Lack of Updates: Late March/Early April 2025

 Dear Reader,

Thank you for your patience.  I know I have not posted much to this blog in the past few weeks.  I sincerely apologize.

In late March I have had several time-sensitive projects that needed attending including:

-getting grades in for the end of the quarter

-working on a research paper

-preparing for a project at work

-increasing my responsibilities at my parish assignment for Lent.

In addition to this, I got the flu last week and am still recovering.

As a result, my time that I dedicate to writing here was diminished.  Once again, I thank you for your patience.  I am hoping by sometime in early April, I can resume a regular schedule of posts.

Until then, I once again want to say how grateful I am for your loyal readership.  

God Bless,

Catholic Skywalker

New Evangelizers Post: The Catholic Understanding of the Person

               

I have a new article up at NewEvangelizers.com.  

Human beings are said to be made in the Image and Likeness of God. We are different than the beasts in that we have reason and free will, which also gives us the ability to love. God infuses this image and likeness the moment He creates the human person. We see this not only in Genesis 1:27 when it explicitly says that human beings are made in God’s image, but we also see it when God gives His breath to Adam and gives him life. But as mentioned before, this is ultimately something mysterious.

And while we are made in God’s image, we are still material beings. Human beings are both spiritual and material. This is not a dualist understanding of the person, where both the soul and the body are two separate substances that are joined together. Instead, the soul is the form or the essence of the human person. There is, therefore, a unity of the soul and the body: what affects one affects the other. This is one of the reasons why death is so horrible to us, because when the soul separates from the body it is, in many ways, inhuman. This is also why there must be a resurrection in the end, because to be truly, fully human, you must have soul and body together.

Part of this understanding involves our final cause or teleological end. Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI) wrote beautifully on this subject by pointing to the creation of the sabbath in the first story of creation. There is an incompleteness in the material world qua material world. There is a need for God’s presence. The creation of the sabbath points us to this need. Human beings are called to take a rest from their labors and focus on God. This is not only because God made us, but He made us for Himself. In setting aside time to worship Him, we find fulfillment in Him. In this way, “Creation is oriented to the sabbath, which is the sign of the covenant between God and humankind.”

When it comes to the fall and original sin, we are also getting into some difficult territory because of its mysterious nature. Genesis 3 puts into story form an understanding of what happened. God makes everything good. But sin enters the world, not from God. Genesis 3 describes humanity’s disobedience to God and the corruption of human nature. Regardless of how this happened in history, the original good state of the human is broken, necessitating a Savior.

There are several open questions that linger in discussing anthropology in the Creation stories. One of them is how or if evolution plays a part. There are also questions of sex and gender. If both men and women are made in God’s image, does that mean that they are exactly the same? And if we treat men and women differently, is that because they are inherently different? Also, when discussing Original Sin, all of the language we use seems inadequate to fully capture the mystery of its reality. As Stephen Duffy pointed out in his article, all of the different ways we have attempted to describe original sin (how it came about, how it is transmitted, what is its exact nature), ultimately break down because we do not have the capacity in our language to fully describe it.

This is part of the reason why it is difficult to translate these deep theological truths. Even with years of theological study, these things are difficult to comprehend.

What I would encourage Catholics to do is to prayerfully engage with the Genesis 1-3T. Start with prayer, asking the Holy Spirit to give you light in your mind and heart. Ask yourself how you would create the perfect world. Try to imagine it to the best of your ability.

Then read how God creates: He has no need for us, but out of His goodness, love, and generosity, He makes us so that we could experience all of those things. I would also point out that He makes us from nothing and that all things come from Him. Engage with the stories of creation, showing that God creates with intention, order, and structure. There is nothing God makes that is not part of His plan. The universe is not an act of random chaos as we see in other ancient creation myths or in Darwinism. We are made by God and for God. St. Augustine’s insight is that our hearts are made for God and we are restless until we rest in Him.

God made a perfect world for us, but Chapter 3 shows us how we fell. We are broken by sin, but we never lose that Image of God in us.

To help unpack the meaning of the creation story, I would recommend studying Pope St. John Paul II’s “Theology of the Body.” Writing to the modern world, John Paul understood the necessity to go back to the beginning and help us understand who the human person is. These insights include his reflections on things like Original Innocence, Original Nakedness, Original Justice, etc. When discussing Original Sin, we look to how it is described in Genesis 3, but there is ultimately something beyond our ability to fully understand. Once we establish the ways in which God made us good, especially through John Paul’s Theology of the Body, we can see the ways that this original nature is broken, causing the loss sanctifying grace and a deep division between God and human beings.

You can read the whole article here.

