Another part of a video series from Wordonfire.org. Bishop Barron will be commenting on subjects from modern day culture. For more visit www.wordonfire.org
Oy vey. I have entertained tens of thousands of comments, the vast, vast majority of which disagree with me. I would challenge anyone to look through even a small percentage of these comments and honestly tell me that I "block or ban anyone who disagrees with me." I do indeed block certain participants when they become abusive, obscene, mean-spirited, or tiresomely repetitive. If you don't approve of my policy in this regard, I would suggest that you get your own website.
*SPOILER ALERT* Another (albeit minor) parallel that I noticed in the movie relating to the Gospel message was the scene where Lt. Segen was bitten on the hand while in the midst of battle, with Gerry right next to her, and as they both realize the implications of that bite, he very quickly lops off her infected hand, thus saving her. It struck me as a brutally literal example of Christ's admonition that if one's hand causes one to sin, better to cut it off than to let it condemn one to hell.
Dear Father, Ten minutes ago I believe I saw you on Italian television, the live broadcast of the pope's audience with seminarians. You shook the pope's hand and looked radiantly happy. In fact, everyone looked happy. A papal bodyguard lifted a little infirm nun into the front row as if she were a child. Auguri, as they say.
Catholicism is definitely the Fullness of the Faith. Protestant theologies have been likened to walking in a house and finding the sofa or the kitchen table missing since they have deleted so many spiritual elements, e.g. saints, sacramental, transubstantiation. Ask yourself if the phrases "New Testament" and "Books of the New Testament" signify two different things. (The New Testament = Eucharist). If they mean the same to you, I recommend that you order Fr. Barron's Catholicism series.
Wow! That pretty much sums up the feelings this invoked. I never really looked at sin that way. As a former protestant, only recently becoming involved with the Catholic church, I still have the tendency to feel hopeless because I can't shake the sin and wind up giving up on getting closer to God for a time because I feel inadequate. But when you look at it like this...needless to say, I'm in tears. All I can say is thank you! Not just for these, but for "Catholicism" as well. Peace be with you!
lol Of all the things that could be going through Father Barron's mind while watching World War Z, it was ultimately the Council of Trent that took center stage. I'm not knocking him, I just think it is hilarious in a geeky awesome kind of way. Good analysis!
Free will exists. It is not destroyed by sin. But it is severely compromised by it. Think of how the body works when it is in the grip of a severe disease: it functions, but not as well as it should.
I can't speak for bonnie43uk, but I didn't read that comment as a criticism of this channel. Quite the contrary... the fact that I also perceive a lack of clergy speaking intellectually on RU-vid has a lot to do with why I enjoy wordonfirevideo so much. In general, though, priests do SEEM to be underutilizing RU-vid. I think this channel is a good model for others to follow.
In our diocese, we have a program for people who want this type of introductory information. It's a three-week program (one evening per week) for people who want to know more. I think it's called "Catholicism 101"? Your diocese might have something like that also. Check it out.
Ronnie! I feel a bit the same. Our Catholic "communities" care and preach so much about the starving folks in Haiti for instance, how they're building schools, etc. that people in our own parishes are severely neglected sometimes, and depressed, on food stamps, going through divorces right and left, etc. More support groups, couples' Bible Studies are needed in parishes today to EVANGELIZE Catholics in our own parishes!!! Good point Ronnie. Talk to your Priest about it as Fr. said! God Bless
Awesome Father!!!!! Wonder if the filmmakers are Christians! Thank you for this. Simply amazing! I passed it along to my son, who I'm sure will go see this!
Yes, if I recall correctly that "cross" was a 70s-style modern sculpture vaguely reminiscent of a tree. It wasn't exactly subtle when Charlton Heston stretched out his arms, hanging on a tree.
Another priest who has started utilizing RU-vid is Fr. Brian Carpenter on his WorkingToBeatHell channel with a couple of minutes of good preaching on current topics.
The Catholic Ten Commandments doesn’t have a separate commandment for graven images like the Protestant Ten Commandments since the “graven” images are assumed into the earlier commandments. In the passage on graven images, God forbids the worship of statues, but not the religious use of statues. He commands the use of statues in Exodus 25:18-20, Numbers 21:8-9, I Chronicles 28:18-19, Ezekiel 41:17-18. He loves cherubim statues in his temples! Remember: Worship = No Use = Yes
Fr. Barron, Have you considered doing a commentary on the HBO Liberace movie, "Behind the Candelabra"? There's an interesting scene where Liberace explains his being Catholic.
