The Host Part I

The Host is a relatively new movie with Saoirse Ronan that was written by the same person as the Twilight series (I found this out just now). I never watched any of Twilight, but this Host movie was creepy.

It was creepy because it reminded me of a reverse demon possession.



Usually, in the Bible and in movies, when people are possessed by a demon, they try to destroy their host. For example, "Lord [Jesus], have pity on my son, for he is a [possessed] lunatic and suffers severely; often he falls into fire, and often into water." (Here's another example (Legion).)



There was a reversal of this tendency in The Host. The alien "souls" who were possessing the humans were stopping them from being violent to other humans and the Earth.

Why is this a bad thing? (Why don't you tell me in the comments below?) Perhaps it is because taking away someone's freewill is against God's prime directive (God's will).

(Speaking of prime directive, the Trill on Star Trek (Dax et al.; Dr. Beverly's Trill) had hosts who freely submitted to being used as hosts. So, the same objection can't really be raised in that case.)

Sunday Snippets--A Catholic Carnival Post I

This is for the weekly Catholic Carnival! This is my first one!

Be sure to visit RAnn at This, That and the Other Thing and check out some posts from other bloggers participating in Sunday Snippets this week. Why not join us and share a blog post or two from last week?

Question of the week: Name a favorite book and tell us what you like about it.
My favorite book for now is Fill These Hearts by Christopher West.
I like this book since it presents the Theology of the Body of Pope John Paul the Great in a casual style. This style is further accentuated by his connections between the topic and popular music (a niche of my blog). It was so understandable, in my opinion, that I suggested it to a non-Catholic acquaintance for further understanding of the Theology of the Body (she's from Turkey).

For the week of February ninth:

February tenth:
Commentary on the movie The Lone Ranger with Johnny Depp.
http://wonderingzygoteemeritus.blogspot.com/2014/02/the-lone-ranger-part-i.html
http://wonderingzygoteemeritus.blogspot.com/2014/02/the-lone-ranger-part-ii.html

February twelfth:
Commentary on the movie The Lone Ranger with Johnny Depp.
http://wonderingzygoteemeritus.blogspot.com/2014/02/the-lone-ranger-part-iii.html
Commentary on the creationism/scientism debate between Bill Nye and Bill Ham.
http://wonderingzygoteemeritus.blogspot.com/2014/02/nye-ham-debate-wacky-wednesday.html
Commentary on the TV show The Big Bang Theory theme song.
http://wonderingzygoteemeritus.blogspot.com/2014/02/the-big-bang-theory-theme-song-part-iv.html

February fourteenth:
A video of my Valentine from my wife.
http://wonderingzygoteemeritus.blogspot.com/2014/02/happy-saint-valentines-day.html

Ender's Game Part II

***Spoilers Alert!*** One other big thing in Ender's Game was that Ender unknowingly wiped out the entire alien species, except for what looked like a worker and a queen. This reminded me of that story in the Bible where the Israelites where commanded to put the ban on an entire people, or tribe.



The Israelite king tried to save one person from this enemy nation, but the Israelite prophet Saul chastised him and killed the last one himself.

Just like the whole creation/evolution debate, this genocide problem in the Bible had been thought about from the beginning of Christianity.

The one obvious move was to deny that the Old Testament is really inspired by God or reveals a God that Jesus was talking about in the New Testament. This banning of the Old Testament was declared a heresy called Marcionism by the early Church.

Another option was to see if these and other vexing stories in the Bible (like the creation story in Genesis) could be seen as more allegorical. Origin of Alexandria was a leading proponent of this idea.

Father Barron can say more about this option.



I think this allegorical option is a good one, especially since the Old Testament, "contain[s] matters imperfect and provisional".

Ender knew that the genocide he unknowingly carried out was wrong. He tried to make amends at the end of the movie.

The Church officially has the same take on genocide, it is to be rejected. She is with Ender. She teaches that "One is morally bound to resist orders that command genocide."

Here's Part I.

CA Splitting Up

On yesterday's Wacky Wednesday, I reported that Seal and Heidi Klum may be patching up their marriage.

Not so good news for their state of California: it may be splitting up into six states.

[Tim Draper] proposed dividing California into six states. San Diego and Orange County would make up [1] "South California." [2] "West California" would include Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, while Bakersfield, Fresno and Stockton would make up the larger [3] "Central California." San Francisco and San Jose would be in the new [4] "Silicon Valley." [5] "North California" would include the Sacramento area, and [6] "Jefferson" would be home to the Redding and Eureka areas.

http://news.yahoo.com/petition-split-california-6-states-gets-green-light-213801353--abc-news-topstories.html

Well, Facebook is already prepared. It just added six more gender options to its list.



