Savior on the Silver Screen

or: Meeting Jesus at the Movies

Sister Rose Pacatte, FSPNovember 2013

National Catholic Youth ConferenceSisterRoseMovies.net

Daughters of St. Paul

Savior on the Silver Screen

Meeting Jesus at the movies might seem impossible to some … this session will look at sacramental ways to find God in the dark and secrets to discovering heroes who exemplify the teaching of the Lord Jesus in laughter and tears.

Andre’ BazinFrench Catholic Film Critic

“Cinema has always been interested in God.”

The Bible: Episode 7

• Jesus Walks on Water• http://youtu.be/zdH2TgTJDXE

Cinema as sacrament

Cinema makes visible invisible realities• Transcendence• Grace• Encounter• Senses• Imagination• Spirituality

“Meta-phors be with you!”

• A figure of speech, a non-literal analogy, comparison, symbol• Word, painting, picture, image, • Makes a point about something through a story

Permission for art pending

Difference between “truth” and “fact”

• Scripture: It’s all true and some of it actually happened

• Cinema: What is true, transcendent, and did it actually happen?

Difference between movies and cinema

• Movies are big blockbuster experiences and created for a vast consumer audience; highly artistic and hi tech; often preference action over story. Man of Steel …

• Cinema is art; enables profound learning experiences about the lives of others near and far. Life is Beautiful.

• To the extent that these stories are about the human experience, they reveal people’s faith and God’s action in the world.

• Cinema (and world cinema) invites us to walk in the shoes of people we might not otherwise meet.

The meaning of the films rises from the relationships of the characters with one another, their society, their environment and beliefs.

It is in these stories’ exquisite expressions of human love that God is revealed for the characters and for the audience.

Ineffable: too great to be expressed in words

How’s your vision?

What makes up your viewing lens?

• Family• Faith formation• School• Life experience• Human and moral development• Your image of God and the human person

Values: Your Big 3

• What are the 3 main values that guide your life?

• Values are those overarching ideas or ideals that guide our lives

1.2.3.

Who is God for you?

• Bruce Almighty: Bruce meets God

• http://youtu.be/bjAM2J_D4UY

What is your image of God?

• Wit: The Runaway Bunny• http://youtu.be/eucAdWW-4HM

Ways of seeing

Theology of the Incarnation: God became one of us; God loves us unconditionally; God is with us always

“For God did not send his son into the culture to condemn the culture, but that the culture might be saved through Him.” cf. John3:17

And then there’s Matthew 13…

Matthew 13 paraphraseThe disciples approached him and said, "Why do you speak to the people through movies?” He said to them in reply, "Because knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven has been granted to you, but to them it has not been granted.“To anyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich; from anyone who has not, even what he has will be taken away. This is why I speak to them in movies, because 'they look but do not see and hear but do not listen or understand.’But blessed are your eyes, because they see, and your ears, because they hear.Amen, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.Listen then the movie means ….

This is why I speak to them in movies, because 'they look but do not see and hear but do not listen or understand.’ But blessed are your eyes, because they see, and your ears, because they hear. Amen, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.

Listen then the movie means ….

Theology of Cinema

• “You will need to know what you believe about God as well as God’s ongoing, eternal communication with us”

- Meredith Gould in the “The Social Media Gospel”

Waking Life: Holy Moments

Some of the best religious films don’t start out about God at all but are stories about a character’s journey, his or hers search for meaning, forgiveness, or transcendence in the stories they tell. God is present in these spaces…

As with the Scriptures, It is in and through the complexities of our human experience that the face of God is revealed. Cinema, and even movies at times, tell stories of grace and God’s love.

