Dutch man rebuilds Noah's Ark!

Apparently it's built to scale. The ark had the same capacity as more than 500 train boxcars.

More pictures of the recreated Noah's Ark can be found here.

A valid criticism of Bl. Duns Scotus?

Is this a valid criticism of Blessed John Duns Scotus?

If Scotus says that beatitude can only be accomplished by the hypostatic union, then he deprives the angels of beatitude because Christ did not assume their natures. Yet the blessed angels (e.g. Michael and Gabriel) do enjoy beatitude. Therefore, beatitude does not depend on the hypostatic union. Moreover, Adam and Eve could have been glorified without the incarnation of Christ.

[Calling Lee Faber! Calling Lee Faber!]

Does Scotus make the connection between the incarnation and human beatitude necessary or fitting? I'm guessing the latter, but I need some help on this.

Today's my birthday!

Today's my birthday. Off to Holy Mass at Saint Mary the Virgin Catholic Church (Anglican Usage) in Arlington Texas and then to Eagle Mountain Lake.

How should we properly understand Adam and Eve before the Fall?

How should we properly understand Adam and Eve before the Fall? This is a tough question and almost everything hinges on it - how we understand grace, nature, salvation, merit, the incarnation of Christ, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and eternity.

What does it mean to be human?
First, when we speak of what it means to be "human" we must not look at our fallen state. Rather, we should examine "humanity" with regard to our prelapsarian (pre-fallen) state. We know that Adam and Eve were constituted in grace. Consequently, we cannot speak of them as purely natural or as being "homo naturalis". Further, they were given preternatural gifts that extended (praeter) their natural abilities. For example, they were granted immortality, their passions were properly integrated to their intellect and will, and their intellects were brighter and less encumbered by the distractions of our lower appetites (e.g. hunger, sexual desires).

Adam and Eve as in grace but not yet perfected in grace
Although they were in grace, they were not yet perfected in grace now were they fully glorified. In other words, they had not yet been admitted into the Beatific Vision. Allegedly, the presence of Satan and the test of the tree in the garden was a probationary arrangement. If Adam had succeeded, he and his bride would have been glorified and been admitted to the beatific vision of God's essence.

Grace doesn't only "correct sin"
We should be careful not to think of grace as something that is only necessary to "correct sin". This is a temptation among Calvinistic theology. These thinkers wrongly presume that the the pre-fallen state was "graceless". The Catholic Church teaches that Adam and Eve were constituted in grace prior to the Fall (cf. Council of Trent (Session V, 1). The Catholic Church teaches that Adam "fell from grace"; where as some Protestants teach "Adam did not fall from grace, because he wasn't sinful and was therefore not in a state of grace." This begs the question: If Adam "fell", then from what did he fall? It seems that the answer is that Adam fell from nature. This is the Catholic heresy of Baianism - that Adam did not possess grace before the fall and that Adam "fell from nature".

Why the false doctrine of Total Depravity depends on "falling from nature"
Once we see that Adam fell from grace and did not fall from his human nature, we come to understand that fallen humanity is not totally depraved as Calvinistic Synod of Dordt would have us to believe. If we fell away from our natures, then original sin is something much more tragic and pessimistic. It follows logically that we would no longer be in the image of God. However, if we fall from grace, we retain our human nature. We lack the gifts we once possessed, but we are not ontologically changed into something else. We don't have a "sin nature" as some Protestants call it. Instead, we have what the Catholic Church (and Rom 7:7-8; James 1:14-15) calls concupiscence - a disordered inward desire for that which is contrary to reason.

The correct understanding of Original Sin
Original Sin is then the privation or absence of sanctifying grace and the original righteousness once possessed by Adam and Eve. It is not a "sin nature". It is not "total depravity". According to Saint Augustine, evil and sin is not some "thing"; rather, it is the lack of righteousness or justice. Original Sin is the lack of Original Justice. We are born without the grace, gifts, and privileges of Adam and Eve. We are not born as "vipers in diapers" be we are born naked and empty with respect to God's grace.

How does this relate to salvation as proclaimed by the Catholic Church?
Salvation entails two states - grace and glory. We can be restored to grace in this life. This is called "regeneration" or being "born again". This grace is conferred in baptism as the "sacrament of faith". If sacramental baptism cannot be conferred (because of imminent death), the grace is conferred by desire so that God is never handcuffed on account of His own sacraments (which by the way would be ridiculous). Having been justified in this way, the Christian is a pilgrim and begins to grow in grace so that he or she becomes a Saint. This is process of sanctification - a process that is not unrelated to justification. Thus salvation entails faith and works.

