The Pope and Economic Development

There has been much made of Pope Francis' recent remarks made about economics.  In this video Fr. James Kubicki, the national director of the Apostleship of Prayer - whose mission is to promote the pope's monthly prayer intentions - does a good job showing the continuity of the current Holy Father's teaching with those of his predecessors. 

I do think that the Pope did himself a disservice by getting too specific when critiquing particular economic theories in his Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium. On the one hand I'm not sure that the unregulated "trickle-down" form of capitalism he criticizes really exists today outside of Hong Kong, if even there.  There is a problem of inequality and unethical business practices on a world wide scale, but honest people can disagree on how we got to where we are, and whether government interventions helped, hurt or even was a factor in causing our current crisis.  The other problem is that the controversy distracted from the larger message of the exhortation which challenges the Church to pursue Her mission to evangelize the nations with zeal.  Pope Francis is calling us not to simply stay stuck in a maintenance mode of operation that is content to keep the institution running without really understanding what the institution is meant to serve.  His words on economics are a small, though important, part of the exhortation that need to be read in the wider context of a varied, far reaching document.

In the end Pope Francis is saying nothing that can't be found in the Church's social teaching.  The Church in the past has condemned socialism, and the current Pope himself has said the Marxism is "dead wrong."  But the market economy is the prevalent form in the world today, and needs to be critiqued in the light of the Gospel.  Again, I use the word "market" without the modifier "free" because I don't believe that laissez faire, which is often condemned by progressives, has existed, in the U.S. anyway, since at least the days of Teddy Roosevelt's trust busting crusade in the early 1900's.  Does this mean we are living in a perfect world?  No, and it is important to let the Pope's words stir our hearts and a spark debate that can hopefully lead to real conversion in the society and culture at large.

St. John and Cardinal Dolan from AOP

Sts. Stephen and Paul from AOP

Adestes Fideles Andrea Bocelli

Perry Como Sings O Holy Night

Darlene Love Sings Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) on Letterman

With out a doubt one of my favorite secular Christmas songs, sung by nthe incomparable Darlene Love.

Fr. Barron Comments on the Nativity of Luke's Gospel

A Late Advent Reflection

Last week we observed the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe here at St. John Bosco Parish with pilgrimages, rosaries, the traditional Mañanitas, and of course the celebration of the Eucharist in the morning and evening.  It is a beautiful feast, and one with great meaning for me because of the three years I spent in Mexico, which included two pilgrimages to the shrine at Tepeyak.  When I looked at the calendar on my wall this past Monday, after a full weekend of activities that followed quickly on the heals of the feast, I was stunned to see that Christmas is only the middle of next week.  It feels like we just started Advent and we've already lit three candles on the wreath.  This "post-Guadalupe hangover," as I call it, highlights the fact that Advent tends to get crowded out amidst so many other activities that fall this time of year. Ours is an extreme example of this reality that Advent is the Forgotten Time.

At our parish it's Our Lady of Guadalupe that overshadows the liturgical time of Advent, but in other places, and in the culture in general, the four odd weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas are seen as a time for office parties, gift shopping and making merry.  Because several religious and civil observances occur between the fourth Thursday of November and New Year's Day (we could say the Epiphany on January 6 if we want to be formal about it), the custom of calling this time the Holiday Season has long been in vogue.  I wont even get into all the Christmas decorations that go up early, or the incessant Christmas music on the radio that I have already grown tired of.  In a real way not only the meaning of Advent has been lost, but the meaning of Christmas has been distorted as well.  I'm not going to start complaining about the commercialization of Christmas; we know about that already.  I'm only pointing out that Advent and it's true meaning has been lost and needs to be recovered if it we are going to get back to a better appreciation of what Christmas itself means. 

The first thing to remember is that Advent should be seen as a penitential season.  It doesn't have the rules and regulations of Lent, but the mood is one of waiting and preparation.  But we aren't talking about putting up trees or hitting the shopping malls.  We are preparing for an encounter with Christ, and it is our souls that need to be cleaned, adorned and made ready for the arrival of the King.  In this spirit the readings at Mass focus us on the need for repentance, and the great figure of John the Baptist looms large in this equation.  The Second Sunday of Advent we heard of his preaching on the banks of the Jordan, warning the scribes and Pharisees who had gathered that a time of tribulation was at hand and the moment for turning away from sin had arrived.  It was John's call to repentance that prepared the way for the coming of the Lord and the arrival of the Kingdom he was to preach.

While we are not bound to rules at this time of year, fasting, praying alms giving and making a good confession are ways that we prepare ourselves well for this encounter with the Lord.  Yes, we mean making a worthy communion on Christmas day, but it also calls us to ponder our own mortality, and the reality that one day we will meet Jesus face to face.  One day he will knock on the doors of our soul.  Will our house be clean and in order?  Or will we still be attached to the same sins and vices, indifferent to the needs of the poor around us?  We light the candles of the Advent wreath to remind us of the journey we are on, not just to December 25th, but to eternity, and we better be ready.