St. Joseph Feast Day - 2025

 

In 2020, just as we were beginning the COVID lockdowns, I wrote this on the Feast of St. Joseph:

I have written extensively online about my love and devotion to St. Joseph.  I owe much, not just in broad terms of salvation history, but in my personal life as well.  He has been my friend and helper through many trials and difficulties along the road of life.

I was reflecting on St. Joseph during this time of social distancing.  Scripture never records any of Joseph's words, but there is profundity in that silence.  St. Joseph is a real man, a man of action.  When he is told to take Mary into his care, he does not question.  He accepts God's will and he acts.  When he is told that they must flee Bethlehem and go down into Egypt, he accepts God's will and he acts.

St. Joseph may have been scared or nervous.  But Scripture does not tell us one way or another.  He was asked to set out on a journey with an uncertain future.  Right now, many of us are nervous, especially because we do not know how long this sojourn will last.  And many of us are trying to be brave for our families.

St. Joseph was brave.  He was brave not because he lacked fear.  He was brave because even in the face of terrifying challenges, he got down to the business of doing God's will and taking care of his family.

I will be praying in a very special way to St. Joseph for our country and our world during this time of social distancing.  Let us model ourselves after him.

5 years later, it is amazing how God, through the intercession of St. Joseph has seen us through.  In that time, we've had deep personal losses (or at least I have).  I have tried to model myself after him: getting down to the business of doing God's will.

Prayer to Saint Joseph for a Difficult Problem

O Glorious St. Joseph, thou who hast power to render possible even things which are considered impossible, come to our aid in our present trouble and distress.

Take this important and difficult affair under thy particular protection, that it may end happily. (MENTION YOUR REQUEST)

O dear St. Joseph, all our confidence is in thee. Let it not be said that we would invoke thee in vain; and since thou art so powerful with Jesus and Mary, show that thy goodness equals thy power.  Amen.

St. Joseph, friend of the Sacred Heart, pray for us.

Film Flash: Novocaine

  

15 words or less film review (full review to follow soon)

High-octane, violent, silly, fascinating, and immensely entertaining with a starring turn for Jack Quaid.

New Evangelizers Post: Jesus and the Temptation in The Desert

              

I have a new article up at NewEvangelizers.com.  

We have now started the Holy Season of Lent.

This past Sunday, we heard from the Gospel of Luke about Jesus being tempted by Satan three times in the desert. As will all of the Gospel stories, there is so much to unpack.

Let us examine the text of the Gospel:

Filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus returned from the Jordan
and was led by the Spirit into the desert for forty days,
to be tempted by the devil.
He ate nothing during those days,
and when they were over he was hungry.
The devil said to him,
“If you are the Son of God,
command this stone to become bread.”
Jesus answered him,
“It is written, One does not live on bread alone.”
Then he took him up and showed him
all the kingdoms of the world in a single instant.
The devil said to him,
“I shall give to you all this power and glory;
for it has been handed over to me,
and I may give it to whomever I wish.
All this will be yours, if you worship me.”
Jesus said to him in reply,
“It is written
You shall worship the Lord, your God,
and him alone shall you serve.”
Then he led him to Jerusalem,
made him stand on the parapet of the temple, and said to him,
“If you are the Son of God,
throw yourself down from here, for it is written:
He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you,
and:
With their hands they will support you,
lest you dash your foot against a stone.”
Jesus said to him in reply,
“It also says,
You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.”
When the devil had finished every temptation,
he departed from him for a time.

(Luke 4:1-13)

We first notice that the Holy Spirit sends Jesus to the desert for 40 days. This is similar to the time of preparation that Moses and Elijah went through. The number 40 is symbolic of a complete amount of time. Jesus is about to begin the great spiritual fight and He needs this time of prepare.

The first temptation in Luke’s Gospel is to turn stones into bread. Jesus responds by quoting Scripture: “Man does not live by bread alone.” (Deuteronomy 8:3). One of the things Jesus is showing us is that Scripture has power to help us in times of temptation. One of the reasons that temptation takes over us is that we let it consume our thoughts and we push God out of our minds. But returning to the Scriptures can occupy the mind and imagination so that it can cool the fires of illicit desires. To be sure this is not a magic formula, but it opens the door for God to speak to us when we feel like we are being pulled away.

This passage also tells us that spiritual needs outweigh physical ones. This is not to say that our physical needs do not matter. But health of soul outweighs the body. This is why some are called to be martyrs, where their earthly life was laid down for the witness of their faith.

The second temptation in Luke’s Gospel has Satan offer to Jesus all the kingdoms of the world. The truly scary part of this statement is that if Satan is telling the truth (which may not be the case because he is the “father of lies”), then this means that they are his to give because the kingdoms of the world belong to him. On this view, political power seems to be tainted by this demonic power. I ask my students this question: do people who go into politics become more virtuous or less virtuous? Overwhelmingly they say that they become less virtuous. And while there are some exceptions, there is something corruptive about worldly power that feels a bit demonic. If we worship Satan, and by this we can say that we worship any false god before the true God, then we might find an advantage of power.