I already put in brackets ("[ ]") the six regional names that were proposed in the quote above. What do you think the names or nicknames of these regions should be?

Some ideas of mine:

[1] "South California." California Caliente
[2] "West California" California Cara
[3] "Central California." California Liberal
[4] "Silicon Valley." California Próspera
[5] "North California" California Corrupta
[6] "Jefferson" California Ventosa

Wacky Wednesday Klum and Seal

http://shine.yahoo.com/love-sex/could-heidi-klum-seal-reportedly-back-together-202700107.html

 

A Kiss From A Rose is a classic.
Is seems like Seal's range is elastic.
I hope that's it's true:
This picture's a view
Of runways re-latching. Fantastic!

Ender's Game Part I

I read Ender's Game, the 1985 science fiction novel by Orson Scott Card, in a book club a few years ago. The Ender's Game movie, like many movies-from-books, took out many necessary items and added some political jabs (if something is repeated enough, it must be true).

This post is about one of the political jabs in the movie.



Despite the lack of communication from the aliens in the movie (who were not excessively referred to as "bugs" in the movie as they were in the book; more on this in Part II), the humans knew that they were being attacked/annihilated for more land. The additional land for the bugs was necessary since they over-bred on their own planet (they sort-of looked like a cross between an ant and a bee in the movie, at a human scale).

That was the first instance of the so-called over-population meme in the movie. Watch out! or the Earth may turn out like the bug planet.

Second, Ender was the third child of his family. Normally, in the movie universe, a family was permitted to have only two children. Hmm, a two-child policy was the second instance of the over-population meme.

Why do many Christians care about the proliferation of the so-called over-population movement? First, it is not true. We usually don't like falsehood, being one part of the Decalogue n' at.

Second, it treats a family as a ward of the state. The family is pre-state and each particular one determines how that family is constituted within the natural-law framework (man-woman; open to life). Jesus, in the Gospel of Matthew said, "no man must separate" the couple, including in the process of procreation (one-flesh union).

Communist China's one-child policy treats each family as a unit of the state that must follow state laws above all else. However, natural law, which is to regulate state law, takes precedence. The number one natural law is that people are rational creatures who are due respect and dignity of the state, not for the state to claim them as commodity units for its own means or ends.

Many Christians have reported on the brutality and immorality of population control programs, especially in China.

The producers and/or writers of Ender's Game have just jabbed another fictional example of the Malthusian lie of over-population that quite often looks up to China as an ideal for population control.

If it's portrayed enough, it must be true. (sarcasm)

The Big Bang Theory Theme Song Part V

Here are Part I, Part II, Part III, and Part IV.

So, the Ham-Nye debate on creationism-scientism revealed something noteworthy about The Big Bang Theory theme song. It is dead wrong in one stanza.

It all started with the big BANG!

It's expanding ever outward but one day
It will pause and start to go the other way.
Collapsing ever inward, we won't be here, it won't be heard
Our best and brightest figure that it'll make an even bigger bang!

According to Bill Nye in the debate, in 2004, observations were conducted to show that the universe is actually expanding at a greater rate (accelerating) and not going "the other way. / Collapsing ever inward".

It was indeed theorized that the universe was sort-of like a yo-yo that continually expanded asymptotically to a "pause" and then collapsed into another big bang. This idea supposedly helped show that the universe was infinite in age (helped an Atheist argument against God).

Well, without going into philosophical problems about this infinite-universe-from-the-yo-yo idea (how did yo-yo start?), science has further supported the Christian assertion that the universe has a creator, whom Christians call God.

Happy Saint Valentine's Day

Happy Saint Valentine's Day!

From Catholic Online:

Valentine was a holy priest in Rome, who, with St. Marius and his family, assisted the martyrs in the persecution under Claudius II. He was apprehended, and sent by the emperor to the prefect of Rome, who, on finding all his promises to make him renounce his faith ineffectual, commanded him to be beaten with clubs, and afterwards, to be beheaded, which was executed on February 14, about the year 270.

 

My Valentine

 

Follow By Email Widget Now Working

Hello all,

The "Follow By Email" widget that's on the right-hand side of this blog wasn't working. It is now fixed. Please feel free to follow by email.

If you get a chance, please leave a comment or two on a post. I would love to hear from you.