Grace leads to Glory
The journey of sanctification leads to the final state of glory. Glory is the vision of God's divine essnce. This is our greatest happiness because only God can satisfy our every desire. We are glorified and made, as St. Thomas Aquinas calls it, deiform. This doesn't mean that we become gods, but it does mean that we become like God - as much as a created human can become like God.

Since those in grace continue to struggle in concupiscence, sin is a real obstruction to grace. Those who die in a state of grace but are unrepentant or who do not properly repent of their sins will undergo "remedial correction" in the afterlife. This is the state of fiery purification described by St. Paul in 1 Cor 3:15. It does not supplement the merits of Christ, but it is the means by which the merits of Christ transform us into the image of His own holiness.

To be continued.

President Obama's Honorary Ph.D. from Notre Dame

Everybody is rightly going nuts over President Obama being the Commencement speaker at Notre Dame. However, few are aware that he's also scheduled to receive an honorary Ph.D. in law from Notre Dame University.

That's right folks. A man who has worked to secure a woman's "right" to abortion (and infanticide) in United States law is getting an honorary doctorate from a Catholic university in the subject of "law". Notre Dame is Catholic no more. I've lost all respect for the administration of the University of Notre Dame.

Read the press release from Notre Dame and be ready to gag.

Thomas Aquinas on the Typology of Old Covenant Sacrificial Victims

Thomas Aquinas identifies in ST q. 102, a. 3 the six kinds of sacrificial victims in the Old Testament and explains how each is type of Christ as a the sacrificial victim for the sins of the world. He cites the gloss:

It was fitting that these animals should be offered, that they might foreshadow Christ.

Christ is offered:

1. in the calf, to denote the strength of the cross;
2. in the lamb, to signify His innocence;
3. in the ram, to foreshadow His headship;
4. and in the goat, to signify the likeness of 'sinful flesh'
5. The turtledove and dove denoted the union of the two natures"; or else the turtledove signified chastity; while the dove was a figure of charity.
6. The wheat-flour foreshadowed the sprinkling of believers with the water of Baptism."

I particularly like how water is related to the wheat-flour as a sign of baptism.

What should Conservatism look like?

What should Conservatism look like? Excellent write up by Patrick Deneen over at the Front Porch Republic about the vices of lust and greed as pertaining to political platforms. Check out the post: Patrick Deneen's 'Deadly Vices'.

HT: Charlton Wimberly

One of my favorite saints: The Priest Hole Maker Nicholas Owen

Drawing of a Catholic Priest Hole

Nicholas Owen was the mastermind behind the "priest holes" in England during Queen Elizabeth I's (Bloody Beth) persecution of Catholic priests and laity. At that time it was a capital crime to be a Catholic priest on English soil and so they were forced to hide in secret spaces designed specifically for them.

Nicholas Owen designed ingenious priest holes by creating architectural illusions in walls and spaces so that priests could hide in the large homes of wealthy Catholics without detection - sometimes for several days during a home inspection by investigators. The English authorities even punched poles into walls and measured crawl spaces, suspicious of hiding priests. Nicholas Owen also designed a successful escape plot for two Jesuit priests held captive in the Tower of London!

Saint Nicholas Owen was tortured to death and received a martyr's crown in 1606.

Read about priest holes on Wikipedia.

FSSP alters a modern altar in 15 minutes!

This YouTube video of FSSP priests and laity "altering" and altar is incredible!

Bible Joke: How did Noah see at night?

How did Noah see at night?

(See comments box for answer.)

Papal Caption Contest!

"They shall roar together like lions; they shall growl like lions' whelps" (Jer 51:38).

Cardinal George meets with President Obama

I happy to have learned about a half-hour meeting between Cardinal George and President Obama this afternoon. (The meeting was not included in President Obama's daily schedule.)

Full story from Life Site News about Cardinal George and Obama.

I'm wearnig Green and pinching those who don't

I'm wearing green today and I'm pinching those who don't, so look out!

I'm 50% Irish (both grandmothers). My paternal grandmother is Orange (Protestant-Dublin) Irish and my maternal grandmother grew up Green (Irish-American immigrants).

Christ's name halts the alien abduction process!

