Happy Noahic Covenant Month!

Normally, I’d jokingly call June “Rainbow Month,” but that no longer seems to be accurate.  Overall corporate sponsorship is on the decline while grassroots support is fading as well, resulting in such celebrations becoming merely partisan protests.  Like most political movements, when it seemed like the rainbow was once unstoppable, now it’s an unpopular marketing gimmick that panders to only part of the country.

That said, because my teens to 20s were filled with dedication to that “movement” and I lived in a town where there was a rainbow flag in almost every shop window even when it wasn’t “Rainbow Month,” myself and many people roughly my age will probably associate rainbows with June.  As a result, maybe it’s about time the church took the rainbow back.  After all, Rainbows prior to the 70s (and really prior to the 2000s) were a symbol of God’s love for his creation and hope for humanity.  That’s why I’m going to make a new celebration.  Going forward, June will be “Noahic Covenant Month.”

To explain the significance of the Noahic Covenant and its relationship to rainbows, we need to go a bit more in detail.  Now, most people know the basic story of Noah, but there’s a few more details that don’t get discussed as much.  To recap, following man being cast out from the garden of Eden, man fell to depravity and wickedness throughout the world.  God grew angry at what he saw, and disappointed with his creation.  However, he still desired to save mankind and found favor with Noah, whom he deemed virtuous.  

So from there, he had Noah get two of every animal, male and female, his family, their families, and then the flood for 40 days and 40 nights, cleansing the world with his wrath.  They stayed in that ark for another 150 days before the waters receded before Noah and the animals were able to leave the ark and repopulate the earth.  Before doing so though, God made a covenant with Noah, promising that he would never again flood the earth.  As a sign, he showed a rainbow and then commanded Noah to “be fruitful and multiply.”

The rainbow has been historically a symbol, then, of God’s love for mankind and hope.  It’s a reminder of God’s promise that he is with us as well as a commandment to go forth and bring new life into the world.  One could even infer to be good parents for his new creations.  So the rainbow should serve as a reminder of that hope and a call to serve him, even when being appropriated by others.

In the modern day, Christians face much persecution.  From theocrats who punish the faithful for questioning their rule to terrorists who seek power and submission to assassinations to political harassment, there are many in this world that hate the faith and persecute the faithful for believing in the almighty.  Yet, the rainbow is still a symbol of God’s love for us, just like the ark, and we should remember that every time we see it.

So going forward, I’ll be celebrating June as the month to remember Noah.  It should be a time of hope and optimism.  A time to remember our families and our commitment to them, like Indiana and Tennessee seem to be doing these days.  So when a rainbow is seen in the public square, albeit increasingly less, let’s remember what it truly symbolizes, and who sent it.

Novena to Blessed Charles the Good

Repeat the following Novena every day for 9 consecutive days:

Let us begin, In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. 

O Blessed Charles the Good, whose love for God knew no bounds.  

You knew tragedy when you were young with the death of your father and yet never let that push you from God.  

You instead sought to serve him by working on behalf of the poor and the most vulnerable while rejecting the luxuries of the world.  

For this, you were martyred as you prayed and yet it did not change the good you did.  

I humbly ask that you pray for us now; that our own hearts may be open to God’s word and that we may may serve his creation, especially the most vulnerable, as you did.  I especially ask for (mention your request here…)

And for us to be made more in the image of Christ.

Amen.    

