Waiting for Jesus
Here are two questions from bloggers:
1) “On another note I was wondering about what the church says about Horror Films? I know some Christian denominations ban them.”
I haven’t come across a general statement about movies from the Magisterium (teaching office) of the Church. The Church does evaluate specific movies. For example, the USCCB has critiqued the horror film, “The Abandoned”; you can read it in full by clicking on the title of this post. Part of the USCCB review says that “the film contains violent and gory images, profanity, nudity, and one brief sequence in which a sex act is heard off-camera in a porn film.”
The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting has certain classifications for movies. It is as follows: A-I -- general patronage; A-II -- adults and adolescents; A-III -- adults; L -- limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. O -- morally offensive. The classification of “The Abandoned” is L -- limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling…horror films in general probably get the same classification of “morally offensive”.
2) “How do you explain to a three 1/2 year old that he can not have the Eucharist? This was not a problem until his brother had his first communion last year.”
One way might be to tell him that Jesus wants him to wait. You can tell him that Jesus has told us that we can’t receive Him until we’re seven years old (the Church has told us this, and the Church speaks for Christ). Jesus wants us all to wait, so we have all waited. He needs to be a big boy and wait.
I’m sure you’ve had to tell him that he's not ready for some other really special things he’s wanted: drinking soda, eating some kind of meat like steak, riding a bike, etc. You might try to remember how you approached that situation. You could bring some of these things up, and remind him that he’s been really good about waiting for them. And, how much more special Jesus is than those things!
If none of this works, you can always try another approach: tell him that you want to throw a really great party for him after he makes his first Holy Communion, and you need lots of time to plan it…like 3 years!
1) “On another note I was wondering about what the church says about Horror Films? I know some Christian denominations ban them.”
I haven’t come across a general statement about movies from the Magisterium (teaching office) of the Church. The Church does evaluate specific movies. For example, the USCCB has critiqued the horror film, “The Abandoned”; you can read it in full by clicking on the title of this post. Part of the USCCB review says that “the film contains violent and gory images, profanity, nudity, and one brief sequence in which a sex act is heard off-camera in a porn film.”
The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting has certain classifications for movies. It is as follows: A-I -- general patronage; A-II -- adults and adolescents; A-III -- adults; L -- limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. O -- morally offensive. The classification of “The Abandoned” is L -- limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling…horror films in general probably get the same classification of “morally offensive”.
2) “How do you explain to a three 1/2 year old that he can not have the Eucharist? This was not a problem until his brother had his first communion last year.”
One way might be to tell him that Jesus wants him to wait. You can tell him that Jesus has told us that we can’t receive Him until we’re seven years old (the Church has told us this, and the Church speaks for Christ). Jesus wants us all to wait, so we have all waited. He needs to be a big boy and wait.
I’m sure you’ve had to tell him that he's not ready for some other really special things he’s wanted: drinking soda, eating some kind of meat like steak, riding a bike, etc. You might try to remember how you approached that situation. You could bring some of these things up, and remind him that he’s been really good about waiting for them. And, how much more special Jesus is than those things!
If none of this works, you can always try another approach: tell him that you want to throw a really great party for him after he makes his first Holy Communion, and you need lots of time to plan it…like 3 years!
posted by Fr Greg at
4:29 PM
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