Atonement Movie Sets a Narcissistic Tone

***Spoilers Alert!*** Atonement is described by one author as a movie with "an attempted act of reparation [that] is exposed as narcissistic self-deception". Ouch. Sometimes the truth hurts.

Image Source: http://www.conspicere.se/category/film/page/2/

Self-deception is one of the things that Easter is meant to get us out of.

Behold! Awaken! Be amazed! We are not ultimately meant to be dirt, perishing in the ground. Instead, Jesus' resurrection is meant to focus our attention toward what God has in store for all of us, freedom.

What is the content of that freedom? The hope in that we will share in what Jesus has and has became. To be victorious over sin, corruption, and death as is it.

It can often be painful in the here and now, especially as our wickedness is wicked from our lives though our cross. But the finish line is there: the resurrected Jesus is holding it before us while he holds the true cross, the sign of our journey and victory.

In short, we should stop deceiving ourselves, shake off our sin with its self-absorption, and follow Christ to the cross and then onto resurrection.

Meaning of Easter by Fr. Barron

Posting will resume after the first Sunday of Easter.

Have a Happy Easter!

In the meantime, Fr. Barron on the meaning of Easter.

Some points:
Jewish expectations after one dies.
Novel idea of encounter of betrayers and returning betrayed.
Novel idea to bring peace to Earth.

How I Live Now Part VI Lent Edition

**Spoilers Alert!*** In this post on the movie How I Live Now, a connection will be made between the last post about fasting and the post about Daisy's dialog.

Image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mirror_of_erised/9627836210/meta/

During the movie, Daisy went through a transformation in three main steps. Daisy said, "Before the war, I used my will power for stupid stuff like not eating chocolate." During the war, as was mentioned in the last post, she had to give up many things to help the war effort. In the post with her dialog, she gave things up for the sake of Eddie.

In Lent, many of us give up "stupid stuff" like chocolate, sweets, or ice cream. This is a good start, for to get to the last stage like Daisy did, it has to start with the small things. It may seem stupid in the beginning, but with reflection, it may turn out that it wasn't so stupid after all.

Since we are corporal beings ("embodied souls"), quite often it takes corporal actions for us to realize things. For Daisy, it could well be the case that the "stupid stuff" was actually a jumping off for her next challenge during the war that is shown in the image above, namely, taking care of her cousin.

In a similar way, even though our motives may not be the best for fasting from whatever we gave up, we may eventually realize in a more profound way what the fasting is for (like in the last post).

From there, as a final goal, fasting during Lent will hopefully lead us to reach out for Our Lord as Daisy reached out for Eddie. "Now I use my will power to wait for you Eddie."

May we use our will power to (1) love God and neighbor and (2) wait for the Lord at His second coming for, "Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again." Amen.

How I Live Now Part I
How I Live Now Part II
How I Live Now Part III
How I Live Now Part IV
How I Live Now Part V Ash Wednesday Edition