Father Barron I thought your commentary was very interesting, but there was something I was thinking about when you spoke about sin. In the Eastern Orthodox tradition when they speak about Original Sin they speak about how we inherit the consequences of Adam's sin(Death) but not the guilt, and that Christ's purpose was to die to conquer death. The Western tradition however since St Augustine seems to have also emphasized that we inherit the guilt and sin nature of Adam(continued)
Bishop.you have done a very important comparison, that in my family I have started to recognise with my daughter of 17 and boy of 10. already.I am sure in every city happens.we live in Dubai and sometimes we walk to very near shops or grocery late afternoon and we find man walking suspiciously we called zombies. without a doubt we meant possible dangerous sick of sinful life in look for a pray.your analogy to the movie is very profound to go and continue to read about the referenced you mentioned.God Bless Fhather Barron
I really appreciate how you have described sin as propagated (as a disease) rather than something learned or imitated. It is "anti-creative." Thank you for this commentary Fr. Barron. I only wish that you had said that you didn't like it, so that I wouldn't have to go see another zombie movie.
Interesting and I'm going to have to see the movie again. I was lukewarm about it but now that I've heard Father's ideas about it, I'll have to try it again.
Point made; Fr. Barron is one priest among thousands who do not. Just as Archbishop Sheen was one bishop among hundreds. Nevertheless, the Truth does not require that it be taught only by a bishop, or a priest - only that it originate from Christ and His Church, in Scripture, Tradition, and the Magisterium. After that, however it gets out there - and it DOES get out there!! - it just has to get out there. And then maybe, someday, more priests will take courage and begin to speak up.
Thank you, Fr. Barron, for the commentary! I saw the movie and enjoyed it myself. I am now reading the book, which is actually quite different than the movie. Unfortunately, the book has a less salvific method for stemming the tide of contagion. It's a quick read if ever you have the chance.
Dear Father Barron, thank you very much for your videos! I really enjoy them and always learn something from them. Have you seen "Cloud Atlas"? I would love to hear your comments about that movie :)
A very thoughtful analogy to Christianity except for one thing: If Christ solved the problem of sin then why is there still sin even among those who take the Eucharist?
Your question illustrates the difference in being redeemed and being saved. Christ redeemed us all, but not all are saved. Redemption is collective and salvation is individual. A person can reject the graces won by Christ even though he is redeemed.
Well, I can't speak to every encounter between you and Fr. Barron, but I have seen a lot of his videos and read the comments on many of them. He speaks genuinely and intelligently, even though I don't agree with him on everything and I've seen many instances where he responds to posts disagreeing with him. Also, he hasn't banned you in this section which leads me to believe he doesn't ban everyone he disagrees with.
He is, but we choose him out of our life when we sin. After all we do have free will. When God gave us free will, he created the condition where it was possible to obey him or disobey.
Father, which version of sin do you think is most accurate, free will vs. passage from for-bearers? I think i get from your tone that you agree with the Council of Trent but i just want to be sure. Also, what do you think are the weaknesses of that paradigm. Certainly it would be an easy step to feeling one is off the hook for sin passed through the bloodstream; a sort of self-referential sin loop.
Friend, I've done numerous videos on new atheism, and I've been involved in lengthy debates with atheists for years. Take a look through the nearly 300 videos that I've produced.
Thank you very much for all the videos and books you have out. They are very informative to say the least. I have a question about the origin of sin."The Catechism of the Catholic Church" states that, "God is in no way, directly or indirectly the cause of moral evil." However, as I understand it, the church also teaches that nothing existed without God creating it and nothing exists apart from God. Where did sin come from then, if God is not the ultimate cause of it, and thus did not create it?
I think it would have been profoundly uncomfortable for people to see it. In the US, the government decides to consolidate West of the Rocky Mountains and then spreads tells most of the population East of the Rockies to head North into Canada. That way, most of the zombie hordes would follow them and not follow those trying to escape over the Rockies. The hope though was that the people fleeing north would be relatively safe as winter came and slowed the zombies down.
hello! im glad i found your videos and i was wondering if you could explain genesis 6 but also counting the different versions of it if possible,thank you
Watch "I Am Legend" or "Omega Man" for the same theme of salvation of the human race by a self-sacrificing Christ-like character who sheds his own blood to save us all... from zombies. I'd love to hear Fr Barron's commentary on I Am Legend.
This commentary sets the tone for all true christian spirituality. I'm thinking of the protestant verses catholic cultures. Protestants appear to me to follow the moral code as the antidote to sin. It appears the catholic inoculation seems ineffective in the visible healing of recipients. Catholics sin as much or more than those who ignore the true 'antidote'. What is missing here? Faith? Love?
Not to sound harsh, but perhaps you are looking in the wrong place? And, if you search Fr. Barron's videos a bit more, for instance, you'll see he does a lot more than movie reviews. Still, movies are watched by secularists and believers alike, so why not comment on them? If you look through the comments on these films, you'll see a fair share who appreciate Fr. B's views. This, in a sense, is evangelization.
