Remember the Titans

[Coach Yoast (Will Patton) has been promised that he will be in the football hall of fame as long as he goes along with the people who are "throwing" the game.  Coach Boone (Denzel Washington) was placed as head coach over him earlier in the film.]

Courage.  Courage is the quality that is shown here.  Coach Yoast had been put in an awkward place when Coach Boone was placed over him as head coach earlier in the year.  He had been nominated too for the High School Football Hall of Fame.  It seemed that everything was going fine until the issue of race was brought in.  So the powers that be, white people, stated that if they allow Coach Boone to lose the game that things will go back to the way things were.  

Coach Yoast you can see is debating in his mind what to do, he wants to be in glory, he wants to be in the Hall of Fame.  But he knows that will come with a cost.  Yoast is not happy with the cost, because he knows that a victory won through ill-goten means nothing.  

It takes tremendous courage to go out to the ref during the game and tell him to call the game fair, even if it requires that he goes to jail too.  Yoast is willing to put his name, and his future on the line for the sake of doing the right thing before God, and man.  It takes courage to go against the grain.  This is a great film to show forth that example.  How often do we accept the status quo of society?  They say that greed is good, that there is nothing wrong with gay marriage, or even that conception is perfectly normal and good?  It takes courage to stand up and say that they are wrong.  It is hard to stand up to the bullies in our schools, since that is an issue as well.  Lets take a cue from Coach Yoast, who is teaching us more than football, but teaching us about how to be fully human. 

A Beautiful Mind

[John Nash (Russell Crowe), a brilliant awkward genius, is meeting his girlfriend, Alicia (Jennifer Connelly), for dinner and he is late because of work.]

How often are we in this situation?  The person we love is angry at us because we screwed up again.  The difference here is that John makes up for it by reminding her that he was listening to her, that she is worth the attention, the "love" he has.  

Now take away the awkwardness of his proposal, he brings up a point that the world seems to emphasize often.  John is looking for proof, empirical data, irrefutable data, that points to that they should get married, a long term commitment. Alicia brings up the counter point of how does John know that the universe is infinite?  He says the data points that way, but it is not absolute in the sense that he can put it under a microscope or write a mathematical proof that it does.  It is what is called a reasonably held position.  He is absolute in certainty of this fact.  

The question becomes how certain are we that God is out there? or amongst us?  Can we prove He exists?  No, but the data is there that it is a reasonably held position.  That is the beauty in how God created the world, there is just enough data that it makes sense that we can believe He is there, but not so overwhelming that you have no alternative.  Which brings us to a very important aspect of our lives, choice.  

Alicia tells John that he does not know if she wants to marry him.  And that is the correct understanding, but he had a reasonable hope that she would say yes.  His question involved risk, which is the nature of all relationship because it involves another autonomous being.  We can choose to make that leap of faith, to make that assertion that God is there, and that He loves us, cares for us, or not.  We can remain in the world of only empiricism, but it becomes a very bland, dull world.  It is the risk that makes life worth living.  John Nash later states in the movie that "it is only in the mysterious equations of love that any logical reasons can be found."

The Brother's Bloom

[Penelope (Rachel Weisz) grew up as a recluse because her mother believed her to be sick, which later found out she wasn't really, but then Penelope stayed to take care of her dying mother.]

Penelope brings out a great point about perspective.  Given her childhood and the way she was treated she could have felt cheated, that she had a wasted life, but she didn't.  Why?  Penelope recognizes that you can actually have a meaningful life that it is all a matter of perspective.  Some people would look at her life and say that is was useless, pointless since she spent all day indoors not doing anything of merit.  People might draw the same conclusion about cloistered religious, as I sometimes do.  But why is it that their life is considered wasted, or cheated?  Just because I cannot see the meaning there, does not mean that there is not meaning.  It is a matter of perspective. 

She also brought up the point of telling her own story, which is important, but we must also remember that there is a grander storyteller than ourselves, namely the Creator, God.  It is God that asks us to participate in our own story.  This is the very premise of C.S. Lewis' conception of Heaven and Hell in his book the Great Divorce.  He describes the difference between the two as perspective.  When we, hopefully, get to heaven it has a retroactive effect that all the things in our life, even the bad stuff, have lead us exactly to here.  Hell is retroactive as well, but in the negative.  Our life will have lead us there, and we will come to realize that even the good stuff were sources of pain, bringing us to the reality of hell.  So you see it is matter of perspective.  

Do you like out on your life and see a victim who has been acted upon?  Or do you see a hero, somebody to act?  God made us to be the hero in our own story, not somebody to be cheated, or wasted.  How much time do we waste blabbering on about what we have lost, or how so so acted? "When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, 'Lord, what about him?' Jesus said to him, 'What if I want him to remain until I come?  What concern is it of yours? You follow me.'" (Jn. 21:22)  The only persons actions, and ultimately salvation, we have control over is our own. 

Last Samurai

[Captain Algren (Tom Cruise) has been taken care of by Katsumoto's sister.  Katsumoto (Ken Watanabe) now regards Captain Algren as his friend, but originally they were enemies.]

