Favorite Flicks: My Picks

This morning as I was gathering up my stuff at the conclusion of our Wednesday morning Bible Study, one of the participants approached me and asked an unexpected question. Where it came from I haven't a clue, and I probably should have asked that of the questioner. But I'd been taken by surprise and wasn't prepared to examine motives or offer an answer. She had simply asked, "What are your favorite movies?"

It's not the sort of question one expects after an hour of enthusiastic discussion of the relationships among Abraham, Sarah, Hagar, Ishmael, Isaac, Abimelech, and God Himself. My first thought was to avoid the question by saying, "I really don't go to the movies very often." This really is the truth, as Dear Diane, an avid movie-goer, will be happy to confirm. But I realized that would have been a cowardly cop-out, so I simply put off the inevitable and replied, "Let me think about that. I'll let you know next week." I hoped that after a week's delay she might forget and I could as well. This, of course, will not happen.

I suppose I could have blurted out a few safe answers, like, "Gone with the Wind, It's a Wonderful Life, and Doctor Zhivago." Or, even better, I could have just ignored the question and made some polite excuse for having to leave quickly. After all, the answers to these kinds of questions often have a dark side, and cause others to think differently about you, perhaps unfairly. 

I remember participating in  a workshop (or was it a seminar? who knows the difference?) well over 40 years ago. Aimed at new youth group catechists, the day-long, Saturday-wasting program was conducted by a team of facilitators employed by a diocese in California that will remain unnamed. The program opened with a question: "If you were an animal, what would you be?" We then spent a half-hour -- that's 30 long minutes -- in small groups defending our critter choice before exposing it to the entire class and allowing others to cheer or jeer at our selection of totem spirit. As you can imagine it was a bizarre experience, and I still don't understand its purpose. 

Dung Beetles at Work

My choice, however, generated serious scorn from the facilitators until I explained my rationale. You see, I told all present that if I were an animal, I'd be a dung beetle. The facilitators correctly assumed I was cynically deriding their silly question in particular and their seemingly useless workshop in general. But in the face of their criticism, I assumed an air of a deeply hurt participant. The dung beetle, I explained, is among the humblest of God's creatures, and offers us the perfect, paradigmatic model of self-effacement and abandonment to the will of God. (Facilitators respond really well to phrases like this.) Well...for the rest of the morning I was the fair-haired child whose opinion was actively sought. This changed radically when, during our lunch hour, I made the mistake of telling a couple of other participants that my "dung beetle thing" was all a joke. One of them ratted me out to the facilitators and for the rest of the day I was persona non grata. It was a very unpleasant afternoon.

So I guess the best approach is simply to tell the truth and reveal my favorite movies to her who asked me...and to you, my select, holy remnant of readers. I won't provide more than a simple rationale for my flick picks, simply because I don't have the time to offer more detail. So...here goes, my five-star movies in no particular order.


Groundhog Day (1993). I love this movie, simply because it's a wonderful, funny story of gradual (very gradual) self-awareness, repentance, and redemption. As the story progresses we see the transformation of a man from a self-centered and pitied misanthrope to a selfless, caring person who has learned that the gift of life demands a loving response. And this conversion occurs despite the fact that he sees no escape from his predicament, one which can be described only as supernatural. Although God is rarely mentioned in the film, the situation in which the hero finds himself can come from no other source. Bill Murray is at his wackiest best and I can't imagine any other actor in the role of Phil the once-pompous, self-absorbed TV weatherman.  A clip:

Tender Mercies (1983). Robert Duvall played the role of Mac Sledge, a seemingly washed-up alcoholic country-western singer, and he played it to perfection -- so perfectly he won an Oscar for best actor. The story is one of redemption and conversion (Do you see a pattern here?), and a story of the importance of family. It's a story of God's continual call to the sinner, to each and every one of us; and it's a story God's tough love, of His forgiveness and our need to extend it to and ask it of others. The script was rejected time and again by many directors who were no doubt turned off by its openly Christian theme. Remarkably, Robert Duvall did all his own singing in the film -- an example:

Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986). Okay, I like this movie -- really like this movie -- because it's so uproariously funny and depicts the teenager most guys wish they were back when. Matthew Broderick was perfectly cast in the title role, so well cast that I find it hard to think of him as anyone else. The story might demand a suspension of disbelief to an extraordinary degree but that's true of many good comedies. It's all about a high school student who decides to act sick so he can enjoy a day off from the tedious boredom that most parents and educators inflict on their charges. The day that follows, a day into which he recruits his friend, Cameron, is anything but boring. But throughout it all, despite Ferris' cocky attitude and total chutzpah, we encounter a likable character who cares about his friends and their problems. We also sympathize with him as he tiptoes through the minefield of typical teen problems generated by clueless parents, jealous younger siblings, suspicious and bureaucratic school officials, and distressed friends. It's the perfect movie to watch when you have a day off. Here's the opening scene. It sets the stage for all that follows:

The Wind and the Lion (1975). As a retired naval officer I can't help but like this movie. It has a great cast that includes Sean Connery, Candice Bergen, and Brian Keith. A fictionalized account of an incident that took place in Morocco in 1904 in which an American woman (Candice Bergen) and her two children were kidnapped by a Berber rebel (Sean Connery) with the intent of creating an international incident. (The reality was quite different, but it's a movie so we expect to encounter a little alteration.) In response to a ransom demand, the US President, Theodore Roosevelt (Brian Keith), decides to make use of the incident in his campaign for reelection. The story continues developing the relationship between the Berber rebel and the kidnapped American. My favorite scene involves none of the principle characters but depicts a contingent of US Marines sent to convince the Bashaw in Tangier to pay the ransom. The Marines are, of course, magnificently successful. It's a complicated plot, but a wonderful story. My kind of movie. Here's the trailer:

That's enough for now. Maybe more another day.

Homily 3rd Sunday of Easter

Readings: Acts 5:27-32,40-41; Ps 30; Rv 5:11 -14; Jn 21: 1-19

I’m not a big moviegoer, but among my favorites is a 1983 film starring Robert Duvall called Tender Mercies. It tells a remarkable story, a story of loss and gain, a story of sinfulness, and pain, and repentance, and forgiveness, and love, and redemption. And blended into this very human mix is the grief that comes from the loss of a loved one and the faithful acceptance of the mercy of God. It's an acceptance that God ultimately brings everything – even those very hard things of life, even the evils that plague our world – that He brings all of this to good.

Tender Mercies tells a story of human happiness, a happiness that is never perfect simply because it is human. It reminds us that what God asks of us in this life doesn’t promise success in the way you and I measure it. The film has a “semi-happy” ending and subtly makes the point that the true happy ending God promises comes later, not here, and those Christians who think otherwise only fool themselves.

A lot of folks are here today, especially during this Easter season, expecting to encounter another happy ending; and their mistake is in thinking that Jesus did all the work on Calvary, leaving nothing for us to do. But the Gospel tells us otherwise, doesn’t it?

In today’s passage from John’s Gospel, Jesus appears to his disciples for the third time after His crucifixion on Good Friday. And if you’re here today just looking for a happy ending to this, you’re going to be disappointed.

You see, this sacred liturgy is no infomercial. It doesn’t promise instant gratification or success. And it certainly doesn’t promise a happy ending in this life. No, instead it challenges us by placing before us something far greater and gives us the opportunity to live out the story God has planned for us. And whether this story has a happy ending is largely up to you and me.

Now, some folks believe that following Jesus will make life all rosy and sweet. But Jesus tells us otherwise. There will be days when your life in Christ will leave you with more questions than answers, more pain and sorrow than happiness, more rejection than acceptance. Yes, Christ is the answer…but only when you and I ask the right questions.

Each of the Gospel encounters with the risen Jesus – from Mary Magdalene to St. Paul – is different and each is unsettling. Not once does the risen Christ give a crystal clear answer to the questions His disciples ask. Not once does the risen Christ promise a happy ending. Indeed, his message goes against what the world tells us to do.