The second point, connected to the first, is that Advent is an eschatological time.  The weeks leading up to the beginning of Advent and the first weeks of the liturgical time offer us readings that have to do with the end of the world.  Whether we interpret this to mean the end of an era, or the end the world as we know it, or the return of Christ in his glory when time will cease, the Church tries to focus us on the reality that nothing in this world is permanent.  Jesus will return, the elements will be destroyed by fire, as St. Peter puts it, the dead will rise and a new heaven and new earth will be established.

In the past few decades talk of the end times has been shunned by some in Catholic circles.  Talk of heaven and eternal reward is sometimes portrayed as an opiate, in the Marxist sense, used to keep people from concentrating on issues of peace and justice.  The new emphasis since the Council on social justice, reiterated by Pope Francis (though stressed by all the popes since Vatican II), is a positive development.  But in our exuberance and zeal we should be careful not to throw the proverbial baby out with the bathwater.  Christ wants to see faith on the earth when he returns, meaning that we are living the Beatitudes to the fullest.  John the Baptist called Herod out for sexual immorality, but he also told people that repentance meant sharing what ever excess they may have with the poor and being satisfied with their wages (we can assume he meant a wage that is just).  He also told those in authority not to abuse their power for personal gain.  It is tempting to focus on these passages, as well as others concerning matters of justice and equity, making the Gospel a political manifesto unconcerned with piety and personal holiness.  

But our Lord also said that we should pray constantly.  He may not have talk much about sexual morality in an explicit way, but he did name a list of sexual sins and vices among a list of transgressions that stem from a disordered interior life.  Our Lord is interested in the whole person; his interior life as well as in his community and civic responsibilities, because the two things are linked together. All these aspects of our life must be seen in the context of eternity; wealth, power, property, sexual apatite, prestige and pleasures of all sorts will pass away.  Unless our hearts are set on the things of heaven we will come to think that created things are all we have to live for, and our time on earth will be spent in a misguided search for fulfilment that will never come.

We have already entered into the second part of Advent; the Great Days that focus us more on the mystery of the incarnation and the events leading up to Jesus' birth.  I will have more to say on this later.

But for now I leave off by saying that for Advent to be seen as more than a parenthesis between Thanksgiving and Christmas we need to get back to it's deeper meaning.  We should be concerned with the hear and now, but this preoccupation will only result in positive and long lasting action if we have the entire picture in perspective.  Advent with its call to repentance and reminder of the transience of the world does that for us.

John The Baptist from AOP

Mary's Soul from AOP

I'm posting this video is a little late for St. Ambrose's feast last Saturday, but the reflection is perfect for today's Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception.

Our Immaculate Mother from AOP

Retro Review Part II: "Fargo"

Last time I wrote about my spotty theater going record, and that I'm slowly catching up, by the miracle of DVD rental and streaming video, on important movies that I've missed over the years.  I've already talked about Do The Right Thing, and this time out move on to the Coen Brothers' 1996 effort Fargo.

I have always had an uneasy relationship with the Brothers Coen, in the sense that they are undeniably talented, original film makers; among the most original out there today.  But at the same time they can present a rather gloomy view of human nature. Nihilistic is usually the word used to describe their work.  Their Academy Award winner No Country for Old Men is an extreme example of this.  But every so often they do allow some light to poke through, like in A Serious Man, which I reviewed here a few months ago.  The light I speak of is a sense they give of liking their characters, even if they are flawed or a little off kilter (or maybe because of this reason).  Fargo is a movie that blends these two aspects of the Coen's personality together; light and dark, in a most cleaver way.  When I've spoken to people about this movie over the years it's usually the dark nihilism that strikes them, and the sometimes humorus, matter of fact way it's presented.  But after finally seeing it after all these years I saw something else besides.  Though values lessons are not something the Coens are known for, Fargo contains one, even if you have to be paying attention to see it.

William H. Macy plays the hapless Jerry Lundegaard.  He works for his rich father-in-law Wade (Harve Presnell) who employs him as a salesman at his Minneapolis car dealership but has no confidence in him, not letting Jerry move any higher in the corporate structure.  Jerry is over extended financially and is blocked out by Wade from an investment plan he had thought up himself and that he was hoping would bring a big windfall.  Even before this disappointment he was plotting to have his wife (Kristin Rudrüd) kidnapped by some small time crooks (Steve Buscemi and Peter Stormare), who he would share the ransom with.  Needless to say everything goes terribly wrong. Murders ensue, and rural South Dakota police chief Marge Gunderson (Frances McDormand, in her Oscar winning role), is left to pick up the trail.

