Fr Barron - the next generation

- Fr. Benjamin

Fr. Robert Barron teaches at Mundelein Seminary in Illinois. He speaks about the fundamental priorities of my generation of priests. We aren't very interested in the "old battles" of the post-Vatican II period that the older generation was passionate about. We see a culture that no longer believes the Christian story, or believes it in a way that is inadequate and ultimately ineffective to transform life. We are willing to use anything from the Catholic tradition that brings the Christian message to those who have not heard it.

Defiance (movie review)

Monday night I had a chance to watch the movie Defiance. Although it has been promoted as an action film, with a gun toting Daniel Craig on the posters, his character in the film is more complex. He decides to make the defense of displaced Jews his first priority, rather than assault on Germans, and this decision comes to define him and the movie. This subtle heroism in the face of evil is what undergirds the whole movie and gives it value even though the dialogue is not particularly memorable and the secondary characters are not well fleshed out.
I loved the realism with which the movie is filmed. It is set in Belarus in 1941 and the movie takes extra care to reflect the people and the time in which it is set, including extensive use of local dialogue and English which reflects their character as Slavic people. Were they not Jews, they would be too poor and unimportant to figure in American film, but I was glad that the movie made them not only Jews but Belorussians. Unfortunately the realistic feel of the film is weakened by the action scenes which focus on noise and blur and rattling machine guns.
Of particular worth is that the movie is thoroughly Pro-Life. Of course, a film about protecting Jews is always pro-life, but the characters are actually faced with an unplanned pregnancy (due to a rape!) and have to decide if this life, too, is worth making the effort to save. Kudos for sticking to the fundamental values of the story even when it would be easier not to.

- Fr. Benjamin

Fr Benjamin's Homily for Jan 25th

Paul's conversion and ours

Peter heard the call of Jesus and followed. Paul, trying to defend God by persecuting Jesus, was turned around by the grace of God. We in our own life may respond to God's gentle invitation, as with Peter, or we tempt God's grace to use more jarring means.

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Fr. Joel's homily for Jan. 25

Jan25 - Conversion to Belief in Christ
The Conversion of St. Paul. Today's Gospel tells a story with a great twist: Paul, a great Jewish student and persecutor of Christians, becomes a Christian himself and a great preacher. He teaches us that Christianity is all about Christ. He shows us where we can encounter Christ, and reminds us what might happen to us if we try to run from Jesus Christ. (25 Jan 2009)
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It was so Cold, my Oil Froze!

Last week I was called out to the hospital to anoint a sick person. He had become suddenly ill at home and was rushed to the hospital. The family was shocked and upset when I met them in the ICU. "Father, can you anoint him please?" We went in together.
I have nifty kit I use for anointing of the sick. It consists of a glass bottle of oil, the ritual book that contains the prayers, and a small stole, all contained in a leather Bible case. I keep the kit in my car so I can always have it with me. When I took out the stole I observed that it was cold and stiff. This week the weather had been below 0 degrees for 52 hours and everything was cold. Even though my car sits in a garage the kit had still become very chilly. I said some of the introductory prayers and took out the oil to anoint him.
The oil was frozen.
I shook the bottle upside down and nothing would come out. As the family cried softly in the background, I commented to myself, "I guess my oil is frozen." Awkward silence followed as I looked around for a quick solution. Maybe I could dig the oil out with my pocket knife. I opened the small blade, scooped out a dollop of oil and wiped it on my thumb. The I reached towards his forehead and said, "By this holy anointing..." and the oil slipped right off my thumb and fell on his shoulder. It was rapidly changing consistency from lotion to oil. I scooped it up again with my fingers and anointed his forehead. It left the usual light smear of olive oil, but one little stubborn bit sat up defiantly and refused to melt. Then I dug out another glop of oil with the pocketknife and, carefully balancing it on my thumb, I anointed his hands.
"Thank you so much, Father," the family said through sobs.
I finished the prayers and discretely slipped the bottle in my pocket to warm it up.