Our Father… 

Hail Mary… 

Glory Be…

Dr. Moreau is Dead

          After watching multiple videos about the nightmare that was the making of the film “The Island of Dr. Moreau,” I decided to watch the film myself to see if it was as bad as the production.  In short, it was not terrible, just horribly unfocused and confused with most of the actors lacking the ability to care about the film either because of personal problems or losing the will to continue because of their terrible experiences on the production.  Though the story concept was interesting, the book by noted author H. G. Wells likely handled it better.
There was a moment in the film though that rather stuck with me while watching it.  It was the final moment where main character Edward Douglas, played by noted actor David Thewlis, better known as Remus Lupin in Harry Potter and Sir Patrick in Wonder Woman, as well as the only one of the three leads in this film who feels like he’s trying, has to face off with the film’s antagonist and declare him God to the island.  As was the case with the film, it had a lot of discussion on man’s relationship with God, the desire to overthrow him, and then replace him and that moment encapsulated it quite well.  So I thought I’d take some time to discuss it here and the consequences of such desires.  Obviously there will be spoilers for the film so you have been warned.
For context to the event, this blogpost will start off with an overview of the film.  UN negotiator Edward Douglas is left stranded in the Java Sea after a plane crash before being rescued by Dr. Montgomery, played by Val Kilmer, and brought to the island of Dr. Moreau.  There, he meets Doctor Moreau, played by Marlon Brando, who has found a way to turn animals into humanoid creatures that can function, in theory, like real people.  During his experiments, Dr. Moreau believes he has created perfect people who can live in a utopian society where they are guided by key rules that they must follow in order to be sufficiently human (as well as being thoroughly drugged and implanted with devices to cause them pain when they step out of line).
Eventually, after several failed attempts by Edward to escape, the animals, led by the hyena-swine man, manage to rebel and kill Dr. Moreau along with the rest of his staff and those closest to him before declaring themselves leaders of the island.  Eventually, Edward is kidnapped by the rebels and forced to accept their superiority in front of the other animals.  However, he is able to outsmart them and defeat them before escaping the island to return to the world of man.
As a brief review before discussing the confrontation, the film plot may sound somewhat interesting.  The biggest issue is the execution as the film is horribly unfocused since it has multiple plotlines from Edward trying to escape to Montgomery slowly going insane out of jealousy of Dr. Moreau to Dr. Moreau’s utopia falling apart.  As a result, the film comes across as dull since nothing really stands out in terms of plotline since it’s always competing with other events.  Unsurprisingly, the book might have been a masterpiece if made use of these plot elements, but the film tragically could never find its footing and was weighed down with actors not giving the performances the film needed because they were weighed down by the nightmare that was the production.
Regarding the film’s theme though, it touches on the nature of God and those who would seek to dethrone him in society.  Notably, Dr. Moreau serves as God to his creations, which is why they call him father, and his island serves as his sort of Eden.  This is why the animals later rebel against him as they believe that doing so would give them the power they believe their creator has and would let them create themselves in their own image.

The desire to destroy Dr. Moreau in this story is similar to men who desire to overthrow God.  Often God’s rules as set by our creator are seen as archaic, arbitrary, and at odds with our desires which we believe will surpass his.  In the end, those who leave behind what they believe the shackles of religion do so believing they will find something else, ideally a better world designed in their own, man made image.

This brings us back to the final confrontation where the Hyena-swine has taken Edward and intends to use him to declare himself God in front of the other animals.  The Sayer of the Law, the sort of priest of Dr. Moreau, refuses to acknowledge the Hyena-Swine as God as the only God for him is his creator.  However, Edward instead responds by saying “You are all Gods” to the animals that had killed Dr. Moreau, much to the Sayer’s dismay.

The Hyena-Swine, thinking he’s won, tells Edward to say that to the other animals as though to show the legitimacy of the former’s reign.  Instead, Edward asks him what makes him any more the new leader than the other animals as all are equal and there were others just as capable as the Hyena-Swine who were also involved in killing Dr. Moreau.  In response, the animal man goes on a rampage and tries to kill the others before Edward defeats him.
Once the rebellion is over, Edward crafts a raft and returns to civilization.  He offers the Sayer to send someone back to help the animals, but the Sayer recommends against it.  The animal man knows that without the laws of Dr. Moreau, the animals will return to their original state and that that was what nature had always intended.  With that, David Thewlis leaves, knowing both that he has learned from his experience, and that he won’t have to return to the set again after the nightmare of a production.
This scene is actually deep as it shows the truth of men who try to declare themselves as God.  Just like the animals, all human being are equal, meaning that despite differences they have the same propensities towards corruption, sin, and failures.  Some may be more capable than others, but the idea that the rules don’t apply to them leads to pride, hubris, ego, and other synonyms.
One thing one of my Sunday school teachers always said was that there's a God shaped hole in our hearts and that without him we will try to replace it with something else.  Often, we try to shove our own interests to replace him, but we are one perspective among many and what works for us may not work for others.  In the end, man can never replace God because we are not morally superior nor inferior to his other men and thus incapable of reaching that status.  This brings us to the inevitable truth: that objective morality does not exist in this world without God.
Through his commandments and the teachings of Christ, God left man the path towards enlightenment and purpose, a way to better one’s and become more Christlike.  When we reject God’s vision, we inevitably become trapped in ideas that are ideologies of equal merit that will fail the same way we do.  For God is perfect, something to be imitated, and knows what is good.  Since the fall, man has been flawed and the things we create will be just as flawed, meaning just as likely to fall.
Lacking an objective morality that God provides, man will try to replace him with something inferior that is also just as likely to fall.  This is why G. K. Chesterton said “When men choose not to believe in God, they do not thereafter believe in nothing, they then become capable of believing in anything.”  The end result is that like the animals, we resort to a phase of nihilism and purposelessness, destroying what separated us from animals and becoming the creatures we were made to rule over.
This theme is found repeatedly in the Book of Genesis, starting with Adam and Eve’s decision to eat from the tree of Knowledge.  They were told it would make them like Gods, when the only thing it did was make them aware of their brokenness and thus were cast out from the garden, the furthest thing from Gods they could have been.  Another story would be the tower of Babel where the people making it thought doing so would make them superior to God and instead resulted in them getting cursed to speak other languages.  Be it in the bible, or real world examples like the Cristero War, Godless Communism, or even in America where our society gets more depressed as it rejects God, the desire to replace God, to say “God is dead'' ends always the same with a river of blood and an utopia never arrived at.  The end result is always the same: the desire to replace God ends in failure every time.
The theme of the film does not justify the bad things about the film, but I still did find the film interesting.  It encapsulated the hubris of those that seek to replace God with themselves and the inevitability of what happens to a society without him.  Never forget, the guard rails of society exist for a reason, and there may be justification to go past them but you do so at your own peril.

