New Evangelizers Post: Pope Francis and the Life of Faith

                 

I have a new article up at NewEvangelizers.com.  

Like many of you, I awoke this morning to the news that Pope Francis has gone to our Heavenly Father. My heart is very heavy at this loss, as I am sure is the case for all who feel the loss of our shepherd.

There is so much to say about the life of Pope Francis. Like all momentous people in history, people said polarizing things about him. I am convinced that much of the controversies are rooted in the ignorance of a media that does not understand the Catholic faith. Even as I watched the local news, I heard how they mischaracterized his call to bless those with same-sex attractions as a blessing of same-sex unions. This is not at all for our Holy Father said, but that never has stopped people from twisting his intentions.

For the purpose of this article, I wanted to focus on Pope Francis’ call to have a lived experience of faith.

One of my biggest takeaways from his pontificate was his call to be active in the Gospel. He never downplayed the importance of study and private prayer. But all of this needed to be something lived out in the lives of others. He stated that “truth is not an abstract idea, but is Jesus himself, the Word of God in whom is the Life that is the Light of man (cf. Jn1:4), the Son of God who is also the Son of Man.” In other words, theology is not simply the mastery of a subject, but an encounter with Christ Himself.

This requires us to go outside of our bubbles and encounter those that may be different and unfamiliar to us. He must be in dialogue with “other scientific, philosophical, humanistic and artistic knowledge, with believers and non-believers, with men and women of different Christian confessions and different religions.”

When I was younger, we met with a priest about putting on a retreat in his parish. He said he was concerned that we were only “saving the saved.” What he meant was that he worried that we were only focusing on people who already had a relationship with God and not focusing on those who are on the outside of that. While it is essential that we continue to kindle the fire of faith in those who have it, this priest was correct in that we have to reach out to those on the margins. And this is something that Pope Francis constantly emphasized.

As I wrote in last week’s article, Christ came into the world and His basilea (“kingdom”) was built around those who were on the margins of society. Jesus reached out to the prostitutes and the tax collectors. He stood up for the woman caught in adultery. He made care for the poor and the sick an essential part of the Christian message.

Pope Francis always called us to reach out to those on the margins of modern society. He reached out to those who feel alienated from the Church: those with same-sex attractions, the divorced and remarried, the prisoners, the poor, etc. This article is not an analysis of his methodology in this regard. Instead, its purpose is to show that Pope Francis took so seriously the directive of Christ to reach out to the anawim (“the least ones”).

In reaching out to them, he called us to be “an army of forgiveness.” His call for the Jubilee Year of Mercy emphasized this point. Our message to those who feel far from God should always point to the never-ending mercy of the Savior. This does not mean that we affirm anyone in sin. But we also are not called to be their judge. We are called to show them the greatness of God’s mercy by living God’s mercy.

Living mercy means that we have to be active in the life of faith. Pope Francis kept calling people, especially the young, to get more involved and shake things up. In the first year of his pontificate, he said at World Youth Day “”What do I hope for from World Youth Day? I hope for a mess … that the Church takes to the streets. That we defend ourselves from comfort… The Church must be taken into the streets.”

This is a very Apostolic image. In my recent studies of the early Apostles like St. Paul, I was struck by the radical, anti-establishment message that came with the Gospel. The ancient Romans saw Christianity as something disruptive and that still is true today. Pope Francis constantly called us to be roused from our settled complacency, from our feeling that I am a “good enough” Catholic. He challenged us to be radical in our mercy and forgiveness in the world.

You can read the whole article here.

Alleluia! Christ Is Risen! Easter 2025

     

[repost from 2023]
"Who [indeed] is the victor over the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?"

I saw something recently that said that only 39% of Americans thought that religion was very important.  That is down by around 30 percent from years past.  Media, both mainstream and social, are pushing hard for the idea that Christianity is dying.  More and more people are embracing the belief that God is dead.

But, to quote the great GK Chesterton, "I have said that Asia and the ancient world had an air of being too old to die. Christendom has had the very opposite fate. Christendom has had a series of revolutions and in each one of them Christianity has died. Christianity has died many times and risen again; for it had a [G]od who knew the way out of the grave.  "

Today is a day that we remember that death is not the final defeat.  Even though the world may claim victory, that victory is always temporary.  Final victory is with those who stand with Christ.  He is our Final Victory.

It is true that more and more people are extinguishing the light of Christ inside of them.  And some never have that light kindled in the first place.  