Ministry is full of surprises.

PS: By popular request as a followup to a previous posting, here is a picture of me all dressed up and ready for cold weather.

Pope TV

- Fr Benjamin

The Vatican has launched a channel on YouTube which will post clips of Pope Benedict's activities:
http://www.youtube.com/vatican

This is a big step from that brave new world when papal events would appear on newsreels before the feature film.

Fr Benjamin's Homily for Jan 18th

Answer God when he calls

Usually we are so busy we can't hear God call, or we are convinced he is calling someone else and not us. Even when we realize it is God, we first want to evaluate our options and consider the cost.

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Fr. Joel's homily for Jan. 18

Ord2 - Vocation to Follow Jesus
Ordinary Time, Second Sunday. Today's Gospel is the vocation story of John, Andrew and Simon Peter. Jesus calls each of us to follow him in our own special and unique way. Why do we hesitate to follow Jesus. Are we afraid we will not be happy? Are we afraid He will abandon us? Are we afraid that we really aren't great enough to follow him? Maybe we just have a hard time hearing his voice. Vocation is about us finding who we were meant to be with God's help. Like Samuel, we need to have an attitude of attentive listening. (18 Jan 2009)
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White and Drifting Snow

Fr. Joel

Last winter was, well, very wintery. Having recently spent time in Italy, I would often walk outside in only a sweater or vest, only to have to turn around and put on a heavy coat. I decided this winter, I would be prepared. The first thing I had to deal with was tires that were nearly bald. I shopped around a bit once the cold weather came, but then with time running out I finally got the job done at the beginning of November, just before the first large snowfall. I spent extra for tires that were rated well in snow. At Thanksgiving, I figured it was one of the last nice days so I finally washed and waxed my car so the salt and grime wouldn't affect it so much. Good thinking, considering the ice storm we got one Sunday morning in January.




Most people might consider this to be prepared, but I wasn't done yet. Not by a long shot. I love hats and I can never understand people that go out without one. However, with hats you usually have to choose between two options. On the one hand, there are nice baseball caps that keep your face protected, but sacrifice your ears. On the other hand there are stocking caps that keep the ears toasty but let snow and sleet attach your face. Enter the Stormy Kromer, a perfect winter hat made in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. If you don't mind the "Civil War Soldier" look, your face and ears are well-protected.
Ever notice how important are warm feet? The rest of you can be toasty warm but if your feet get cold you will be miserable. I frequently need to wear dress shoes, such as when celebrating Mass. Dress shoes do not protect you from the cold, nor prevent your sliding around on the snow. I looked at some boots and finally settled for an old-fashioned solution: overshoes. They make this nifty versions now that cover your shin. You can walk through blizzards, step inside, and have perfectly warm and dry feet. Even better, your shoes don't squeak because they are not wet. Our grandparents were geniuses.

Some people might have accused me of being over-prepared. Those people do not live in Wisconsin, or if they do, they are currently recovering from pneumonia. We got record snow fall in December. When we wake up to sunny days, it is because the weather is freezing cold. Like today, -17 this morning. Actual temperature; windchill was -35.

I may look pretty goofy all dressed up but at least I'm warm. Yes, its been a wonderful Wisconsin winter for all those with a steady supply of hot chocolate and home-made marshmallows.

Fr Benjamin's Homily for Jan 11th

Jesus is baptized for our sins

Water represents life and refreshment, and chaos and death. Using that double-meaning, Jesus enters the waters not with his own sins but with ours, so that we can be purified of our sins and become truly the sons and daughters of the God whom we call Father.