12 Rules for Dealing with a Grudge

        Much to my chagrin, I’ve always struggled with letting things go.  Be it forgiveness of myself or of others, that can be a hard thing to ask when I’ve been hurt or upset.  That’s why I try to figure out how to deal with that and improve my handling when something bad happens again (as it inevitably will).
Since I know I can’t always control my emotions, I try to create a key series of rules to follow so that I don’t do things I’ll regret or make things worse.  Even if I can’t feel the greatest, knowing I have a plan can help me get through it and readjust.  So in this case, I thought I’d share my rules and see if they help anyone else.

1. “Sometimes, it is best to leave well enough alone” - Emotions can be hard to control.  If you can’t be cordial or respectful to that person and there is no benefit to continuing a relationship, it can be best to walk away.  Don’t simply ignore it, actively minimize it in your life until you forget it exists.
2. Learn from it and make it positive - Chances are you’ve learned something from it or can find a truth to it you can use in future relationships.  Ask yourself what it is you have learned and how you can use that to improve your life or the lives of others in the future.  Doing that will make your life better and reduce negative consequences for yourself and others from it.
3. Ask yourself what’s bothering you - Sometimes another person may only be the face of something that’s really bothering you.  Make sure your anger is correctly invested.
4. Don’t blame yourself - You’ve probably done things you regret that led up to what’s causing the grudge.  However, the other person did actions that upset you as well and the decisions you made likely made the most sense at the time.  If you really went in with the best of intentions, then harping on yourself is only going to make you angrier and promote the grudge so most importantly don’t try to put all the blame on yourself.
5. Find support - Always try to replace bad memories with good ones.  Find people who can get you through your bad times and try to focus more on a time with them than time with people you don’t get along with.  In the end, it will make your time more productive and get you through emotional strife.
6. Don’t spread gossip - Anything you do today can have a lasting impact on people in the future.  You can change somebody else’s opinion of that person or you can impact your relationship with them in ways you can’t imagine.  That person may change but what you spread behind their back will hound them for a long time, even if they aren’t the same person.  So try to speak neutrally about them and don’t use their name.  Just say “this person did this” or something to that effect.  Now, you may be more open to discussing that with family or very close friends who don’t know that person, but beyond that try not to say things that will last with that person longer than you will be angry at them.
7. Humanize and be honest about your opponent, but don’t praise them - The person you are angry at is likely flawed, and may have problems in their own life.  You don’t know what got them to that decision and you don’t know why they do the things they do.  Likely, the decisions they make may make sense to them at the time just as yours make sense to you at the time so they hopefully didn’t have bad intentions.  So remember that they’re flawed as well and have to deal with their own flaws more than you do.  However, don’t say nice things about them to mask your pain.  Doing so is not being honest about how you feel about them, and giving them praise you don’t give yourself will cause envy for what you give them.
8. Respect their independence - As a human being, another person has the full ability to make decisions of their own.  You can’t control them and trying to will make you into something bad.  However, they also bear responsibility for their mistakes, you don’t.  You won’t be held accountable when they do something you don’t like, they will.  So just being willing to accept that they will need to deal with the results of their actions whether it be positive or negative is on their shoulders, not yours.
9. Compare how you handle this grudge to a previous grudge - if you handle this one better than a previous one, that shows improvement.  Improvement should remind you you’re handling it better.
10. Pray for them, but never for your own benefit - God wants this for those we consider enemies.  We must want the best for them by his plan.  Praying for them both reminds us of that and lets us put that burden on the almighty who is always happy to deal with it in ways we can’t.  However, don’t ask God to change that person in ways to please you, ask him to do so in ways that please him.  He knows what they need and what we need so he is a better judge.  Asking him to change that person for yourself means you are putting your interests above God’s.  Asking him to enter that person's heart for their own benefit and God’s acknowledges that the end result you may still not like, but you will respect his decision, their independence, and hope good can still come from them.
11. Want them to get to Heaven - We are hopefully going to spend eternity in heaven, and God loves everyone so that means he loves the people we don’t.  We will be spending eternity with them then, but when their flaws and ours are gone so we won’t be fighting anymore.  Remember, God gets to decide who gets to heaven, and you don’t.  Acknowledging that means you will be with them at a point when all your mistakes are gone and theirs are too, so every petty disagreement will be behind us.  After all, hell is eternal and your anger at and memory of that person will fade long before hell’s wrath.  It then seems unfair that they should suffer for something that will be forgotten.  So never want that for someone else, and always want the best for all people.  For God always knows best, for all of us
12. Acknowledge you won’t live up to these rules - All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.  You will likely break your own rules and do things that violate them and you will regret it.  After all, man is naturally sinful due to original sin.  Be aware you will do that, but find ways to forgive yourself and make up for it.  Never forget, you are not perfect, but that’s not a reason to stop trying to be better.