I was at the Easter Vigil Mass last night.  It always strikes me how it opens:  the church in complete darkness, but then one candle enters to pierce the dark.  And that one candle of Christ lights all the other candles until the whole place is filled with light.  

In our world, darkness keeps trying to overwhelm us.  But we must remember "The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it." (John 1:6)

In fact, it is when things get darker that our light matters most.  When the church lights are turned on, we extinguish our candles because they do not add much.  But when it is dark, our candles mean so much more.  It is the same with our light.  In times of great prosperity and faith, our small acts of faith may not seem all that important.  But as more and more of the world turns away from the Light of the World, our candles need to burn bright.

Today we stand with Christ.  Today we light the flame in our hearts to expel the darkness.

Today we remember that we have victory not because of ourselves, but because Jesus won it for us.

He is Risen.

Alleluia!

Divine Mercy Novena 2025

     

(most of the text below is a repost from 2022)

A reminder that the Divine Mercy Novena begins today (Good Friday) and continues through until Mercy Sunday.  You can find the novena here:

https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/devotions/novena-13366

This has been a powerful and profound devotion in my life and many graces have come to me through a devotion to Jesus' Divine Mercy.  

Very recently, I experienced such an overwhelmingly powerful act of mercy.  I am acutely aware that under Divine Justice, there is much for which I have to answer.  Each day I seem to be racking up a debt of sin.  But even more concretely, the way I treat the people I claim to love is often selfish and shameful.  When confronted with this reality, I often shrink with shame.  I struggle with this.  I think that God loves me but because of my sins, He doesn't like me very much.  It is an image that is horribly unfair to Our Lord.

Sin is a real barrier between God and us, but God's love is greater than that.  Not too long ago, I had to admit my faults to someone, expecting them to return to me bitter (but just) judgment.  Instead, this person simply smiled at me and told me that all was well.  There was no trace of bitterness or judgment.  There was only pure kindness and love and a joy that I could unburden myself on them.  

This act of mercy lifted a great burden from my heart.  And it acted as a symbol for how God's mercy is similar.

It is a beautiful lay your faults bare to someone and have them look beyond them is a beautiful thing.  Too often I think we define ourselves by our sins.

Pope John Paul II once said that we are more than the sum total of our sins.

God sees us as we are, beyond our sins.  He wants us to come to Him and lay our sins on His mercy.  

I look forward to joining all of you in spiritual communion through this novena.

In these days with all of the worries and struggles that we have, we have a greater need to throw ourselves at the Mercy of God!

TV Review: The Chosen - The Last Supper

 

There is a reason that The Chosen is a world-wide phenomenon.  Christian movies and TV shows are a dime-a-dozen.  But creator Dallas Jenkins understands that if you are going to make good Christian art, you must first focus on making good ART.  So many well-intentioned Christian projects fall short because they lack the skill to match their earnest enthusiasm.

That is not the case with The Chosen.  This is especially true about this 5th season, subtitled The Last Supper.

This season focuses on Holy Week, starting with Palm Sunday and going all the way through the Agony in the Garden.  One of the things that struck me as I watched these episodes in the theater was how cinematic it all was.  For a show that is completely crowd-funded, the cinematography is gorgeous.  You get the feeling for the immensity of Jerusalem on this truly epic scale.  At the same time, the lighting and colors highlight the deeply intimate moments of love and heartbreak throughout.  

One of the things that is fascinating about Jenkins and his writers is that they are able to take a story that is the most familiar in all of human history and he is still able to get you on the edge of your seat.  As in past seasons they take liberties and elaborations with the Gospel stories, but it is always done in a way to enhance the depths of the story and the characters.  Even though we all know where things are headed, he makes you feel the tension and the sorrow.  

This season such an intersting framing device.  Each episode begins with a flash forward to the Last Supper and then the rest of the episode is a flashback to earlier in the week.  What makes it more interesting is that Jenkins shows us the Last Supper in reverse chronological order.  The first episode shows us the end, right before they head to Gethsemane and then shows at the end Jesus (Jonathon Roumie) washing their feet.  It had a fascinating effect to watch.  By breaking it down this way, the creators once again force us to see something familiar from a new perspective.  Doing this shakes us from our apathy and throws us into the drama.

There are two particularly powerful moments that are inventions of the show.  The first involves the Hebrew Dayenu prayer.  Traditionally, it is a prayer that remembers the the great things that God has done.  For example, it says "If He had brought us out of Egypt, but not executed justice upon the Egyptians, it would have been enough.  If He had executed justice on the Egyptians, but not upon their gods, it would have been enough..."  And it goes on like this for many stanzas.  In the show, the evening before the Last Supper, Jesus has dinner with his female disciples and they recite their version of the Dayenu that had many people in tears.