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Fr. Joel's homily for Jan. 11

Chr4 - You are My Beloved Son
Christmas, Baptism of the Lord. Today Jesus receives his "fundational identity" in the words, "You are my Beloved Son." This is Jesus' Vocation. Vocation consists of three levels:
The Universal (What does it mean to be a human being?)
The Gender-specific (What does it mean to be a man or woman?)
The Individual and Unique (What does it mean to be me?)
Our Universal call means that we have the same "foundational identity" - we are beloved sons and daughters of God. This is who we are. People ask, "What am I supposed to do with my life?", but if we really knew who we were, the answer would be easy. Do you truly live as a son or daughter or God? (11 Jan 2008)
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Film Studio Bailout Deal

Fr. Benjamin
Three major film studios are petitioning congress for $12.5 billion in bailout funds. Warner Brothers, 20th Century Fox, and Paramout Pictures met behind closed doors today with several senators and congressmen, making their case to save the US film industry with massive injections of capital.

The studios say that without these funds they will soon be bankrupt, crippling the industry and causing massive job losses in an already depressed economy. "The handwriting is on the wall," said an employee close to the talks on condition of anonymity, "sooner or later the public will realize we aren't offering anything new and they will simply watch old films instead. We need to turn this around before that happens."

Observers have long criticized the industry for regurgitating comic books, video games, popular books and old movies and passing them off as new films. "The movie industry used to be healthy and vibrant, but today it primarily survives like cannibalistic zombies," said Bill Anderson of Movie Times. Zombies have been a major factor in 38 feature films released since 2000.

Studio executives claim the recession is the main reason their income is down, and argue that stimulus money will help jump-start the American economy. But the mood in Hollywood is more panic than optimism. The long-running James Bond franchise has been revived several times, but it is becoming more and more difficult to attract audiences to a film they feel they have seen before. While a revived Batman series has helped Warner Brothers cover costs at the moment, they are rapidly running out of villains for the title character to fight. With the end of the Harry Potter films in sight and little promise on the horizon, studios are getting desperate.

"Serious films have become almost an oxymoron," said Anderson, "even the few bright lights in Hollywood are so disconnected from real life that their dramas have little connection to the world people experience. They tend to market emotion and provoke a response with little content."

It is doubtful that the Obama administration will accept a bailout deal unless it contains provisions for protecting American jobs. American studios have been moving production to countries such as New Zealand and Australia in an effort to cut costs. Also, lucrative leading roles have gone to actors like Russel Crowe, Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale and Keira Knightely, none of whom are American. Observers close to the talks expect studios receiving bailout funds would be banned from hiring foreign talent.

Studios say they need the funds to develop new cutting edge technologies that will dazzle the audiences of tomorrow. Digital technologies have not kept pace with the increasing demand for fantastic action and stunt scenes, studios say. They are also concerned that there is a limited number of perfect human bodies that can be used for explicit scenes. Some of the bailout money might be used for genetically modified women who possess all the right curves while being as slender as possible.

Analysts expect a cold reception by congress, who hope the studios can survive with box office receipts from this coming year. Anticipated releases for 2009 include Angels and Demons, based on the popular book, a new Harry Potter film, another Star Trek film, a sequel to the Pink Panther remake, a Wolverine film based on the X-men movies taken from the comic books, a second Transformers movie based on children's toys, and the fourth movie about a homicidal cyborg from the future, Terminator: Salvation. If audiences flock to these movies, one or more of the studios might survive without a bailout.

Fr Benjamin's Homily for Jan 4th

God is mystery revealed in Christ

The mysteries of faith are not problems that we can solve, they can be known only by revelation. God reveals himself to the nations and to us at the Epiphany. Like the Magi, we should also seek God, following the guidance of the signs and experiences of our life, and the guidance which faith offers.

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Fr Benjamin's Homily for New Year's Day

Christ has one face

We tend to live with two faces, one looking at the past and one looking at the future. Instead, God invites us to be focused on the present, because it is in the present that He works and transforms lives. The feast of Mary, Mother of God, celebrates exactly the fact that Mary's son does not have two faces, but one, and through the human face we see the face of God.