Thanks,
Gerry M

The Lone Ranger Part III

Here's Part I of The Lone Ranger.
Here's Part II of The Lone Ranger.

I was wondering about the possibility that The Lone Ranger movie helps to prove Dr. Craig's knock-down point about Atheist Sam Harris and his Moral Landscape (see the video below at 8:44 for the knock-down argument to Harris' definition of "good").



Perhaps the flourishing of the Cavendish brothers ("conscious creatures"), and really the flourishing of the rest of the country for the "progress" they provided, over the destruction of the tribes they massacred would prove Dr. Craig's point that the definition of the "good" Harris provides is a deal-breaker for his moral landscape argument.

Nye-Ham Debate Wacky Wednesday

So, I thought I would do something different. It is called Wacky Wednesday.

For this installment, I composed a limerick about the Nye-Ham (Bill Nye and Bill Ham) debate between scientism and creationism.

Here's the debate:



Here's the limerick:

Ham and Nye are so very suspicious.
Ham on rye: it is oh so delicious.
Is it God who they seek?
Both their posits are weak.
Without God nothing could be nutritious.

(BTW, this article can shed some light on my limerick: "Creationism Is Materialism's Creation")

The Big Bang Theory Theme Song Part IV

Here are Part I, Part II, and Part III.

Have you noticed that The Big Bang Theory theme song lyrics are mostly descriptive of how the universe and humans came to be?



There are four ways to describe things that Aristotle wrote about, called Aristotle's Four Causes. They are:

1. The material cause; What is the thing made out of?
2. The formal cause; What is the essential structure of the thing?
3. The final cause; Where it the thing headed? What is its purpose or ultimate orientation (telos)?
4. The efficient cause; How did the thing get where it is? How did it come to be?

It seems as if The Big Bang Theory theme song really relays the material and efficient causes but doesn't address the formal and final causes, especially on the portion that is shown on TV.

The only lines that minimally address the formal and final causes are:

Math, science, history, unraveling the mysteries,
That all started with the big bang!
...
Australopithecus would really have been sick of us
Debating how we're here they're catching deer (we're catching viruses)
Religion or astronomy, Descartes or Deuteronomy
It all started with the big bang!

Music and mythology, Einstein and astrology
It all started with the big bang!
It all started with the big BANG!!!

Why does this matter? Many young people think that all one needs to learn about are the material and efficient causes, especially in school.

I was asked once by a middle school student why they needed to learn about formal and final causes (I didn't present the labels formally, but was teaching them nonetheless). The student thought that school was solely about learning what they needed to get a good job, mainly with science and math. I couldn't blame her assessment since public education (in government schools), especially now with Common Core, stresses only material and efficient causes in the classroom.

There are schools which teach the entire range of causes called classical schools (here's a link to an institute on the subject; here's a school list), but they are few in number.

From the link above:

[1] But I observed that even the good artisans fell into the same error as the poets; because they were good workmen they thought that they also knew all sorts of high matters, and this defect in them overshadowed their wisdom.... – Socrates, The Apology

[2] Hence it is that his education is called "Liberal." A habit of mind is formed which lasts through life, of which the attributes are, freedom, equitableness, calmness, moderation, and wisdom.

[3] But education is a higher word [than instruction]; it implies an action upon our mental nature, and the formation of a character; it is something individual and permanent, and is commonly spoken of in connexion with religion and virtue. When, then, we speak of the communication of Knowledge as being Education, we thereby really imply that that Knowledge is a state or condition of mind.... Newman, Idea of a University

May we return to learning about the fullness of God's creation with all its causes.

The Lone Ranger Part II

Here's Part I of The Lone Ranger.



***Spoilers Alert*** In the last post on The Lone Ranger, it was pointed out that the The Lone Ranger was really the natural man as written about in Locke's Two Treatises of Government instead of the scholarly man John Reid.

In this post, I would like to examine the Christians in the movie (without excusing them).

Most of the Christians in The Lone Ranger were hypocrites. The greatest bad guy in the movie, who portrayed himself as a Christian, says of Tonto's village years after he and his brother slaughter them for a fortune in silver, "Nothing is accomplished without sacrifice." (His brother was a cannibal.) The head cavalry man (Was is Custer?) prayed before he mowed down the Native Americans.

Could it be true that we're all hypocrites?

It's the saints who know they're hypocrites, pray to God for forgiveness, and ask for absolution in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Most of the Christians in The Lone Ranger didn't know their hypocrisy. It is in knowledge of ourselves and especially our God that we have hope to escape from our sins. The truth will set us free.