Jesus’ response is that we should worship God alone. When dealing with the world, we have to remember that God is over all. As I wrote in a recent article, the laws of God supersede the laws of man. In rejecting the power of the world, we could become victims to that power. But we must remember the words of Christ: “I have conquered the world.” (John 16:33)

The final temptation is where Satan brings Jesus to the top of the Temple and tells Him to jump and put God’s love to the test. In this case, Satan quotes the Bible at Jesus. This is an important reminder that evil people can use the Scriptures in a manipulative way. You can see how people would selectively quote the book of Genesis to justify slavery in America. We must always look at the Bible in its entire context. This is what Christ does when He quotes Scripture back to Satan and says “You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.” (Deuteronomy 6:16). God does not need to prove Himself to us. Instead, we are the ones who must be proved in His eyes. CS Lewis made this point when he said:

“The ancient man approached God (or even the gods) as the accused person approaches his judge. For the modern man, the roles are quite reversed. He is the judge: God is in the dock. He is quite a kindly judge; if God should have a reasonable defense for being the god who permits war, poverty, and disease, he is ready to listen to it. The trial may even end in God’s acquittal. But the important thing is that man is on the bench and God is in the dock.”

But we must remember that this is not how it should be. I do not stand before God as His judge. I am to be judged by Him.

Something else to keep in mind about these temptations is the connection they have with the Old Testament.

You can read the whole article here.

Sunday Best: Thoughts on Oscars 2025 and Oscar Game Winner

  

So this year we have another Oscars in the history books. 

Below are my thoughts on the night.

THE GOOD

1. Bring Back Conan

 I have always been a huge fan of Conan O'Brien.  I love his sense of silly, self-depricating humor.  He had me smiling during his entire opening monologue.  I especially love his bit with Adam Sandler.  There a friendly playfulness that gave the night some much needed levity.  I also enjoyed the use of the Dune Sandworm and having the first responders tell jokes.  But the best gag was probably the disappointed John Lithgow

2. Kerian Culkin's Speech

Most acceptance speeches are trite or preachy.  Very few are memorable.  But I have been telling people the story of Kerian Culkin's speech more times than I thought I would.  It was charming and unique.  And what I liked about it too was that it demonstrated a natural desire for family. 

3. Very Little Politics

 While there was some political points made in speeches and one joke by Conan directed at the president, overall the night was pretty light on politics.  This is good, since Hollywood is not known for its good-natured jocularity towards those of differing political opinions.  When political jokes are made, it is usually done in a way that alienates half of the country.  

4. Gene Hackman Tribute

Though it was last minute, I was pleased that they gave a special tribute to Gene Hackman.  While many other influential people in the entertainment industry passed this year, Hackman was a giant among them and the Academy wisely understood that his tribute needed to stand out they way he stood out in all of his films.

 

THE BAD

1.  The Show Still Drags

Conan did a funny bit about the show being too long.  I know that the number was meant to be ironic, but just because you make fun of the problem, it does not make the problem go away.  

And as much as I love James Bond, why in the world was there a gigantic James Bond song and dance number?  There was nothing this year that necessitated this tribute and it felt oddly placed in an already overly-long show.

And I know it is awkward to play off someone who just one a major award, but it was in such poor taste for Adrian Brody to drone on and on after rambling for the first half of his acceptance.  It seemed selfish and arrogant considering that other people had their time cut.

2. Glorifying Sex Workers?

Look, I have not seen Anora.  And one of my favorite critics, the mighty John Nolte, says that it is a fantastic film.  I've heard that writer/director Sean Baker respects his audience enough to let them make up their own minds regarding how to feel about the characters.

But during the acceptance speeches of Baker and Best Actress Mikey Madison, they both thanked the community of "sex workers."

Now to be fair, Christ would recognize the humanity in prostitutes and he let them know that they had value.  But in thanking the community of "sex workers," it sounds as though it lends legitimacy to this wicked exploitation.  Jesus went to the prostitutes so that He could free them from the slavery of that degrading life.  But something has gone horribly wrong when we elevate the sexual exploitation of our fellow human beings as something morally licit.  And thanking the sex worker community feels like you are trying to give that activity moral legitmacy.

3. No One Saw The Best Picture

Speaking of Anora, we once again run into the problem of no one having seen the Best Picture.  Last year, Oppenheimer was a big hit and so people could root for it to win.  But Anora was number 85 on the list of top Box Office draws for 2024, making just a little over $14 million.  

Interstellar, a movie that was released 10 years ago and has been freely available on streaming and Blu-Ray was re-released last year and it made $1 million more in theaters.