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Fr. Joel's homily for Jan. 1

I couldn't record my homily today, so I typed it instead. I hope you enjoy reading.

Christmas, the Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God.

Happy New Year!
In many Asian cultures, it is very important to start the new year off right. The children try to treat elders with the utmost respect and be as good as possible on this day so that the New Year gets off to a good start. We have all started off right by coming to Mass today on the feast of Mary, the Mother of God.

This feast used to be called the feast of the Circumcision. The Mosaic law prescribed circumcision eight days after birth. On this day, Jesus received his circumcision. In celebrating this feast, we recalled that Jesus was a Jewish child. He was raised according to all the laws and traditions and cultures of the Jewish people. Early Christian writers recognized in this day the sacrifice of Jesus. This was the first time Jesus shed his blood. This little sacrifice called to mind how Christ had come to save us by the shedding of his blood.

In the modern calendar, the focus of the feast has shifted to the Motherhood of Mary, with the consequence that men are much more comfortable. Mary, the Mother of God -- what does it mean? Mary offered her Motherhood in the service of God. She received the Divine Life, carried it in her womb, and then birthed this life into the world. Mary made the sacrifice of her own body, her own life, so that we could receive the our Savior and Eternal Life. In doing so, she has become the model of all motherhood.

What does Mary show us about Motherhood? Motherhood is about new life. It is about receiving life, nurturing that life, and bringing it forth into the world. Only women are capable of carrying a new human life. However, motherhood doesn't stop with the birthing of a child. In addition the the purely biological motherhood, there is something more important. We human beings are both biological and spiritual. The biological reality points to a more fundamental Spiritual reality. In this case, the biological gift that is Motherhood points to the more important reality of Spiritual Motherhood. A woman named Katrina Zeno in her book Every Woman's Journey defines spiritual motherhood as, "nurturing the emotional, moral, cultural, and spiritual life of others."

It is uniquely the woman's gift to nurture in this way. Pope John Paul II called this gift, "The Genius of Women". A genius is someone who can do things the rest of us cannot do. Michaelangelo and Leonardo were geniuses. They could take paint and create something fantastic. They could take an ordinary block of marble and create something new and beautiful from it. In the same way, a woman can do something no other person can do. She can nurture the emotional, moral, cultural and spiritual life of others. This is the genius of women.

If a woman does not fulfill her role of Spiritual Motherhood, no one can take her place. Just as a man cannot bear a child, so a man cannot be a Spiritual Mother. When a woman is in labor, the man is forced to stand idly by. As much as he might like to help, the woman has to do all the work. But the fact that he is standing by is very important. The fact that a man is standing by to help, and is there to catch the baby, makes a huge difference in the life of both the mother and the child. A man must never discount his role simply because the woman seems to be taking care of things. Men support, protect and help women in their role as Spiritual Mothers. I cannot tell you how many women I have talked to who have suffered greatly because the men around them did not accept their motherhood, be it biological or spiritual. The men wanted women to be something else besides mothers, and in doing so harmed not only the women, but the whole human family. A man indeed plays a marvelous role in the Spiritual Motherhood of women.

Today we celebrate Motherhood. We celebrate the fact that Mary sacrificed her life and her body to bring the world a savior. We celebrate all the sacrifices that every woman makes in living as a spiritual mother. Today, baby Jesus bled for us in a small sacrifice. His small sacrifices would add up to our salvation. In the same way, Mary's many small sacrifices added up to the Savior. Every human being owes its life to the Motherhood of a woman; we owe our Eternal Life to the Motherhood of the woman named Mary. She received the Divine Life, nurtured it, and birthed him into the world. She gave birth not only to his life, but to the entire Christian World. As we celebrated the 2009th Year of Our Lord, we entrust the coming year to the Motherhood of Mary. May she teach us how to receive the Divine Life, nurture it, and give birth to Christ in our world today.

1 Jan. 2009