This is ridiculous. According to the Examiner, invoking Christ's name halts the alien abduction process! This would confirm the claim of Orthodox priest Seraphim Rose that aliens and UFOs are merely diabolical apparitions of demons. Or it could mean that people are just crazy.

Saint of the Liturgical Creed - Saint Leander

Today (March 13) is the commemoration of Saint Leander of Seville, the bishop credited for introducing the Nicene Creed into the public Sunday liturgy.

Born into a household that was theologically Arian, Leander believed that public recitation of the Nicene Creed would cure his people's tendency toward the heretical beliefs that Christ was not eternally begotten of the Father and not of the same substance as the Father.

Saint Leander died ca. A.D. 600.

John Calvin on the Mass and the True Church

Does Calvin teach that the Church ceased to exist on account of the Eucharist?

I wrote up a post on this difficulty over at Called to Communion.

Anglican Bishop Jeffrey Steenson is now Catholic Father Jeffrey Steenson

Photo: from Rev. Msgr. William Stetson
Secretary of the Pastoral Provision
Great news! Episcopalian bishop of the Rio Grande Jeffrey Steenson has been ordained as a Catholic priest! Here's a golden quote by Fr. Steenson:

“This is a silly way to put it, but it just feels more real. I told someone once: the air feels thicker around the Catholic Eucharist” and it’s not the incense, “because we use more incense in Anglicanism,” he said.

This is the kind of thing that makes love Fr. Steenson all the more. Congrats, Fr. Steenson. Axios!

Catholic Review [of Balto]
7 March 2009
By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service

ROME – If using dolls to practice the baptismal ritual is a humbling experience for seminarians, one can imagine what it was like for someone who already had baptized hundreds of babies.

Father Jeffrey N. Steenson, the former Episcopal bishop of the Rio Grande, prepared for his ordination to the Catholic priesthood with seminarians from Rome’s Pontifical North American College.

The 56-year-old, who spent 24 years as an Episcopal clergyman and three years as a bishop in New Mexico, laughs about the humbling experience of the doll practice and has nothing but praise for the “graciousness and good humor” of the NAC seminarians and staff with whom he’s been working for the past year.

Welcomed into the Catholic Church in 2007 and ordained a deacon in December 2008 by Bernard Cardinal Law, the archpriest of the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome, he was ordained to the priesthood Feb. 21 by Archbishop Michael J. Sheehan of Santa Fe, N.M.

While he studies with the U.S. seminarians in Rome, Father Steenson and his wife have been living in a cottage on the grounds of the Pontifical Irish College.

Archbishop Sheehan has assigned him to pastoral work in a New Mexico parish for the summer, and then will send him to Houston where he will teach at the University of St. Thomas and at St. Mary’s Seminary.

The Steensons’ three children – a daughter and two sons – are grown.

Educated at Harvard Divinity School and at Oxford, Father Steenson is an expert in patristics, the study of the early church fathers. He spoke to Catholic News Service in Rome March 6 before making one of his frequent visits to the library at the Augustinianum Patristical Institute.

“I’ve been attracted to Catholicism all of my life,” Father Steenson said.

When Pope John Paul II was elected in 1978, he said, “I felt this tug,” but he continued his preparations for his 1980 ordination in the Anglican Communion.

For Father Steenson, the role of the pope as the successor of St. Peter, the servant of church unity and the guarantor of the church’s fidelity to tradition was key to his decision.

“It is not negative things that turned me to the Catholic Church,” he said. “I just felt God saying, ‘It’s time.’”

The time came, he said, in 2007 when he felt the bishops of the Episcopal Church had decided to give priority to their autonomy rather than to unity with the larger Anglican Communion.

Father Steenson said that for him gay people were not the issue. “It was the way the decisions were made and the way they were defended,” placing the local church and modern cultural sensitivities ahead of the universal church and fidelity to tradition, he said.

The priest said that while the Episcopal Church spoke of the importance of Christian unity, it continued to approve practices – ordaining women priests and bishops, ordaining homosexuals and blessing same-sex unions – that everyone knew would be an obstacle to Christian unity.

“The frustration with being a Protestant is that every morning you get up and have to reinvent the church all over again,” Father Steenson said.

He said he struggled with the idea of backing out of his pastoral responsibility to the people of the Episcopal diocese. But Archbishop Sheehan helped him see that “if you can’t lead with a clear conscience, you really owe it to everyone to get out of the way. And that’s pretty much where I was in the Episcopal Church,” he said.

