At Real Clear Religion, Fr. Robert Barron writes a post concerning the recent movie Exodus: Gods and Kings.
He takes the movie to task for missing the point of the Book of Exodus, saying:
the movie is spiritually flat
He elaborates by saying:
The problem is the way the relationship between Moses and the God of Israel is presented. In the Biblical telling, Moses, like many of the other heroes of Israel, was compelled to pass through a long period of testing and purification in order to prepare himself to receive the divine word. Only when he had been sufficiently humbled and purified was he able to take in the presence of God and to accept the dangerous mission of liberation that God gave him. Ridley Scott's Moses did indeed spend years in the desert to the east of Egypt, but he seems little changed from the self-absorbed, violent, and worldly prince of Egypt that he had been.
This article is well worth reading, without regard to your inclination to see the movie.
In an Advent reflection Archbishop Charles J. Chaput writes about hope and contrasts it with optimism:
Optimism, as the great Catholic novelist Georges Bernanos once wrote, has nothing to do with hope. Optimism is often foolish and naïve — a preference to see good where the evidence is undeniably bad. In fact, Bernanos called optimism a “sly form of selfishness, a method of isolating oneself from the unhappiness of others.”
Hope is a very different creature. It’s a choice — a self-imposed discipline to trust in God while judging ourselves and the world with unblinkered, unsentimental clarity. In effect, it’s a form of self-mastery inspired and reinforced by God’s grace. “The highest form of hope,” Georges Bernanos said, “is despair, overcome.”
Read the entire article.
In the Gospel Reading from Mass today, 16 Dec 2014, Jesus tells a story to the Chief Priests and the elders of the people: A man had two sons.
Let us not say yes to Our Father, but never do what he commands us. Let us "Be doers of the word and not hearers only."
Let us not pay lip service to God, but be far from him in our hearts.
Let us heed John the Baptist and repent, repeatedly, turning again and again from the evil we have done, and to Jesus who loves us so very much, and who endured so very much so that we might be with him always.
I recently saw a post at In the Light of the Law concerning Mass for Sunday and a Holy Day of Obligation being satisfied with a single Mass.
He brings this up because of a post by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf addressing a question posed by one of his readers.
I am not smart enough about Cannon Law to speak on the points that they are making. But, trying merely to satisfy obligations with a minimum of effort seems counterproductive to a relationship of love with God.
Will we say on the Day of Judgement "We are worthless servants, we have done only what we have been obliged to do?" Are we worthless servants, doing only the minimum?
If or when you were engaged to be married, would you have tried to meet only the minimum requirements of your espoused? Spending time together only when your espoused demands your presence? If you start out doing only the minimum for your beloved before you are married, how rough will your marriage be?
How is that being in union with the Spirit and the Bride who call out "Marana Tha!" "Oh Lord, Come!"
Where is the eagerness of the Bride to know fully her bridegroom?
In this season of Advent, may we reflect the eagerness of the Bride in our lives, in our labors and in our loves. Marana Tha!
At the blog for the Diocese of Springfield Illinois, Bishop Thomas John Paprocki writes an article about results from the online surveys of active and inactive Catholics in Central Illinois.
He addresses early in the article:
respondents of both the active and inactive surveys mentioned that they disagreed or were at least troubled by some Church doctrines.
He points out that Jesus addresses this problem in the Gospels.
He goes on to say:
The challenge for us in the Church is to make sure that we are presenting these teachings in ways that are clear and accurate so that they can be properly understood. Some people are rejecting what they think the Church teaches, but which in fact may be a false understanding. Other times they do not know the reasons that underlie Church doctrine. We need to do a better job of explaining not only what the Church teaches, but why.
He addresses several responses that are evident in the surveys. You should read his entire article.
