Godzilla Minus Zero - A Heart-Rending but Resplendent Anti-War Masterpiece

Godzilla Minus One has been my favorite movie ever since I saw it almost three years ago towards the end of its theatrical run. I was both excited and scared about the prospect of a sequel. Would the new movie ruin the original masterpiece retroactively? Would it not have been better for the creative team to just quit while they were ahead? But I need not have worried. Godzilla Minus Zero was amazing beyond my wildest expectations. Not only does the sequel not ruin the original, but the second movie builds on the first in a deeply meaningful way and even makes the original feel deeper and more powerful in hindsight. (Consequently, you should definitely see the first one before the sequel. A good knoweldge of Godzilla lore would also enrich the experience but is not necessary.)

The story is set in 1949, two years after the dramatic end of Godzilla Minus One. Shikishima, the heroic pilot who defeated Godzilla, and Noriko, who survived the monster's atomic breath in Ginza, have been reunited and are now married. Together, they are working hard to eke out a quiet life after the devastation left behind by WWII and by Godzilla's furious attacks, seeking to provide as good a life as they can for Akiko, the little girl they have adopted.

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Photo Credit: Promotional photo for Godzilla Minus Zero.

Do Not Delay (32 Sunday - Cycle A)

Throughout the Gospels, we see a sense of urgency. As Jesus calls us to repentance, he lets us know that we have only a finite amount of time to turn our lives around. Many aspects of our lives come with deadlines. For example, as we develop, we have a limited number of years to absorb languages. After a certain point, language learning becomes far more difficult. Also, changes happen to the human body during the teen years, the thwarting of which can lead to the life-long stunting of physical development. Childbearing years too have a definite window. Moreover, we have a limited number of years to ward off diseases triggered by lifestyle choices. In school and at work, we have only so much time to complete projects. In terms of finance, we have only a certain number of years when we can save for retirement. The clock keeps ticking whether we are ready or not.

The same is true for our spiritual lives. Christ offers us his infinite love, the only reality that truly fulfills us on an existential level. Our task is to repent of our sins, to turn away from all those things that take us away from God and to accept Christ's offer of love, reciprocating his love with our entire being. To do so is our salvation and our eternal joy and blessedness. To refuse the love Christ offers us is to plunge ourselves into self-destruction. That is the monumental choice that faces all of us - and we are given a limited amount of time to make our choice. We have until the moment of our death.

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Image Credit: The wise virgins, sculptures (ca. 1460-1481) by Erhart Kueng (1420-1507), main portal, Minster, Berne, Switzerland, from Wikimedia Commons.

The Autumn Triduum (All Saints, All Souls - Cycle A)

October 31, November 1, and November 2, sometimes known as the Autumn Triduum, have traditionally been major feast days in Catholic life, marked with special celebrations. October 31 is All Hallow's Eve, a time of preparation for All Saints Day on November 1, the commemoration of all the saints of the Church. November 2 is All Souls Day, a time of remembrance and prayer for our deceased loved ones.

But although these three holy days once played a pivotal role in the seasonal rhythm of Western culture, today their true significance is largely forgotten. Instead, October 31 in particular has been replaced by the antithesis of what it was originally, now turned into a macabre celebration of horror and evil. As Catholics, we should go against the contemporary cultural tide and reclaim the true significance of the Autumn Triduum.

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Photo Credit: The Forerunners of Christ with Saints and Martyrs by Fra Angelico from Wikimedia Commons.

Healthy Self-Love (30th Sunday - Cycle A)

The confrontation continues in the Gospel Reading for today. As the liturgical year draws close to its end, the lectionary focuses on Jesus teaching in Jerusalem after his triumphal entry into the city and before the beginning of his passion. As we have seen in prior reflections, the situation is highly charged, because the Israelites are having to celebrate the Passover, the feast of their liberation from Egypt, while living under Roman occupation.

The religious leaders, most of whom oppose Jesus, are taking turns to try to defeat him either by riling the crowds up against him or by getting him arrested by the Roman soldiers. In last Sunday's Gospel reading, we saw the Pharisees seeking to trap Jesus by asking him about the legitimacy of paying taxes to the Roman Emperor. In the passage immediately following, which is not included in this lectionary sequence, the Sadducees, another group of religious leaders, try to undermine Jesus with a trick question about marriage, but they are rebuffed.

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Photo Credit: The Sea of Galilee (c) 2016 by Zoltan Abraham.

The Deadly Trap Set for Jesus (29th Sunday - Cycle A)

The confrontation in today's Gospel reading has high stakes - indeed, life and death. The religious leaders are seeking to destroy Jesus with a single question. To understand their trap, we need to recall the political situation at the time of Jesus. The people of Israel had been under foreign occupation for the better part of six hundred years. The Assyrians, the Babylonian, the Persians, and the Greeks had all controlled the land to various degrees, for various lengths of time. During the earthly life of Jesus, the Roman Empire was in charge.

The Romans ruled a vast territory and were ruthless in extracting resources from the many nations they had conquered. The taxes they raised were taken to their centers of power, where the Roman aristocracy burned through the wealth with their ostentatious, profligate, and debauched lifestyle. For the Israelites, who yearned for deliverance from foreign oppression, the Roman taxes were an ongoing reminder of their subjugation.

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Image Credit: Roman bronze coins found in Novae, Bulgaria, from Wikimedia Commons.

We Are All Invited (28th Sunday - Cycle A)

The Parable of the Wedding Feast, which is the Gospel Reading for today, is a part of a larger narrative arc in the Gospel of Matthew. Jesus has entered Jerusalem in triumph. He has cleansed the Temple, and now he is teaching before the Temple, instructing the crowds who have gathered in the city for the Passover celebration. The atmosphere is tense and highly charged, because the Passover was the commemoration of the liberation of the Israelites from bondage in Egypt, but now the feast has to be held while the people of Israel are under Roman occupation. The Roman occupiers know full well that the city might go up like a tinderbox during these days, so they have reinforced their garrison with sufficient numbers to subdue any unrest.

As Jesus is teaching in the Temple, the religious leaders, most of whom have already decided to reject him, take turns at challenging him. Their goal is to trip him up, getting the crowds to turn on him or drawing the Roman soldiers in to arrest him. Jesus, for his part, has harsh words for the religious leaders, who are leading the people astray.

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Image Credit: Christ Glorified in the Court of Heaven by Fra Angelico, from Wikimedia Commons.
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Without the Cross, We Lose It All (27th Sunday - Cycle A)

In the Gospel Reading for this Sunday we see Jesus confronting the religious leaders of his time, who did not accept him as the Messiah. He tells them that other leaders would take their place. The dire warning was already foreshadowed in the Book of Isaiah, as we see in the First Reading.

In the Old Testament, God established a covenant with the Israelites. The Covenant anticipated the coming of the Messiah, who would liberate the Israelites from their bondage. When Christ, who is God Incarnate, came among us, he fulfilled the Old Covenant and created the New Covenant. In the Old Covenant, God established a special relationship with the people of Israel, giving them the land of Israel as their inheritance. In the New Covenant, that special relationship is extended to all of humanity and encompasses all who are baptized into Christ and who lead a life following him through the Church he established. Instead of a physical land in this world, the New Covenant focuses on our heavenly land, the New Heaven and New Earth that will be fashioned by Christ at the end of the ages. In the Old Covenant, the Israelites were to follow the Mosaic Law. But the New Covenant is founded on accepting and reciprocating the love of Christ.

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Photo Credit: Our Lady of Sorrows at Golgotha, the site of the Crucifixion of Christ (c) 2016 by Zoltan Abraham.