Father Steenson said that while Catholic and Anglican liturgies are very similar externally, “there are profound differences, too.”

For example, he said, “even the high, high Anglicans would have a hard time understanding how absolutely central the Eucharist is to the Christian life” for Catholics.

“Anglicans have a hard time defining what exactly is happening with this. Catholics don’t have that problem at all,” he said.

“This is a silly way to put it, but it just feels more real. I told someone once: the air feels thicker around the Catholic Eucharist” and it’s not the incense, “because we use more incense in Anglicanism,” he said.

I'll be speaking at St. Anne's Catholic Church in Coppell, Texas tonight

I'll be speaking to a group of parents at Saint Anne's Catholic Church (Coppell, Texas) about my conversion to the Catholic Faith and the importance of the Holy Eucharist as it relates to the Old Covenant Passover at 6:30 pm. If you're in the area, I hope that you'll join us.

Saint Anne's Catholic Church
180 Samuel Blvd.
Coppell, TX 75019

No breakfast in Heaven (Humor/Video)

That's right folks, after the Final Judgment there will be no longer be any breakfast because resurrected bodies do not require food. This video pretty much sums up the Thomistic doctrine, but in a much more upbeat, catchy mode of presentation.

The best part of the presentation is at 2:10.

For those who want to confirm that there will be no breakfast in heaven:

Supplementum to III, q. 81, a. 4, ad. 1 (compiled by Thomas Aquinas assistant Rainaldo da Piperno) states that resurrected bodies do not require food.

Hat tip to Matthew Hatcher.

735th Anniversary of Thomas Aquinas' Death

Today is the 735th anniversary of Saint Thomas Aquinas' death.

To commemorate the day, Bryan Cross has posted an article at Called to Communion entitled "Thomas Aquinas and Trent".

More interesting things in the Dionysian corpus

Dionysius claims to be on intimate terms with the Apostle John, the Apostle Paul, Timothy, Titus, and Polycarp. He claims to have met the Apostle Peter and James of Jerusalem (Divine Names & Epistles).

Dionysius claims to have been present for the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin (Divine Names 3, 2).

He was in charge of the "newly baptized" (Divine Names 3, 2).

His spiritual guide was a mystical author named Hierotheos.

He claims to have seen a solar eclipse on the date of Christ's crucifixion (Epistle 7, 2).

More from the Catholic Encyclopedia.

Lutheran bishops tested for HIV

"We in the U.S. tend to think of this as a global pandemic unrelated to people in the U.S.," said Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson. "For me as a married heterosexual man to be tested is a reminder that all communities are affected -- if not infected."

Full story from LA Times.

Facebook Group: People who refuse to prefix "Pseudo" to "Dionysius the Areopagite"

If you're on Facebook, you need to join our new group:

People who refuse to prefix "Pseudo" to "Dionysius the Areopagite"

Description:
Okay, okay, so the author of the Dionysian corpus claims to be a first-century disciple of Saint Paul (Acts 17:34) and also happens to cites the fifth-century writings of the pagan Neoplatonist Proclus (412-485).

That's a problem. Florentine humanist Lorenzo Valla (d. 1457) blew the whistle and now everyone knows.

But why be smug about it and add insult to injury by constantly affixing "Pseudo-" to the name? Everybody knows that its pseudonymous, why rub it in?

Let's just be civilized and talk about "Dionysius".

So join our group: People who refuse to prefix "Pseudo" to "Dionysius the Areopagite".

St Casimir Day and "Casimir Pulaski Day" by Sufjan Stevens

Today is Saint Casimir's day. Casimir was the son of the King of Poland who had been sent to Hungary at the Hungarianss request for a king. Casimir didn't fulfill the plan and returned home. He refused to marry the emperor's daughter because he had decided to live a celibate life. He was King of Poland for a time and Grand Duke of Lithuania.

Unrelated to the saint, except for a commonality in name, is the Sufjan Stevens song "Casimir Polaski Day" one of my favorite songs and probably the best song ever written by Sufjan Stevens. If you know the song, give me a witness. If you haven't heard it, check it out: Sufjan Steven's "Casimir Polaski Day".

The Dormition of Mary in Dionysius the Areopagite

The following passage from Dionysius the Areopagite's On the Divine Names is traditionally held to be an account of the Dormition ("Falling Asleep") of the Blessed Virgin Mary. I find it interesting because the event seems to have taken place in a liturgical context.