Fr Barron: regarding propagation, not imitation: Are there perhaps Darwinian/biological explanations for how selfishness and fear are hard wired into our very being, only to be overcome through a grace-infused will and intellect? Curious to hear your thoughts.
Graven images: Exodus 25:18-21, God commands Moses to make two statues of angels for the Ark of the Covenant. Nmbrs 21:8-9, God commands Moses to make a bronze serpent. Other examples of God endoresed graven images: 1 Kings 6:23-28, 1 Kings 6:29, Ezekiel 41:17-25. The command forbids the making of graven (carved) images that would be worshipped as gods, i.e. idols.
Father! Great videos! If possible, could you do a video on "The Conjuring?" It's a horror movie that just came out. It was a pretty solid movie, coming from someone who doesn't usually follow that genre, and it got me interested in the whole exorcism thing.
The book is a series of after action reports. Accounts of survivors 20 years after the fact. In the book, countries follow the "South African Plan" and basically commit to only being able to save 10% of their populations.
After seeing the movie today, I believe the movie plot turned out a little differently. From my understanding, Brad Pitt's character injects himself with a curable deadly disease that is later treated by the scientists once he escapes. While what he did was sacrificial, an antidote was not made from his own blood . His act of being a willing guinea pig does lead to the saving of many lives. (I guess I'm one of those medical details people)
You are mentioning a lot of social issues that are not intrinsically evil. Any state has a right to impose its sovereignty on its own borders. Additionally, these social issues are not equivalent to intrinsic evils.
haha wonderful video! The idea that a zombie is a metaphor for fallen humanity is actually present in much of the whole zombie-genre. That's why the popular "Dawn of the Dead" takes place in a shopping mall; a metaphor for mass mindless consumerism.
I'm pretty sure I have a decent layman's understanding of the broad strokes at least. If you look at the comment by sshealy1 which I responded to I think it agrees with Catholic teaching - what I said follows from that. Correct me if I'm wrong.
I'm surprised you would say that after watching this entire video. Most of what he talks about involves the parallels to the nature of sin. He's not really talking about his views on a movie at all. Although now that I write this, I'm starting to think you didn't watch the whole video.
Father, I've watched and learned from many of your videos and understand how you want to reach out to evangelize through culture. You're articulate and have a message. But you do not speak on political issues. Are drones being used ethically? Was Edward Snowden right in illegally revealing the existence of a possibly unconstitutional or unethical surveillance program? Is healthcare a right within society? Death penalty? Military spending?
On the subject of horror films, there was another one released this year entitled THE LORDS OF SALEM, made by Rob Zombie, a heavy metal/black metal artist. Ultimately, THE LORDS OF SALEM isn't so much disturbing because of its gruesome imagery, but because of the ending's implication that Satan has taken over the Earth, and this is basically okay! (Imagine if Friedkin's THE EXORCIST was on the demon's side, and you might get a good idea of what it's like.)
Well then, I suppose that if World War Z was analogous to Christianity then Brad Pitt would not save humanity from the zombies - he'd have made human salvation conditional to individual humans' belief in & acceptance of Brad's redemption. I think I'll wait 'till it plays on TV.
Could it be that zombies symbolize peoples greatest fear of dissolution of society, begun in movements like "The New Morality", movements which run their courses like epidemics?
I don't know if a movie needs to be "interpreted", as someone here says...but the comparison of brad pitt's character with Christ, and how he saved the world with his blood as Jesus...well I'll never figure it out, if I didn't listened the father's review!!!
The movie, from your description of it, sounds similar to Omega Man. I really disliked that movie, though, since it seemed to me to lift the Christian story and the conclusion was that science (or, a scientist) is savior (with his blood) against religious, anti-science, zombie-like, monk-like, fanatics who blamed scientific advancement for the apocalyptic state of the world and their own zombie-like condition. Sometimes Christian parallels aren't pro-Christian.
you don't know catholicism then because you might say we don't believe all the native americans prior to evangelization went to hell. What does that mean? your statement reveals a lack of knowledge on catholicism the philisophical concepts in catholicism are quite different from most religions ask questions
So we shouldn't think about them? Of course states are sovereign (and this is related to?) Surely then you believe that the state should not be killing others with drones in other countries in violation of sovereignty and due process. Or listening to people in other countries in violation of privacy and sovereignty. You need a better understanding of the word "issue" The Church is quite admirably articulate on social issues and ethical principles. Hence the question. Think, Theaksten, Think.
What's sad is when fundamentalists like you seem to think that everything out their in the popular culture is "Anti Christian". I have even heard some say the writings of C.S Lewis(Narnia stories) and J K Rowling(Harry Potter) are anti Christian even though Lewis was a devout Anglican himself and J K Rowling is a devout Presbyterian. Its this kinda knee jerk hysteria that turns people off from the faith.....
