Sunday, January 25, 2009

2 Down and One is Ordered

Today I saw the second movie of The Matrix Trilogy for the second time and it dawned on me; put aside the religious symbolism (Neo dressed like a priest, the people meeting him at the elevator all dressed like Buddist monks, his girlfriend's name, blah blah blah) and the cultural signifigance (we are all slaves to the Machine), what you have here is an action sci-fi movie where NO ONE is a very good shot.



Everyone flies around spraying the room with machine gun bullets and hardly anyone ever gets hit. Most of the bad guys get the crap kicked out of them by Neo and Trinity and Morpheus (another awesome name, thank you) but unless the shooter is standing about 15 inches away from the full chest of the potential victim, or Trinity has snuck up next to you and put the gun behind your ear (an interesting way to protect your boyfriend, or access to him) the safest place to be during one of the many gun battles in these movies seems to be directly in front of the shooter.

But these are very pretty movies and lots of fun. Stunt men and women must have been in their own special heaven during the shoots.

Me? I'm a short, pudgy middle aged woman but even when I was young and beautiful I would not have been able to leap around like the people in these movies. I am not sure I would have WANTEd to leap around like that - looks really hard and I have a funny feeling it is closely related to exercise.

Today we celebrated the Feast of the Conversion of St Paul. I have often wondered how long it took him to be taken seriously by anyone. He was learned, he was on fire with desire but he had one lousy reputation to overcome, didn't he? Having to convince the fledgling Church that he was not going to help drag any more people into the street and beat them to death for accepting Jesus as the Messiah would be a hard sell.

And there was all his letters. Considering how he is so often misunderstood today, I sometimes get the feeling people at Corinth would see someone coming with one of his scrolls and think, "Oh no...we haven't figured out the last one yet.".

So the world turns and turns. We are all waiting for the next shoe to fall with FOCA - it could easily mean losing about 30% of the functioning hospitals in the US - and it is important to always hold onto the idea that nothing happens in God's universe by mistake. We have to trust. I think of what The Church went through in the first three centuries of its existence and I thank GOD I do not have that kind of suffering in my life. I am not sure I am tough enough. I like to think I am, but I know what a weakling I am in many areas and I think, "Me? a REAL revolutionary? I don't think so...too much camping".

I have lots to work on tonight so I better get with it. May St Michael continue to defend us in this battle for souls...and May the love of St Therese fill our hearts. We need those roses.

2 comments:

Christine Trollinger said...

May St Michael continue to defend us in this battle for souls...and May the love of St Therese fill our hearts. We need those roses.

Indeed we do Leslie. None of us are all that brave...but with God we can do His will, if we trust in His mercy.

Leslie K. said...

thank you!