like God favors certain people from time to time. Just consider the message delivered by the angels on the night Jesus was born, for instance.…
Well, as fate (or good planning) would have it, Day 77 of reading through the Catechism in one year as a part of the Year of Faith recounts a familiar tale. “Jesus was born in a humble stable, into a poor family. Simple shepherds were the first witnesses to this event. In this poverty heaven’s glory was made manifest.” So, from the very beginning, Christmas has asked us to focus our attention on the poor, the overlooked, the small. Some people, of course, carry this to the extreme…
But extreme or not, you have to appreciate how the insect family in our short feature is quick to accept “Father’s invitation.” That’s another thing besides their seeming unimportance that they have in common with the shepherds who were told of the birth of Christ. In his recent book ‘Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives’ Pope Benedict XVI notes of the shepherds that “they were among the poor, the simple souls whom Jesus would bless, because to them above all is granted access to the mystery of God (cf Lk 10:21f.) They represent the poor of Israel, the poor in general: God’s first love.” But as His Holiness goes on to point out, it’s not simply the shepherd’s poverty that allowed them to receive such a special invitation. “Another element has been particularly emphasized by the monastic tradition: the shepherds’ watchfulness. Monks set out to be watchful in this world – in the first place through their nocturnal prayer, but above all inwardly, open to receiving God’s call through the signs of his presence.”
You see, there were a lot of folks in Bethlehem when Jesus was born.…
