Preaching Goes to the Movies
The gospel meets popular culture when homilies dare to engage film

Rose Pacatte, FSP

Photofest

This is an article on theological reflection and the movies - for homilists. The first hurdle we need to face when talking about mainstream cinema is this: is it okay for clergy and religious to see movies and is it okay to bring cinema stories to our worship? I think it is, for the simple reason that there is a need to integrate faith and life for Catholics today as they search for meaning in the marketplace of ideas. Mainstream cinema presents such a place.

Peter Steinfels says in his new book A People Adrift (Simon and Schuster, 2003): "Preaching . has improved. . The improvement since [Vatican II] has been marked, thanks in good measure to a myriad of workshops, publications, and just plain embarrassment. Unfortunately, with a Catholic population better and better educated, the bar may be going up faster than preaching can improve." Photofest

One way to engage Catholics in the pews is as old as the gospel and as new as popular culture: storytelling through movies.

We can speak of ratings and reviews to prepare for homilies. These can be useful information for guidance especially for parents, or for people who have sensibilities about the social mores' we have been culturally conditioned to reject - or accept. Believers and people of good will are continually challenged about the movies (music and television, too). Some questions that may arise are: is it wrong to support the movie industry because of all the sex? How much is too much violence? For what ages? What about the level of civility? Will God send anyone to hell for bad language? Can anything good come from Hollywood ? Is there more to a movie than the sum total of its content? I would propose that more than sex, violence and bad language, product placement, rampant commercialization and other destructive behaviors such as drugs, are issues the movies can help us bring to the Scripture readings and talk about.

Theology of the Incarnation: What if God were one of us?

A paraphrase of John 3:17 might say: "For God did not send his Son into the culture to condemn the culture, but that the culture might be saved through him." This kind of saying seems to present a conundrum to believers that goes back as far as the time of Tertullian (third century), when Christians struggled with whether or not it was "right" to enflesh the Word in art, literature and theater - indeed, to integrate and "baptize" pagan images and symbols into Christian worship. Augustine, in the fifth century, resolved the issue somewhat when he taught that symbols and images as communication techniques are neutral, and it is OK to co-opt them for "good" or Christian purposes. If we go further, it was Augustine and then Gregory who first applied the rules of rhetoric to preaching, and it was during their era that the concept of "audience" was mentioned for the first time in relation to the homily.

These ideas all relate to the theology of the Incarnation - that God sent his Son, human and divine, to dwell among us, not in a safe refuge untainted by humanity.

Making sense out of life

I would like to propose that homilists "put out into the deep" of our culture and bring the scriptures and life closer together through theological reflection. Theological reflection is a process that comes naturally to people of faith, because we have a continuing need to make sense out of life. It involves an incarnational approach to the world as we know it, as John Staudenmueller, S.J., put it, theological reflection helps us to fall in love with the world today.

Joye Gros, O.P., in her book Theological Reflection (Loyola Press, 2001), describes the various steps for theological reflection as a process of living in relationship to God. She sees it as a continuing cycle of:

• Attending by listening, watching, paying attention, "deep viewing"
• Asserting through dialogue and conversation
• Decision-making against the backdrop of how God speaks to us through "Catholic tradition, culture and experience"
• Acting, that is, doing something that puts our decision into practice.

Theological reflection is actually a discernment process. We can make use of it from at least three aspects: One, we can apply the film to ourselves personally as "audience." We can watch and identify with one or more of the characters in the story, and thus exercise our moral imaginations to reflect theologically on what we are seeing. Two, we can view the characters themselves as going through a process of discernment leading to action as the script develops their character and the plot. Three, we can incarnate the cinema experience and seek to combine cinematic storytelling experience with the Word of God for the purpose of the homily.

Part I: Tell the movie: On the Waterfront

Cycle C for February, 2004, provides us with five Sundays, and also Ash Wednesday, as opportunities to explore the Incarnation of the Word with and in popular film. Each of these films (see box) tells a story, and the human story begs for the divine dynamic that good preaching can provide. The film for Ash Wednesday this year is "On the Waterfront."

Johnny Friendly (Lee J. Cobb), along with his bookkeeper, Charlie Malloy (Rod Steiger), runs the longshoremen's union on the New York waterfront. When Joey Doyle, a young longshoreman, speaks to the crime investigators about waterfront corruption, Friendly uses ex-boxer Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando) as an unknowing decoy so that Doyle can be murdered. Edie Doyle (Eva Marie Saint) wants to know the truth about her brother's death. Terry is attracted to her, and when he realizes his role in the murder, eventually confesses to her what he has done. Parish priest Fr. Barry (Karl Malden) becomes involved in the waterfront troubles, holding meetings in his church and encouraging men to speak to the authorities. He tells them that any murder on the docks is another crucifixion.