Marge is sort of like a female Columbo; not bumbling like the Peter Falk character comes off as at first, but unassuming.  She seems more like a cheerfully fastidious house wife with a badge, but like Columbo proves to be much sharper, and more tenacious, than she at first appears.

Most people focus on the violence in the movie, which is harsh, and at times comically gruesome, if such a thing is possible, or else the quirky regional accents and eccentricities of the characters draws people's attention.   But there is also a tender story hidden amid the blood and you betcha's.  Marge is seven months pregnant, married to a artist and lives a comfortable middle class existence.  Her husband (John Carrol Lynch) is dutiful, getting out of bed early to make Marge eggs when she gets called in the wee hours to go to the crime scene.  Amid the marital bliss Marge wonders if there isn't something more out there than her comfortable but humdrum domestic life.  When she hears from a man from her past she arranges a rendezvous while she's in Minneapolis following a lead on the case.  It's just an innocent stop off for a drink (don't panic, she has a Diet Coke), but she quickly has misgivings and backs herself out of the situation.  She comes to appreciate the things she already has, and counts her blessings instead of grasping for more.

This stands in contrast to all the other major characters in the story.  Jerry, the kidnappers, and even to a certain extent Wade want more than what they have or have agreed upon as compensation and are constantly conniving, lying, cheating or simply forcing their will to get it.  In their constant grasping they leave a trail of destruction that eventually turns back on them.  As Marge drives one of the culprits away in her police cruiser she is truly shaken by all the carnage left in the wake of this plan gone terribly wrong.  She asks if all this was really worth a little money, and why aren't people happy with what they have.  In a way she is asking this question of herself as well.

The film ends with Marge and her husband on the couch watching TV, arms around each other's shoulders.  He tells her that his painting won a competition by the Postal Service, and will be featured on a thee cent stamp.  He's disappointed by this since it's such a small, unimportant denomination, but Marge reassures him that he should be happy; people always need those small stamps when rates go up and they need to make up the difference.  Again; be satisfied and count the blessings, don't grasp after things that you think will make you happy.  That grasping will only make you more unhappy and possibly hurt others.

There is something very Hindu about this lesson, but Catholic as well.  Greed is one of the capital sins, and while we may explain its effects differently, those effects are the same.  Greed is a disordered love of riches, and can lead people to steal, cheat lie, and even kill to get it.  In less extreme, but still destructive, cases it leads to selfishness and an inability to share what we have with those in need.

Fargo takes place in 1987, which is really irrelevant to the story other than the choice of cars featured.  The story is billed as being true but the Coens admit that this is deceiving.  They took elements from various real cases but the scenario itself, and the characters themselves are completely original.  They felt that this conceit allowed them to get away with things audiences would only accept if they thought it really happened.

Fargo and Do The Right Thing are very different pictures, so trying to compare and contrast them would be forced.  But when a movie is fifteen or twenty years old it's safe to ask how it holds up.  Both do, but arguably Fargo does better.   Do The Right Thing is very much a product of its time, as I wrote before, and makes many references to contemporary events that may not mean anything to new viewers today.  It reminds me a bit of some movies that came out in the late sixties like Medium Cool and Easy Rider that addressed issues relevant during the Vietnam War era.  These films were praised as edgy and ground breaking when they were released, but today seem more like quaint relics from a time capsule.  Fargo, though claiming a period, tells a purer story with universal themes so that when it's happening really doesn't effect how we understand what's going on.  Do The Right Thing for the most part is saved from being a museum piece because issues of racism and economic inequity are still with us.  It helps to know the particular context of the story, but isn't essential.  Plus, Spike Lee is an artist, not simply a pamphleteer, so the movie can be appreciated on aesthetic terms apart from the message, though unlike Fargo the message is impossible to miss.

Fr. Barron Comments on Pope Francis and "The Joy of the Gospel"

I'm reading this challenging document right now, but offer you Fr. Barron's take on it.  The Holy Father has a way of putting into words things many of us on the "inside" have been thinking.  One example is when he writes that we can use perfectly orthodox language in explaining the doctrines of the faith but still leave people scratching their heads (my very loose paraphrase).  It's not that the truth has changed but that we need to learn how people talk and think and put these truths into their language.  We're still not going to persuade everyone, but it won't be for the lack of making an honest effort to meet people on their own turf.  I'll keep on reading, and offer a reflection soon enough, but until then, here's Fr. Barron:

Retro Review: "Do The Right Thing"

For a cinefile I've missed a lot of movies over the years.  This is mainly do to the limitations on my time and the money I'm allowed to use for entertainment.  My years of initial formation were especially spotty, with years passing sometimes between visits to the movies.  To paraphrase Spike Lee, DVD is the movie fan's best friend, allowing us to catch up with things time and money don't allow us to see in "reel time."