These are my standards of how I try to deal with a grudge.  As 12 states, I don’t live up to them.  However, I believe that being aware will at least give me goals and ways to overcome my failings.  So while I try to move on from my own dissatisfaction, they give me guidance on what to do so that I don’t act on emotions I may regret later.  I hope any of these are useful in the future to you, the reader.

Go Watch Jesus of Nazareth

Recently, a friend of mine requested I watch the 1977 miniseries Jesus of Nazareth, directed by Italian Senator Franco Zeffirelli.  I was surprisingly endeared to this miniseries and felt that it was an extremely powerful watch, especially under Quarantine.  So I wanted to talk about it here and give a review.  Mostly though, I will be discussing why I enjoyed it.

The film is a very straightforward reproduction of the life of Christ throughout the New Testament.  The film goes through the major part of his life from his birth to meeting with sinners to his parables to arriving in Jerusalem to his crucifixion and resurrection.  In addition, it actively provides context to events by showing the Romans, Pharisees, and other people as well in the miniseries to understand the stakes for Christ and everyone’s reaction to him.

Before commenting on the film itself, it is worth noting the members of the cast.  The film includes Anne Bancroft, Ernest Borgnine, James Earl Jones, Stacy Keach, Ian McShane, Laurence Olivier, Donald Pleasence, Christopher Plummer, Peter Ustinov, and Michael York.  Those are the names I immediately recognize, but there are still many more that make up the cast.  So the film is full of extremely talented people turning excellent performances that a viewer probably wouldn’t see together elsewhere.

Now, the strength of the film is in its handling of Christ as he deals with the world around him and overcoming skepticism or fear of his message.  The events are played as they would have happened in the bible and the impact is felt as well.  This miniseries gives a real impression of the power and impact of the people involved.

Christ himself is portrayed as very human.  He actually feels emotions such as anger, joy, and everything else one would expect from an actual person.  It serves as a reminder that Christ was both man and God.

However, we are reminded of his God status by the fact that he rarely fits in with human customs.  From eating with sinners to saying he will not support open revolution against the Romans, his entire focus is promoting the kingdom that is to come instead of making peace with the existing world.  As a result, he does not fit in with man and people, even his own disciples, often avoid him.

This does really remind the viewer of God’s goals: save the sinners and protect the faith.  Christ does reachout throughout the film to sinners and only gets angry when the church is being used for personal gain or at odds with salvation.  It clarifies the goals of Christianity and reminds the viewer what Christ came to do on earth.

This therefore is a pretty strong reminder of why Christ is never popular, even when the church is at times in high regard.  Christ himself is aimed at the salvation of mankind, not man’s own satisfaction in this life as it is often fleeting and easy to lose.  This is why he is often rejected by the Pharisees, the Romans, and others as they cannot benefit from his message in this life.