When a second worker is killed, Fr. Barry confronts Terry about his duty to speak out. Friendly warns Charlie to control Terry, but Terry reminds Charlie that he could have been someone, a professional boxer, except for Charlie's forcing him to take falls for betting set-ups. Charlie backs off and is murdered by Friendly's men.

After Terry testifies at a hearing, the men shun him. Then Friendly challenges him, and they fight. Friendly's thugs converge on Terry and beat him. The men with Terry gang up against Friendly and refuse to work unless Terry leads them in. Urged on by Fr. Barry, Terry walks and the men follow. (Taken from Lights, Camera .Faith! Cycle C )

Part II: Explore Terry's journey with the gospel using theological reflection

The scripture readings for Ash Wednesday are from Joel 2:12-18, 2 Cor 5:20-6:2 and Mt 6: 1-6, 16-18. In the gospel, Jesus warns about doing religious acts for people to see. Through a process of theological reflection, Terry experiences a Lenten journey of repentance and conversion. He follows his conscience and is prepared to suffer for his decision to do the right thing.

What we, the viewers are seeing in Budd Schulberg's script is Terry's journey from darkness to light, from lies to truth, from sham to authenticity. According to the theological paradigm above, here is how Terry experiences this journey of growth:

Attending: Terry listens and watches; he pays attention to his conscience, to what is going on around him, and understands how he has been an unwitting ploy in Joey Doyle's death. He is on the path to conversion of life. We, the audience, have just heard the gospel, so we are paying attention and engaging in a kind of "deep viewing" dynamic as we think about "On the Waterfront." Some situation in our own lives may be playing out against the backdrop of the words of Jesus in the gospel and "On the Waterfront."

Asserting: Through dialogue and conversation, Terry has a change of heart - he wants to be the man he thinks he is. He dialogues with Edie, Fr. Barry, his brother Charlie and confronts Johnny Friendly. He articulates his repentance for his part in the waterfront conspiracy. We, the congregation, may also question a situation when we gain insight through dialogue and conversation. Terry's example can encourage us.

Decision-making: Against the backdrop of how God speaks to us through "Catholic tradition, culture and experience," especially through the words, support and presence of Fr. Barry and Edie, Terry first realizes and then decides what he has to do: testify against Johnny Friendly. The gospel asks us if our Christianity is sincere, if it runs deep, if our behavior and beliefs are integrated enough to decide to do the right thing in difficult situations.

Acting: Terry goes through with his decision and suffers for it; Edie is a catalyst for Terry's action because, in her love for him, she continually demands the truth. Terry is ready to die for the truth, and as we see at the end of the film, he stumbles toward the dock, beaten but already risen. Terry is a Christ figure for the sake of the gospel.

Part III: Conclusion

Terry Malloy wants desperately to belong. He also wants to be free. Terry, unwittingly but honestly, accepts the journey laid out before him - a journey that will change him and the community in which he lives and works profoundly.

By placing the community at the center of all moral human action, the principles of Catholic social teaching form another lens that can be used to filter this film and others, and place them in dialogue with the scriptures. Through theological reflection as a life skill, carried out and communicated today in our own cultural reality, the scriptures - and Lent - lay out for us a program of life that can free us to be more human and Christ-like citizens of the world.

"If we think of theology as rooted in story," writes Teresa Sanders in the preface of her 2001 book Celluloid Saints: Images of Sanctity in Film (Mercer University Press, 2002), "it should come as no surprise that some of the most profoundly theological works of the past century have been movies."

MORE RESOURCES:

Nourishing Faith Through Fiction: Reflections of the Apostles' Creed in Literature and Film , by John R. May (Sheed & Ward, 2001).

Imaging the Divine: Jesus and Christ-Figures in Film , by Lloyd Baugh (Sheed & Ward, 1997).

Rose Pacatte is a Daughter of St. Paul and director of the Pauline Center for Media Studies in Los Angeles (RosePacatte@pauline.org or www.pauline.org). She is the co-author with Peter Malone, MSC, of Lights, Camera . Faith! A Movie Lover's Guide to Scripture , available for Cycles A, B and C of the liturgical year (Pauline Books & Media, Boston). Rose is also the film/TV columnist for St. Anthony Messenger magazine.

Movies and the Lectionary

• Just as with the readings, be sure to see the film ahead of time before talking about it.
• Consider selecting a clip to use to introduce the homily, conclude it or to use as a reflection after Communion.
• The Internet Movie Database is always a good source of information and reviews ( www.imdb.org ).

This article appears in the February 2004 issue of Celebration; An Ecumencial Worship Resource, published by the National Catholic Reporter Publishing Co.

For more information, visit Celebration 's Web site at www.ncrpub.com or visit the NCR web site at www.ncronline.org and link to Celebration from there.