May God forgive us, we know not what we do (Luke 23:34). That's why Jesus is The Way (Acts 9:2) out of hypocrisy.

The Lone Ranger Part I

In a meetup group that I attend, one of the members mentioned that The Lone Ranger with Johnny Depp wasn't that bad. ***Spoilers Alert*** He also mentioned the fact that the man who becomes The Lone Ranger is reading a copy of Locke's Two Treatises of Government in the beginning of the movie.



***Spoilers Alert*** Most reviewers of the movie point to bad images of Christians in the film and how the Native Americans and Chinese were exploited. There was no review that closely examined the man who was The Lone Ranger, John Reid.

Let's give it a go.

Mr. Reid was found among Presbyterians (baptized Christians) on a train heading out west. He was discovered by one of the group carrying John Locke's Two Treatises of Government that he considered "his bible". As a lawyer, he believed that bringing men to justice within the court system was the way to handle every criminal. He would defend this belief for most of the movie with his life.

However, when the rubber hit the road, he had to reevaluate his position. In the end, he believed that he had to personally take the lead to exact justice.

This transformation reminded me of Ambassador and Dr. Mary Ann Glendon's book The Forum and the Tower: How Scholars and Politicians Have Imagined the World, from Plato to Eleanor Roosevelt. In it, she describes how many scholars end up not being effective politicians and vice versa. It takes a special person to pull off both. "Perhaps Plato put it best when he chastised both the man of action who never looks beyond immediate concerns and the scholar who keeps his head in the clouds."

John Reid was an example of the scholar. It took experience to know that most times, people need to take up the mantel of justice themselves or in associations of people, just not leave it to government agency.

This is the irony of the movie: it takes the emergence of The Lone Ranger to actualize Locke's natural man who was John Reid. It took experience in action to understand the Two Treatises.

The parallel for Christians is that Love in action is what actualizes faith in Jesus of the Bible.

And if I have the gift of prophecy and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge; if I have all faith so as to move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing. (1 Corr. 13:2)

The Lone Ranger Part II
The Lone Ranger Part III

Stephanie Gray's Amazing Pro-life Talk

Stephanie Gray at the 2014 Students for Life of America National Conference



Some videos just have to be shown.

Stephanie Gray is the co-founding of the Canadian Centre for Bioethical Reform. If you ever think you may talk to a pro-abortion choice advocate or anyone with that view, I suggest watching this video if no other (over and over again). It's long (1h 4m) and worth the time.

The Wolverine Part II

Here is the last part, Wolverine Part I.



In the last post, I gave one reason why living forever in heaven could be a good thing.

In this post, I would like to give the other. The second reason is that the other possible outcome of death is that we could end up in the other place, hell.

So, whether we like it or not, when we die, we either have everlasting life or, essentially, everlasting death.

This is not meant to scare or tick-off people. If that was the case, I might as well say that we are given the gift of life. Life just is, we didn't create it. Well, life after death just is too. The difference is, we get a say about what happens after life in this fallen universe since we have free will.

That's why Jesus came to redeem all of humanity on the cross. That's why he rose from the dead. That's why He commissioned the Church to go and make disciples of all nations through baptism.

Thank you God, since we can't do it all on our own, that is, get to heaven. We just have to respond to His call to discipleship in His body, the Church.

The Wolverine Part I

Last week, I watched The Wolverine with Hugh Jackman. Logan, Wolverine's real name, constantly regenerates his body, so he essentially can live forever.



This movie was about the idea that living forever is a curse since those whom Wolverine loved would eventually die, while he would continue living. This seemed to be the main reason that perpetual living is a depressing thing.

This got me to thinking about the fact that the main purpose of Christianity is to enable people to get to heaven, to live forever.

In light of this movie, wouldn't living forever be a bad thing? Why would we want to even think about considering the life of the Church if the ultimate outcome will hopefully be heaven?

There are two main reasons that I can see. First, living forever in heaven is not like living forever in this world.

There are two examples that I've heard about that can shed some light on this. One is the lost boys from Uganda. 60 Minutes (CBS News) did a twelve year story on some boys who were displaced (to say the least) by their homes due to war who ended up in Uganda. There was a program during U.S. President W. Bush's time that allowed many of these refugees to come and be naturalized in the U.S.

This is the thing: even though they were taught by an American citizen about the U.S. in a classroom, when the lost boys came to the U.S., they didn't understand what they were seeing at first. Most couldn't determine what was fake, especially on TV.