I recently saw two important movies that came out during my "formative" years that got past me.  These are very different films; one very much a product of a particular time and place dealing with topical issues, the other set in a period, which is irrelevant to the universal observations on human nature it makes.  Both stand up well, though one better than the other.  I'll be taking a look at the Spike Lee Joint first, then look at the Coen Brother's movie Fargo next time.

1989's Do The Right Thing is director Spike Lee's observation on the state of the racial union in the late 1980's.  It follows the goings on during the course of a hot summer day in and around a white owned pizzeria in the predominantly black neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.  Mookie (Lee) is a young African American working at Sal's Famous Pizza for $250 a week.  He lives with his sister (played by his real life sibling Joie Lee), has a son with his girlfriend (Rose Perez, in her film debut) who he sees once a week, at best.  He's not happy, but at the same time is comfortable with his hand to mouth existence and the relative freedom from responsibility it gives him.  Mookie is angry when a customer named Buggin' Out (Giancarlo Esposito) makes a scene, complaining that the pizzeria's "wall of fame" contains only pictures of Italians, asking why there aren't any "brothers" included in the group.  It's a black neighborhood, they are the ones putting money in Sal's (Danny Aiello) pocket, so they should be represented.  After he gets kicked out Mookie goes out to him on the street asking his friend not to make trouble that could cost him his job.  In many ways Mookie is likable, but is far from a perfect character.  We understand his frustrations but his contentment with the status quo is clearly self defeating. This demand for recognition expressed by Buggin' Out is the recurring theme of the movie, and leads to the final, destructive confrontation at the end of the movie. 

The scope of Lee's artistic and political vision is hard to summarize.  The story is relatively simple, but takes many detours, showing us life on a tensely divided street.  And this is not a "black people are good, white people are devils" movie either.  Sal and one of his sons Vito (Richard Edson) are actually decent folk.  The other, Pino (John Turturro) is the one truly malevolent character in the move, and even he has a moment to express his own frustrations, misdirected as they are, with a certain sense of empathy.  We feel the frustration of the black residents as they see, not just Sal thriving in their neighborhood, but a Korean family, "not a year off the boat," as one person puts it, prospering in a once boarded up store front.  Mean while the residents feel like they have no opportunities, are oppressed by the police, and have no stake in their own community.  In spite of the clear frustrations, these are not sad or downcast people.  There is a joy underlying much of the film which I think is meant to punctuate the humanity and dignity of the characters.  They are not blind to their troubles, but they refuse to be defined by them as well.   And the blacks in the movie are not sainted either.  In the end, police brutality is real, economic oppression and racism are real.  But I think Lee is telling the black community that it needs to look at itself as well, examine it's own values, and take control of it's own destiny if it is truly going to fight the power.  Sporadic protests and riots are not enough if they don't lead to a real commitment to change.  This is embodied by Mookie who has a moment of defiance and rebellion, but at the end of the film is only concerned about getting his regular $250.

I was with the movie for about ninety percent of its running time.  Not that I agreed with everything Lee was proposing, but I thought he was making an honest, edgy, thought provoking work that honest people could debate and walk way from with different impressions.  I think there is even room to debate exactly what it is Lee was trying to say, let alone if he's right or wrong.  But if the film had ended with its famous riot scene, culminating with a picture of two "brothers" finally getting up on the wall, and quotes from both scrolling up the screen it would have been perfect.  Instead we get a coda set the following morning that seems unrealistic and softens the impact of the climactic confrontation.  We are left with Mookie and Sal on the street out side the burnt-out store, and after what had transpired the previous night I believe one of the two would have ended up dead, or at least seriously injured, had they actually met like that the next day. 

I've left out a lot about the supporting cast, with great performances by the likes of Ozzie Davis, Ruby Dee, Samuel L. Jackson and Bill Nunn.  Lee, who was only 32 when he made the movie, shows confidence with the camera, but constructs more of a montage of events rather than presenting a driving narrative.  This was his manifesto, in a way; he had lot to say and wanted to get it all in.  Far be it from me to argue with a man's artistic vision, but I would say the results leave us with the whole being greater than the sum of it's individual, sometimes disjointed, parts.  As a topical film it is dated a bit, and references to the Tawana Brawley case, the police killings of Eleanor Bumpers and Micheal Stewart and the Howard Beach incident will be lost on many younger people today, as will the entire atmosphere of racial tension in New York City at the time that those events highlighted, and serve as a key point of departure in the film.  But almost 25 years on Do The Right Thing still hold up as an artistic statement whose message is still relevant as problems of black unemployment and poverty persist.  In 2013 race relations are better than in 1989, but far from perfect.  So if Do The Right Thing is dated, and I do believe it is, it's not terribly so.

At this point I'll stop and hit Fargo next time, wrapping up my reflection of both films then.