The world says, “Follow our rules and everything will be wonderful.” But Jesus doesn’t say that. No, Jesus instead tells Peter, “Follow me.” Following the world’s rules may keep us out of trouble in the here and now, but it won’t get us to heaven. Jesus says, “Follow me!” – words that demand a radical change in way we live our lives, a radical change that can turn our lives upside down. When we follow Jesus, status and position and politics and wealth no longer matter, possessions become worthless, disabilities become strengths, all those past mistakes that litter our lives simply disappear.

Just look at Peter in today’s Gospel passage. Peter and his friends were at a loss. They neither knew nor understood what would be expected of them. They knew only that Jesus had risen! He was alive! What need could their risen Lord possibly have of them now, especially since they had all failed Him, abandoned Him in His time of greatest need? And so they had returned to what they knew best: the Sea of Galilee. They went fishing.

But now Jesus is calling out to them from the shore. The beloved disciple, the very one who had brought Peter to the high priest’s courtyard and overheard his denials, announces “It is the Lord!” Peter, filled with remorse and yet overcome by joy, sees his chance for restoration and leaps into the water and wades ashore…toward Jesus.

The last time we saw Peter he had denied Jesus three times, first at the door leading into the high priest’s courtyard, then twice more while warming himself by a charcoal fire. It’s no accident, then, that Peter now stands before another charcoal fire, a fire made by the Lord Himself on the shore of the sea.

And as Peter and his friends watch, the risen Jesus performs the most human of acts, he cooks a meal. He makes breakfast for these men, who are filled with anticipation, wondering what Jesus will say and do, wondering why He has come to them. But Jesus takes His time, doesn’t He?

Finally, He addresses Peter, asking him to confirm his love: “Simon, son of John, do you love me? Three times Jesus asks this question, echoing Peter’s three denials, and three times Peter answers in love. Oh, it makes the Apostle uneasy, but Jesus makes His point and Peter comes to understand that he has been forgiven, also in love.

And Peter learns something else that day: that he has been commanded to care for and lead this tiny group of disciples, this as yet unformed Church, this flock of sheep that will soon be in need of a shepherd.

In time Peter comes to accept fully the role he has been assigned by God. We see stark evidence of this in our first reading from Acts in which he stands before the high court boldly declaring that the nascent Church must obey God rather than men.

And Peter, too, will come to know what following Jesus can lead to. Peter will carry this knowledge to Rome itself. As an old man, he stretched out his hands, was dressed and girded by the soldiers of Nero, and made to climb. Knowing his unworthiness to die as his Master died, and filled with humility, he will ask to be crucified with his feet upward. And there in Rome its first bishop dies with his face low to the ground, breathing in the dust of men. But In his heart he is still on the shore of Galilee, with the voice of Christ speaking to him, yesterday, today, and forever. "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" "Yes, Lord, you know I love you." Feed my sheep!

You see, brothers and sisters, when like Peter we encounter the risen Christ up close and personal, all that matters is the love of God, and the willingness not to change, but to be changed.

…to allow the power of God to take our lives and transform them.

…the same power of God that transformed fishermen and tax collectors into apostles who willingly gave their lives to spread the Good News.

…the same power that turned a sinful Samaritan woman at the well into the first missionary.

…the same power of God that transformed the pain of sickness and disability into an opportunity to give witness.

And so, when you and I turn away from all that went before and follow the risen Christ, we shouldn’t be surprised when our lives becomes something very different from what we anticipated.

As Our Lord issues His call to each of us, He sends His Holy Spirit into this church to challenge you, to entice you, to dare you to take the risk of following Him on a path that is less than certain. God calls us from the comforts of our lives, from the fishing on the lake, and tells us bluntly: If you love me, you will stretch out your hands, and follow me, wherever I lead you.

Yes, it’s a path that always includes the cross. But it’s also a path filled with God’s tender mercies, and the only path that leads to eternal life, the true happiness for which you and I were created.

Praised be Jesus Christ!