Still, he provides hope to many as he reunites salvation with God and gives a reminder that there is hope for the blind, the outsider, and all others as God gives his salvation to all.  This is perhaps best symbolized by the fact that the Centurion is one of the most (if not the most) faithful person Christ meets.  The Lord’s message is no longer for the Israelites but instead everyone.

Christ says his Kingdom is not of this world and that is why he and his followers are persecuted.  If it cannot be used to support the goals of those in power, it is forgotten.  The film reminds us that often being at odds with the status quo is often why something will inevitably be hated.

The film is a strong example of how to communicate ideas or a message.  Instead of trying to bend out a propaganda piece, it merely shows the life of Christ as written and provides a better understanding of everything going on at the time.  For this reason, I highly recommend a watch as it will remind us of the message of the one true Lord and savior.

At this time, there is a movement to erase history and control morality that has an unsurprising distaste for Christ.  I highly recommend this film as it reminds us of a higher calling and men’s motives in response.  Fortunately, it is on YouTube so if you have 6 hours (seriously), give it a watch.

The Priest is Not His Own: An Overview

            I’ve always had an appreciation for the priesthood.  As a small child, I actually dreamed of becoming a bishop before hearing that I would not be allowed to marry.  However, while I have understood the basics of the priesthood, I wanted to get a greater understanding of its role, nature, etc.  So during a conversation with one of my priests from IU about the priesthood, he recommended the book “The Priest is Not His Own,” by future saint Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, America’s second most famous televangelist (behind only Rev. Billy Graham).  The book was actually such an impressive overview of the priesthood that I felt a need to share it here.

            Now, it should be noted that this isn’t a traditional review like my previous ones.  In this case, I want to discuss the deeper implications and statements of Sheen as opposed to just saying what the book’s good or bad at.  So most of this will actually be aimed at discussing his points. Likewise, I finished this book a couple weeks ago so it has been a while since I’ve read it and I might not be as detailed as I should be.  However, I still wanted to share it here because this is a good book that deserves attention.

            The key to the priesthood is what calls him into the vocation.  The priest is defined as receiving a calling from God to perform his deeds, not acting out his own agency.  His work is God going through him, making the priest little more than a tool of God’s grace so that the Lord’s works may be done for the benefit of mankind.  There is much that must be done in promoting God’s work on this earth so he is the one that must perform that.

            In so doing, the priest is a reconnection between God and man.  Fulton Sheen described him as a literal Jacob’s ladder, allowing man a path towards heaven.  Man was after all separated from God in the Garden of Eden.  So the priest must perform the sacraments and duties of Christ, such as the Eucharist, which bring about that reconnection.  This makes him God’s agent.

            The key to performing this then is the rejection of the self.  The priest must reject the vices of the flesh and overcome his own brokenness.  He must continue to pursue a relationship with God above the moral vices of sin. This is of course what every person is called to as our duty as Christians is to become like Christ. However, the Priest must take this extremely seriously since that is his literal vocation.

            In so doing, sacrifice is a huge part of the priesthood.  The priest must forgo many things of this world in order to emulate his maker.  Suffering and pushing himself for his flock is a huge focus in the book.  He is essentially performing his own crucifixion as he sacrifices himself for God’s offspring.  In this way, becoming Christlike is his goal.

            Yet his humanity is also a huge part of his job.  It allows him to relate to his fellow man and go to them where they are. In this way, he can better connected to people and bring them to Christ.  Though not discussed in the book, this also allows different approaches to the priesthood and allows for more variety in addressing people’s needs. So this connection allows the priest to act as God’s tool yet still bring a needed individual approach.

            The final thing to review in the book is how it is written.  Fulton Sheen is an effective writer and gets his point across clearly.  He provides a lot of information in the book and it becomes easy to all take in.  He is a very good writer and knows a lot about the subject (duh!).  As a result, it makes the book a very effective presentation of the priesthood and its purpose.

            This is more of a Clift notes of the book as Sheen does go into a lot of detail. For that reason, I highly recommend reading it to get the full understanding of the priesthood. However, the overall points explain what the priesthood is and its role in the church, which should be brought to attention.  It simplifies the mystical and makes us better understand its significance.  It further solidifies why Sheen will most likely become a saint and the overall fundamental purpose of Catholicism: following Christ.