Another example is the Aztecs in South America when they first encountered the European men. The ships that approached the shore were so novel to the natives, that they actually didn't see them. It took a long time for the new sights to sink in for them to recognize the ships.

Heaven for all people is like American TV and technology is for the lost boys and like the European ships for the Aztecs. No matter how much we might consider the life or reality of heaven, on this side of the veil, we can only speak of everlasting life as a mystery.

Thank God there is Jesus who was there to tell us about it.

The second reason will be in the next post.

Arthur Chu on Jeopardy

So, Arthur Chu has been causing a ruckus on Jeopardy with Alex Trebek. He's been choosing answers pretty much at random which is causing confusion for Alex Trebek and the other challengers. The people on Jeopardy usually go in order in each category for (a) some order and (b) to help Alex Trebek keep things straight.

However, with this powerful strategy, Mr. Chu has upset the status quo on Jeopardy and won over $100,000. Due to his success, he may even change the overall climate on Jeopardy by giving a winning formula to future competitors.

The Church has also disturbed the status quo of society by changing things up.

Someone who messed with the status quo, Dr. King (MLK), said that,

There was a time when the church was very powerful--in the time when the early Christians rejoiced at being deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed. In those days the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society. Whenever the early Christians entered a town, the people in power became disturbed and immediately sought to convict the Christians for being "disturbers of the peace" and "outside agitators."' But the Christians pressed on, in the conviction that they were "a colony of heaven," called to obey God rather than man. Small in number, they were big in commitment. They were too God-intoxicated to be "astronomically intimidated." By their effort and example they brought an end to such ancient evils as infanticide and gladiatorial contests.

May the Church and other ecclesial communities continue to disturb the status quo where it will bring glory to God through justice. Where the Church and other ecclesial communities are an "archdefender of the status quo" or "a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion", may it restart with renewed "God-intoxication".

Phantom Part IV

Here's a link to the post Phantom Part I
Here's a link to the post Phantom Part II
Here's a link to the post Phantom Part III



There's one last thing that I thought was worth noting about the Phantom movie (2013). ***Spoilers Alert!!!*** David Duchovny's character thought his plan to start a war between China and the US would be successful and result in the USSR being the lone super-power of the world. He said that, even though his tactics (means) may be evil, in the end, he would be on the right side of history.

The Christian view is two fold on the "right side of history".

First, God has already won the war against sin and death through the cross and resurrection of Jesus, through Love. The Church is to bring this reality into fruition. All of the Church is commissioned by Christ Himself to gather each member of humanity unto God, through baptism, to save it from sin and death.

Secondly (see this audio at 3:29), there is no right side of history like there's some impersonal force (impersonal judge) involved in shaping creation, sort of like evolution. Instead, since there is personal will and deliberation, people choose to do right or wrong. There is only the right side of the Truth (personal, Divine Judge).

The Truth will be revealed, and it will set us all free.

The Truth set Russia free from Communism. Just ask Pope John Paul II.

Phantom Part III

Here's a link to the post Phantom Part I
Here's a link to the post Phantom Part II

In the last two posts (links above), I wrote about sacraments and sacramentals, but in this post I would like to address the last scene in the movie. ****Spoilers Alert!!!*** It was darn strange. The ghosts of the men who died in the sub, both David Duchovny and Ed Harris' characters together with the rest of the dead crew, showed up on deck.

Many people, including some Christians, get the idea (I think mostly from movies and TV) that ghosts of the dead roam around the Earth for this or that reason.

Well, at least as revealed by the Bible, that is not true. In St. Paul's letter to the Hebrews (9:27-28), it is revealed that we "die once" and then face judgment (particular and final judgment). No roaming, no ghosting, no poltergeisting. Amen.

Phantom Part II

Here's a link to the post Phantom Part I



In the last post about the Phantom movie, I setup the plot of the movie. ***Spoilers Alert!!!*** In this post I would like to talk about a line that David Duchovny's character, Bruni, said. That character was in charge of the Phantom device that fooled enemy ships (and Soviet ones too) into misidentifying the Phantom-carrier ship as some other ship due to the Phantom's sonic emissions.

***Spoilers Alert!!!*** Really, Bruni was trying to use the submarine's nuclear missile to start a nuclear war between China and the US (for the USSR to win the world). But, he needed the captain's and political officer's launch keys and some codes. The captain, let's just say, resisted a little.