The Chosen released three episodes of Season 4 in theaters.  This also made more money than Anora.  Again, people paid more money to go to a movie theater to watch a television show about Jesus that anyone can watch at home for FREE than they paid to see the Oscar winner for Best Picture.

So those are my thoughts.  What are yours?

And now, the moment you've been waiting for... the winners of this year's CATHOLIC SKYWALKER OSCAR GAME.

With no clear frontrunner in most of the major categories, scores were generally lower this year, with the lowest score being a tie with -6.8

In third place with a combined score of 9... Nicole K!

And we have a tie for first place with a combined score for each of 12.1.... Phil and Linda!

Phil and Linda both saw more of the movies nominated than I did, so their victory is well-earned.  And as frequent players of this game, I'm happy for their win.   Congratulations to you both!

This year, I think not seeing most of the nominees hurt my score.

When grading purely on predictions, the order of the top three winners remains the same (Linda = 8.1, Phil = 7.1, Nicole = 5.5)

When it came to scoring purely on choice, Phil wins (5), Linda is in second (2), and Nicole K. is third (3.5). Thank you to everyone who played this year.  Good luck in next year's game!

Film Review: Love Hurts

 

Sexuality/Nudity Mature

Violence Mature

Vulgarity Mature

Anti-Catholic Philosophy Mature

Your enjoyment of this movie will depend deeply on how charming you find Ke Huy Kwan.

And I found him incredibly charming.

Love Hurts is an action/comedy about Marvin Gabel (Kwan) who appears to be a mild-mannered real estate agent.  But he is actually a John Wick-style enforcer who worked for his mob-boss brother Alvin "Knuckles" Gabel (Daniel Wu).  He has left the life after faking the death of his last mark: mob accountant Rose (Arianna DeBose).  Marvin seems to truly enjoy this simple life, but things comes crashing down when Rose lets Marvin and Knuckles that she is still alive, forcing him into a confrontation with his brother that will end her need to hide.  The movie is essentially the struggle for Marvin between the life he loves or the woman he loves.

As I said, Kwan is fantastic.  He channels Jackie Chan in the best possible sense.  Chan played the genial nice-guy who held within him incredibly violent power.  That same quality comes out in Kwan in a fantastic way.  Watching the movie, you immediately like the guy and you desperately want him to come out on top.  His escalating panic also shows off his comedic chops.  His performance fits perfectly in both the action and the comedy of this film.

The action set pieces are fun and creative.  Again Kwan is incredibly reminiscent of Chan, who would take a severe beating in each of his movies, showing that he wasn't a stoic superman.  Instead, Marvin gets beaten up badly, but has to fight tooth-and-nail to get through with all of his strength and creativity.  

Director Jonathon Eusebio has spent much of his career as a fight coordinator and you can see him lean into those skills heavily and effectively in this movie.  And clocking in at less than 90 minutes, the movie moves along at a very pleasant pace so that it never slows down too much and you always feel like the story is going forward.  

The movie does have a few downsides.  The first is that the writing is a bit thin.  It often ignores the maxim of "show, don't tell."  Kwan and Rose secretly love each other.  We know this not because of their onscreen chemistry (of which there is very little).  We know it beause the script gives us voice-overs to tell us what each of them are thinking as a shortcut.  In another instance, Marvin's boss Cliff (Sean Astin) has a conversation with Knuckles about how Marvin is like a brother to him.  Cliff talks about having Marvin over to Thanksgiving and going on trips together.  This is all fine, but this is the only way we get a sense of their closeness.  We don't see that in any of the previous scenes.

This thinness in the writing makes the tonal shifts between action and comedy sometimes a little difficult.  The movie is just a little too violent, where innocent people are killed for laughs and we are supposed to be emotionally invested in the killers and their personal romantic relationships.  

When I was younger, I thought the movie Grosse Point Blank handled this type of material a lot better.  But perhaps that isn't the case.  Maybe I'm just older and I don't find comedies as enjoyable when I'm supposed to root for murderers.

The performances are fine, but I think that they do the best they can with the script they are given.  

Thematically, I'm a bit torn.  Marvin did horrible things when he worked for his brother.  His desire to leave that life is admirable, but the question is whether he is making proper atonement.  John Wick deals with this by acknowledging that John  does not hope for salvation and he fears hell.  But I'm not sure Marvin has earned his redemption.  It is a little like Emilia Perez, where the main character was a horrible murderer, but thought getting a new identity took away the guilt.  

The only thing that mitigates this is a speech by Cliff when he finds out about Marvin's old life.  Cliff says that he believes in absolution and second chances.  It implies that Marvin is seeking forgiveness.  If the script had pushed this idea a little more, it would have been more satisfying.

But if you are looking for a a decent action/comedy with a charming lead, then I think you will enjoy Love Hurts.