What is truly human is truly of the Gospel;What is of the Gospel is truly human

– Vatican II Gaudium et spes

The Hunger Games Trailer

• http://youtu.be/FovFG3N_RSU

The Hunger Gamesas cultural parable

• Two societies: one decadent and morally bankrupt; the other poor, oppressed

• The oppression of the people• Superficiality• Abuse of power• The spiritual apathy of the Capitol• Hunger• Need for shelter• Lack of freedom• Sickness• Need for rebirth

Sacramental signs in The Hunger Games

• Water: cleansing, change = Baptism• “Water is your new friend”• Bread – physical hunger, spiritual hunger for

freedom from oppression• Mockingjay: a symbol of a bird trying to be set

free; Katniss showsto the districts that we will be set free by how much we love – though she does not know this perhaps

Sacramental imagination

• Mockingjay is a symbol of hope, love, connectedness, strength

• With the salute to Rue, Katniss reaches deep into her humanity to show that love abides

• That grace is strength that transforms despair into HOPE

• The source of human love is God: Father, Son, SPIRIT

Sacramental imagination

• The “sacramental imagination” is present in Collins’ writings, perhaps unconsciously: the seeking of salvation, redemption, purpose, meaning and hope.

• These are sacramental moments in human experience and God’s grace is active in the world through these longings and desires of humanity . – N. Usselmann

Sacramentality is seeing the face of God in the world

• In the face of the poor, the dying, the hungry, the oppressed

• And in the faces of the decadent and morally bankrupt

• “Audiences, knowingly or not, compelled to look more deeply at humanity’s search for meaning” (cf. Nancy Usslemann)

Think sacramentally• Sacraments are outward signs of invisible

grace• Cinema reveals inner realities through

outward visual and aural signs• What inner, transcendent, transforming

grace, signs of the divine, are being revealed

• Have you seen a film, had a cinematic moment, that you saw the face of God?

What does it mean to be human?

• What is really going on deep in the collective human psyche?

• What does it truly mean to be human?

• How can we live transformatively? • Is God present here?

• These existential questions are always present to humanity but sometimes it takes a cultural parable to make us aware and attentive to these very questions.

To be human

• People of character• Who live empathy• Who walk first in the shoes of someone else• Who do the right thing even when no one is

looking

Sacramental signs point to inner realities

• They engage our senses• They can be seen, smelled, touched, felt, tasted• They engage our emotions first of all• Call us to reflection, conversation, unity, action

Awareness is to begin to live Christian spirituality

• Self• Empathy• The world around us• Others• The needs of others• Take the time to reflect• Take the time “to be”• Be willing to grow and change• To become another Christ

What are Jesus’ family values?

• To feed the hungry• To give drink to the thirsty• To clothe the naked• To give shelter to the homeless• To visit the sick• To ransom the captive• To bury the dead.

More of Jesus’ family values

The spiritual works of mercy• To instruct the ignorant • To counsel the doubtful • To admonish sinners • To bear wrongs patiently• To forgive offences willingly• To comfort the afflicted• To pray for the living and the dead

Morality

• Why does morality matter?• If you believe, then you believe what God tells

us is right and good• Ten Commandments• The Commandment of Love• Principles & Themes of Catholic Teaching

Conscience

• Conscience is our true home

Conscience

• Not to live by one’s conscience is homelessness

Dilemma and Drama

• The most interesting movies deal with the dilemma between following or not following one’s conscience

• The consequences of one’s choices on one’s life and the lives of others

Sacramental imagination

• Sacramentality is seeing the presence of God in the world. It takes our imagination to move beyond the signs and symbols to the deeper meaning they convey—to the point that everyday experiences, situations, objects and persons are, “revelations of grace.”

• The sacraments give actual grace. Film, within the contemporary culture, provides grace-filled moments. The art of film can be a channel of God’s self-communication and engage our “sacramental imagination.”

• “We are…provided with an occasion for encountering our Lord afresh, as God transforms the stuff of life into a sacramental that reveals briefly, yet indelibly, something of his glory and grace."

- Robert Johnston

Think sacramentally

• Sacraments are outward signs of invisible grace

• Cinema reveals inner realities through outward visual and aural signs

• What inner, transcendent, transforming grace, signs of the divine, are being revealed

Before and after you watch, play, listen, read, create, post ….

In a media world

• Christ has no presence but yours,• No blog, no Facebook page but yours,• Yours are the tweets through which love touches this world,• Yours are the posts through which the Gospel is shared,• Yours are the movie reviews through which hope is revealed.• Christ has no media presence but yours,• No blog, no Facebook page but yours• Used with permission, Meredith Gould: The Social Media

Gospel