A powerful moment occurs in the Agony in the Garden.  To help get us int Jesus' mind, we see that He has visions of Abraham and Isaac, Ezekiel, and one other person.  It was this third person that almost broke me down and was a touching meditation on the vulnerabilty of Christ.

One other elaboration that I was very happy with was the calling of Little James (Jordan Walker Ross) and Thaddeus (Giavani Cairo).  The series began with these two already as Jesus' disciples.  So there was an immense sense of satisfaction to finally see this.

But it is not just the elaborations that are powerful.  Jenkins and his crew are able to bring to life the power and shock of the Gospel stories.  When Jesus cleanses the Temple, you can feel the tension, fear, anger, and outrage of everyone involved.  It is one of the most dramatic and stressful parts of the entire season.

All of the performances are excellent.  This is a cast that has worked together for many years and their chemistry is evident.  Roumie in particular is wonderful.  As the Jesus, he lets us feel all the wide range of human emotions our Savior must have felt, all of them feel honest and profound, but he never loses that sense of Divine grace in his performance.  Besides Roumie, the biggest standout is Elijah Alexander as Atticus Aemilius.  He has such commanding charisma that he seizes your attention every time he is on the screen.  He seems like the master of the world who is in complete control of all the elements around him.  His arrogant humor does not feel like bluster, but a projection of his intelligence and power.  I sincerly hope that his character will have a direct encounter with Jesus next season to see if that cynical shell will crack or harden.

The one thing I am not a big fan of is the portrayal of Pontius Pilate.  Andrew James Allen is doing a fine job in the role.  But the writer portray him as weak and disengaged.  Historically, Pilate was a violent monster who crucified hundreds of men, women, and children.  The writers attempt to balance this with the character of Atticus, who carries this hardened demeanor.  But I would have prefered a more menacing Pilate.

Watching The Chosen has been a moving experience and has shaped my spiritual imagination.  I recommend to everyone who wants to see one of the best pieces of Christian art in years, please check out this past season.

Palm Sunday 2025

   

Hosanna!

Hosanna!

Hosanna in the Highest!

Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord!

Hosanna in the Highest!

And then 5 days later...

Crucify Him!  Crucify Him!

There are so many things that went into this dramatic change in the crowd.  But one of them was this:

Jesus was not the Messiah they wanted.

The people wanted a Messiah who would take up a sword and kill the Romans so that he could usher in a new empire with the Jewish people at the top of the dominance hierarchy.  This Messiah would deliver them from their enemies through strength and violence.

But Jesus told them to love their enemies, to do good to those that hurt them.

And because He was not the Messiah they wanted, they rejected Him.

This is still a problem today.  Jesus is the answer to the pain, suffering, hatred, and lonliness of the world.  And yet how many do not come to Him?  How empty are our churches as He offers Himself on the altar.  I would venture to say that for many of us, He is not the Messiah we want.

We want a Messiah who will tell us that we don't have to change, that we are good enough just as we are and that everything we are doing is fine.  Sure we could a little extra, but I'm okay and you're okay.

Jesus is not that Messiah.  Yes, He loves us just as we are.  But He loves us enough not to leave us there.  Jesus challenges us to take care of the poor, to reach out to the lost, to give of our time and our lives.  He calls us to empty ourselves, taking the form a slave, because that is what He did for us.

This Holy Week, you will have a choice: will you accept Jesus and His message or will you make this just like any other week, putting Jesus back into the corners of your consciousness.  

This week you will give one of two responses:

"Hosanna" or "Crucify Him."

Trailer Time - Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning Trailer

We don't get much more story in this trailer than we did in the initial teaser.

What we do get is more glimpses of these death-defying stunts, an overview of all the impossible missions that Ethan Hunt has done, and an overwhelming sense of finality.

Even though the story elements aren't being revealed, this trailer has me even more excited to see this.  Tom Cruise has been playing this character for almost 30 years.  And unlike most franchises, my enjoyment of it has only become greater.  By this time in the series, most movies series start to wane.  But it looks like The Final Reckoning is going to go out on a high note.

Thoughts?

Rest in Peace, Val Kilmer

 

Val Kilmer was a part of my life longer than I realized.  Growing up, my family got cable television and we were frequent customers of the local video store.  Because of this, I came to know him in the movie Real Genius.