When Bruni eventually won over the captain and violently took the key that was on a chain around the captain's neck, he saw a cross there too. Bruni said, "You really think religious icons are gonna save you?"

In the last post, I mentioned that the Sacrament of Reconciliation, or confession, was an encounter with Christ via the priest (in persona Christi) to sacramentally wipe the sin away from the penitent (the one going to confession). There was real grace in the sacrament, as long as the person accepted it, to be used in effecting change in the penitent to, if you will, save him from sins. (This grace is given by Christ to the Church.)

However, religious icons, or "sacramentals" are not revealed to effect the person in the same way as sacraments. Sacramentals like crosses, rosaries, scapulars, other religious art, or religious clothing do not in themselves effect any change in anyone. They are simply aids for Christians to enter more profoundly into prayer or remembrance of sacred things, people, or events.

So, Bruni was right in that religious icons do not save anyone, but it is Christ alone through His Bride the Church (sacramental graces) who saves.

Phantom Part I

Here's a link to the post Phantom Part II
Here's a link to the post Phantom Part III
Here's a link to the post Phantom Part IV

I just watched the 2013 movie Phantom with David Duchovny and Ed Harris. ***Spoilers Alert*** It was about ("based on") a Soviet submarine during the Cuban Missile Crisis (1950's) that was captained by Ed Harris' character and had a secret mission, using the Phantom, that was to be supervised by David Duchovny's character.

This post is about Ed Harris' character who had a very heavy burden that he continued to carry from an earlier captain position. In that former sub tour as captain, he ordered a risky sub maneuver that made him lock some of his crew in an isolated compartment that resulted in their deaths.

This tactic, that should have made him loose his rank or worse, was covered-up because his father was a high leader in Soviet party leadership. Nevertheless, he kept his rank and was given another (secret) mission as Captain in the movie.

He never forgot the mistake he made in pride (the risky sub maneuver) which resulted in giving the order that killed his men.

Before he and his crew are sent on this secret Phantom mission, one of his crew was married in a Russian Orthodox church with the Captain as a witness. After the vows were taken, the Russian Orthodox Priest and the Captain, who had known each other since his marriage, talked.

Russian Orthodox Priest: You wonder why He’s silent and you have so many questions.
Captain: It was always, pretty much, a one way conversation.
…
Priest: It’s as much about what He hears as what He says. Would you like to make a confession?
(Pause)
Captain: Confession for what? Thank you Father.

The Captain could not bring himself to admit that he made a mistake in pride. His conscience did not recognize the sin.

This was from where the idea from Pope Pius XII came that "the sin of the [20th] century is the loss of the sense of sin."

Pope Paul II expands on this idea in an apostolic exhortation:

Nevertheless, it happens not infrequently in history, for more or less lengthy periods and under the influence of many different factors, that the moral conscience of many people becomes seriously clouded. "Have we the right idea of conscience?"-I asked two years ago in an address to the faithful" Is it not true that modern man is threatened by an eclipse of conscience? By a deformation of conscience? By a numbness or 'deadening' of conscience," Too many signs indicate that such an eclipse exists in our time. This is all the more disturbing in that conscience, defined by the council as "the most secret core and sanctuary of a man," is "strictly related to human freedom.... For this reason conscience, to a great extent, constitutes the basis of man's interior dignity and, at the same time, of his relationship to God." It is inevitable therefore that in this situation there is an obscuring also of the sense of sin, which is closely connected with the moral conscience, the search for truth and the desire to make a responsible use of freedom. When the conscience is weakened the sense of God is also obscured, and as a result, with the loss of this decisive inner point of reference, the sense of sin is lost. This explains why my predecessor Pius [XII], one day declared, in words that have almost become proverbial, that "the sin of the century is the loss of the sense of sin."

The "numbness of conscience" was surely widespread in Communist Russia.

However, it was the father-ness of the priest that saw the Captain's pain from hidden guilt. He knew that the Sacrament of Reconciliation, or confession would start the healing process. Jesus through His Church is the Great Physician who knows that our sins weigh us down. We just need to acknowledge and turn away from them and back to Christ. He wants to take that burden away from us through the grace of the sacrament (the Catholic ER's - the Sacraments of Eucharist and Reconciliation - for small (venial) and great (mortal) sins, respectively).

It is through the priest that the Captain can sacramentally talk to Jesus (in persona Christi - in the person of Christ). In the sacrament, he can have a conversation that can answer many of his questions.

Fr. Barron can explain it further.