This is a fantastic movie from start to finish.  It is violent, but I highly suggest watching the whole movie.  

To the clip at hand, in this we learn that soldiers lead a tough life.  They lead a life that torments their mind because to kill on a regular basis changes the person.  This is true for our warriors, as much as theirs.  Violence is not something inherently good, but is something that exists in our fallen world, and it can be used for good.  This is Katsumoto's comment about only those who are ashamed of what they have done.  

Katsumoto then says though that then he comes to this place, the place of his ancestors, and he remembers that we are all dying.  This is true, the cold hard fact that we are all dying.  It is an inescapable reality that we as humans must face.  Some face death and despair, or meet it with impassivity, but Katsumoto suggests meeting it with peace. There is a great quote from Fr. Dujarie, "While we have yet time, let us do good."

"Life in every breath."  This is the way of Bushido, the code of the Samurai.  This is also what Christians seek as well, to come to meet the face of Christ, life, in every moment.  "I am the way, the truth, and the life." (Jn. 14:6) We seek to find Him in every action that we do, in every thought we have.  We want to be more His, than anything else before.  

The Blindside

[Michael is learning how to play football for his high school.  His new mom Leigh Anne Tuohy(Sandra Bullock) goes out to help him out]

This is another fantastic movie that I highly encourage you to watch the whole story.  

The way Leigh Anne came on the scene and knew exactly what to do is pretty amazing.  Why is that she knew how to handle the situation and yet the coach did not?  Mrs. Tuohy knew something about Michael that the coach didn't, that Michael is somebody who wants to protect people, not hurt people, or be rough like most men are.  The coach thought that Michael was a lost cause, a gentle giant.  The thing that people forget about gentle giants is that they are not always gentle, you just have to find the cause that their heart unlocks for.  

How often do we approach evangelization, or even life this way?  We think we know how the world works, or we write somebody off on a first impression.  People in the Church can think that atheists are cold, or that they don't want anything out of life.  Or how many people have treated people with same-sex attraction terribly because we believe we already know them.  All people can be a great asset to the Church, to God, to society in general if only we can take the time to get know them.  

Leigh Anne knows that you cant begin to coach somebody unless you know what motivates them, why do they come out on to the field to begin with?  The question posed to us then is if we are faced with a reality that we don't like, will  we stand on the sidelines and gossip, or will we actually do something to respond to the person before us?  So I challenge you this day, love somebody by taking the time to get to know who they are before you make an assumption of their abilities.  Love somebody today!

a Knight's Tale

[William Thatcher, Sir Ulric, (Heath Ledger) has returned home to his father.  When he was a small boy his father gave him over to the training of a knight.  Before his father left William was worried he would not know the way home...so his father told him to just follow his feet.]

We see a beautiful reunion of father and son.  This shows the kind of love that ought to exist between our family.  It can be years between seeing each other, but we should be happy to hold and see one another.  I mentioned up above that William's father had put him into the training of a real knight grouping up.  This is what father's ought to be, father's are supposed to want more for their children than themselves.  So often today we have fathers who don't care about their children, or tell them not to reach for the stars.  Some fathers also trying to live through their kids, and not let the kid reach and change his stars, the stars he is looking for, not his father's. 

This is not an easy thing to do, but as we learned from Scripture "No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends." (Jn. 15:13)  True love is sacrificial.  Which is one of the reason why I think we can pull a parallel to the relationship of God the Father and God the Son.  Father gives His Son over to the world for the good of the world, to change the stars, and the Son is so sent.  The Son goes to accomplish that which He set out to do, and returns victorious to His Father.  William returns to his father having accomplished the goal he set out to do.  

You've Got Mail

[Joe Fox (Tom Hanks) gets stuck in a elevator with his current girlfriend Patricia (Parker Posey) and other passengers.]

This is a simple enough scene that reminds us of those peculiar events where we are asked to pause and reflect.  Almost every stuck elevator scene I have seen is reminding the watcher to sit back and think about what is going on in their life.  It is a retreat, time think about the things that matter in life.  Out of the four characters in the elevator only one fails to do this.

The woman with the dog recognizes that her relationship with her mother is important and that she should spend more time and energy on it.  The bellhop recognizes that he should marry the woman he loves, that procrastination is not a good thing.  Then Patricia thinks about getting her eyes laser-ed, whatever that means, and then freaking out about her tic-tacs. Patricia just like the Pharisees of Jesus' time fail to take the time to really look at their life and take stock of things.  The people who were rich and famous back then would miss out on the things that are really important just like Patricia.  

Joe Fox actually takes the time to think about what he would like to be doing with his life, and who he wants to be with.  The movie is a love story between two very unlikely people, but both go through changes.  Joe Fox is at the final turning point in his change in this scene, he is now clear on what he wants.  Joe wants the good things out of life, things that matter, not fame, or riches.  So the question I leave you with is what are you missing out on?  Where is God asking you to pause in the busyness of your life?