I watched that movie more times than I can count.  It is the story of a brilliant student physicist who seems more interested in practical jokes and partying.  It is a quintessentially 80's movie and I love every part of it.  It was here that I first remember Kilmer's devil-may-care charisma, his sarcastic wit, and his effortless charm.  He could do over-the-top moments ("And now we're cha-chaing") as well as the driest of jokes ("I was just contemplating the immortal words of Socrates who said, 'I drank what?'").

Kilmer came from a divorced home and experienced tragedy early on when his younger, epileptic brother drowned at the age of 16.  Despite this, he developed his talents as an actor and became the youngest person to attend Julliard.  From here he would go on to work on the stage and screen.

Later I would discover some of his other comedic works like Top Secret, a movie so funny that it will still have me in stitches no matter how many times I've seen it.  A year after Real Genius, he played Iceman in Top Gun.  This was perfect casting because you needed someone who could rival Tom Cruise's screen presence.  And even though he technically the antagonist of the piece, Kilmer makes clear in his performance how Iceman is actually more right than he is wrong.  

But for me, my favorite Kilmer performance is that of Madmartigan in Willow.  This movie has a special place in my heart because it came along at a very difficult time in my childhood.  I found such joy in this film and that is no small part due to Kilmer's performance.  His Madmartigan is as good as Harrison Ford's Han Solo: he is a scoundrel with a heart of gold.  To this day, I will try to do his sword tricks when no one is looking.

There are a lot of films of his I have not seen that have been lauded, like his portrayal of Jim Morrison in Oliver Stone's The Doors or Michael Mann's Heat.  He did an excellent job voice-acting Moses in The Prince of Egypt.  And he gives a criminally underappreciated performance as Col John Henry Patterson in The Ghost and the Darkness.  In movies like The Saint, he was able to show off his ability to be a chameleon and utterly transform his person (unfortunately, the movie was not as good as his acting).  And if he had been given a better script, I think his Batman could have made more of an impact on the legacy of the character.

But the performance I think he will be remembered for the most, especially by men, is Doc Holliday in Tombstone.  People may not remember but another film with the same characters came out at the same time called Wyatt Earp.  There, Dennis Quaid gave a fantastic performance as Holliday.  But the reason people don't talk about that as much is because he was overshadowed by Kilmer.  

His Doc Holliday was the embodiment of masculine charm.  He was stoic in his fatal disease, never complaining but always moving forward.  He was smart as a whip, able to win any verbal joust.  I love the look in Kilmer's eyes as he spins around his drinking cup to make fun of the pistoleer Ringo.  He Southern drawl communicated a sophisticated arrogance.  And he dangerous the way men want to be.  This almost never happens to me, but when I was watching the movie for the first time, I was at home by myself playing it on a VCR.  When he showed up and said, "I'm your huckleberry," I literally cheered.  I couldn't help myself.  Every man wants to dangerous enough to make the bad guy quake in his boots the way Holliday did.  And Kilmer made us believe it.

But the best line delivery in the film is simplest.  As Doc is dying from his tuberculosis, someone tells him that he ought to be in bed and asks why he is putting himself through this.  Kilmer's Doc simply says:

"Wyatt Earp is my friend."

Kilmer does not say this with passionate inflection or in a melodramatic tone.  He says it in a tone so plain and firm that it seems to come from some rock bottom truth.  And there is some deep truth that Kilmer touches on in this performance: that you will go to hell and back for your friends for no other reason than they are your friends.  

Kilmer's career took a downward turn after the tumultuous filming of The Island of Dr. Moreau.  He would still get leading roles, but the slowly started to dry up.

His final screen performance may be his most touching, reprising his role as Iceman in Top Gun: Maverick.  As in Tombstone, Kilmer is able to convey the depths of male fellowship in his loyalty to Maverick.  And he is able to do that without the ability to speak (the voice was added later by AI).

He dated several famous Hollywood stars including Cher, Daryl Hannah, and Angelina Jolie.  He married Joanne Whalley with whom he starred in Willow.  The divorced after eight years, but not before having two children: Mercedes and Jack.

He was a lifelong believer in the Christian Science faith, which is why he was reluctant to do things like chemotherapy to help his cancer.  He did advocate for religious rights before Congress, asking for exceptions for beliefs under the Affordable Care Act.

Val Kilmer was a singular talent.  He made an impact on the movies of my life and therefore he has a special place in my memory.  And for that I am grateful.

Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him.  May his soul and all the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.  Amen.

Rest in Peace, Val Kilmer