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. It includes an analysis of "The Hunger Games" film as a cultural parable that engages the sacramental imagination (with thanks to Sr. Nancy Usslemann, FSP) This presentation was given at the National Catholic Youth Conference in Indianapolis, Nov. 22, 2013.

1. Savior on the
Silver Screen
or: Meeting Jesus
at the Movies
Sister Rose Pacatte, FSP
November 2013
National Catholic Youth Conference
SisterRoseMovies.net

2. Daughters of St. Paul

3. 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.

4. Andre’ Bazin
French Catholic Film Critic
“Cinema has always been interested in
God.”

5. The Bible: Episode 7
• Jesus Walks on Water
• http://youtu.be/zdH2TgTJDXE

6. Cinema as sacrament
Cinema makes visible invisible realities
• Transcendence
• Grace
• Encounter
• Senses
• Imagination
• Spirituality

7. “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

8. 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?

9. 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.

10. 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

11. How’s your vision?

12. What makes up your viewing lens?
•
•
•
•
•
•
Family
Faith formation
School
Life experience
Human and moral development
Your image of God and the human person

13. 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.

14. Who is God for you?
• Bruce Almighty: Bruce meets God
• http://youtu.be/bjAM2J_D4UY

15. What is your image of God?
• Wit: The Runaway Bunny
• http://youtu.be/eucAdWW-4HM

16. 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…

17. Matthew 13 paraphrase
The 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 ….

18. 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”

19. Waking Life: Holy Moments

20. 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…

21. 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

22. The Hunger Games Trailer
• http://youtu.be/FovFG3N_RSU

23. The Hunger Games
as 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

24. 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

25. 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

26. 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

27. 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)

28. 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?

29. 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?

30. • 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.

31. 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

32. 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

33. 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

34. 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.

35. 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

36. 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

37. Conscience
• Conscience is our true home

38. Conscience
• Not to live by one’s conscience is
homelessness

39. 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

40. 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.”

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

42. • “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

43. 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

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

45. 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