Taken

Watched a couple of good movies recently. Last Friday, after putting the little ones to bed, we watched Taken, starring Liam Neeson.

Suffice it to say that now my daughters will never experience Paris – or anywhere outside, say, a twenty-mile radius of wherever I happen to be – by themselves.

Liam’s a down-on-his-luck divorcee who quits his job and takes a crappy apartment to be near his seventeen-year-old daughter, who now lives in a mansion with mom and her wealthy stepfather. He wants to make up for lost time and finally be a good dad. His ex kinda coerces and guilts him into allowing the daughter to take a trip un-chaperoned to Paris. Then, the S hits that fan. The daughter is abducted, and is actually on the phone with her father while this is happening. Fortunately, though, Liam is ex-CIA; think of a 50-year-old retired Jason Bourne. Before long, bodies pile up as he makes his way through the seedy underworld of Europe. Hell hath no fury like a special forces father getting his daughter back from kidnappers.

There’s a somewhat famous scene where Liam gets on the cell phone with the abductor just after the daughter is taken:

I don't know who you are. I don't know what you want. If you are looking for ransom, I can tell you I don't have money. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills; skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let my daughter go now, that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you.

There’s a long pause as Liam awaits a response, any response.

Then, in an evil whisper, the kidnapper replies:

Good luck.

Thus begins our heart-warming tale of kicking ass.

The movie’s great; if this is your bag, see it, see it, see it. I’ll probably buy it once the video stores start selling off their copies. But there’s a joke in here somewhere. All fathers feel this same way towards their daughters. We’ll kill for them, if necessary. However, obviously, not all fathers are ex-CIA enforcers. If I got on the phone with my daughter’s abductor, what would I say? What skills do I have to make them sorry for what they did? “I’ll write very nasty things about you on my blog!” “I’ll hit you over the head with my ten-pound Encyclopedia of Science Fiction while you sleep!” What would really be clever would be a story in which a everyday, ordinary father has to stretch himself to outwit his foes rather than just beat the heck out of them, one by one, and save his little one.

Bellies

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Can it be true (I just can't believe it!) that on earth there are no men - only bellies?

(from The Way by Josemarie Escriva)

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This made me pause and halt in my reading. I know exactly what the future saint is saying. Yesterday I gorged myself on pizza, pasta, dairy and sweets, and willfully allowed countless opportunities, some which will never to come this way again, to slip through my fingertips. But the thing is, my fingers, in their incessant hunt to satisfy my silly and fruitless earthly desires, never even knew the opportunities were there ...

The Eucharist: Catechism

Met with my priest last night as well as with a group of other Eucharistic Ministers – a couple of long-standing ministers, plus a couple brand new ones, just like me – for an hour and a half going over the theology of the Blessed Sacrament. Some handouts, a short lecture, some Bible readings, some personal disclosures. All in all informative and welcoming, and I left feeling very pleased that I had made a good decision.

I asked Father where the definitive teaching on the Eucharist was. Was there a papal encyclical, or some early writing of the Church Fathers, something that would have it all spelled out, theory and practice, for the concerned seeker? He said that there was, and it turns out it is in a place I had neglected to review for my little series on the Eucharist. The Catechism of the Catholic Church.

For my thoughts on the CCC, see here.

I am remiss in not consulting the Catechism. As a matter of fact, I just slapped my palm to my forehead, like I do when I realize I could have had a V8. Anyway, opening up the CCC and looking briefly at the table of contents, I see 130 pages are devoted to explaining the teaching and reasoning behind the Church’s seven sacraments. 28 pages on the Eucharist. That seems comprehensive enough.

If you happen to be really, really interested, the relevant part can be found online here.

The parts that speak most strongly to me are the following:

1373 “Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us,” is present in many ways to his Church: in his word, in his Church’s prayer, “where two or three are gathered in my name,” in the poor, the sick, and the imprisoned, in the sacraments of which he is the author, in the sacrifice of the Mass, and in the person of the minister. But “he is present … most especially in the Eucharistic species.”

1376 The Council of Trent summarizes the Catholic faith by declaring: “Because Christ our Redeemer said that it was truly his body that he was offering under the species of bread, it has always been the conviction of the Church of God, and this holy Council now declares again, that by the consecration of the bread and wine there takes place a change of the whole substance of the bread into the substance of the body of Christ our Lord and of the whole substance of the wine into the substance of his blood. This change the holy Catholic Church has fittingly and properly called transubstantiation.”

Next Sunday we all meet again to go over the mechanics and logistics of what is involved. I am nervous, excited, and am very much looking forward to it. I am finally convinced that it is an honor to be called to such a duty, and even though I am not worthy of it, none of us is, not even my priest, nor my bishop, not even the Pope. There is only One who is worthy, but we are all called to serve Him in whatever ways he makes known to us.