For even among our inspired Hierarchs, when as thou knowest, we with him [i.e. an Athenian priest named Hierotheos] and many of our holy brethren met together to behold that mortal body [i.e. of Mary], Source of Life that received the Incarnate God, and James the brother of God [i.e. James of Jerusalem] was there, and Peter the chief and highest of the Sacred Writers, and then, having beheld it, all the Hierarchs there present celebrated, according to the power of each, the omnipotent goodness of the Divine weakness [i.e. that God should become man].

On that occasion, I say, he [i.e. Hierotheos] surpassed all the Initiates except for the Divine Writers, yea, he was wholly transported, was wholly outside of himself, and was so moved by a communion with those Mysteries he was celebrating, that all who heard him and saw him and knew him (or rather knew him not) deemed him to be rapt of God and a divine hymnographer.

- Dionysius the Areopagite, On the Divine Names, 3, 2

After those present "beheld it" - "it" apparently being the the mortal body of the Blessed Mother - "all the Hierarchs there present celebrated." This apparently refers to a liturgical act and given what I know about the rest of the Dionysian corpus, I'm going to guess that he here speaks of the Holy Eucharist.

Incidentally, some have suggested that the context of their gathering was simply to celebrate the Eucharist and that the reference to the "mortal body, Source of Life that received the Incarnate God" actually refers to the Eucharistic species. This interpretation cannot be correct for two reasons:

1. The Holy Eucharist cannot be called "mortal" since It is Christ's resurrected and impassible body (cf. Summa theologiae III, q. 81, a. 3).

2. The body of Christ did not "receive the Incarnate God". That would be the error of Valentinius or that of the Adoptionists.

Therefore, it seems that he refers to the Blessed Mother of Christ, because it can only be said of her that she "received the Incarnate God".

The Fourteen (14) Articles of Faith according to Thomas Aquinas

In Summa theologiae III q. 1, a. 8, Thomas Aquinas states that the object of Christian faith consists in fourteen (14) articles of belief revealed in Sacred Scripture. Together they form the Apostolic deposit of faith. Saint Jude called this "for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints" (Jude 1:3). These articles divide up neatly into seven (7) articles concerning the Godhead, and seven (7) articles concerning the human nature of Christ.

The Seven Articles Pertaining to the Godhead

1. God is One "I believe in God"
2. Father "the Father Almighty"
3. Son "and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord"
4. Holy Spirit "I believe in the Holy Spirit"
5. Nature (Creation) "the Maker of heaven and earth"
6. Grace (Redemption) "the holy catholic church; the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins"
7. Glory (Glorification) "the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting."

The Seven Articles Pertaining to Christ's Human Nature

1. Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
2. born of the Virgin Mary,
3. suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried;
4. He descended into hell.
5. The third day He arose again from the dead;
   
6. He ascended into heaven,
   
7. and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the living and the dead.

These fourteen articles are articulated and arranged in the Apostles' Creed which has been rightly and validly ratified as the true faith of Christ by the Sovereign Pontiff who has the duty of drawing up a Creed of what ought to be believed always and everywhere: "It belongs to the sole authority of the Sovereign Pontiff to publish a new edition of the symbol, as do all other matters which concern the whole Church such as to convoke a general council and so forth. " (STh II-II, q. 1, a. 10).

These fourteen articles thus form the content of the everlasting Gospel of Christ.

Is 'Filioque' still a deal breaker for the Orthodox?

Is 'Filioque' still a deal breaker for the Orthodox? Perhaps not. In 2003 the North American Orthodox-Catholic Theological Consultation produced: The Filioque: A Church-Dividing Issue? The document recommended the following:

1. That all involved in such dialogue expressly recognize the limitations of our ability to make definitive assertions about the inner life of God.

2. That, in the future, because of the progress in mutual understanding that has come about in recent decades, Orthodox and Catholics refrain from labeling as heretical the traditions of the other side on the subject of the procession of the Holy Spirit.

3. That Orthodox and Catholic theologians distinguish more clearly between the divinity and hypostatic identity of the Holy Spirit (which is a received dogma of our Churches) and the manner of the Spirit's origin, which still awaits full and final ecumenical resolution.

4. That those engaged in dialogue on this issue distinguish, as far as possible, the theological issues of the origin of the Holy Spirit from the ecclesiological issues of primacy and doctrinal authority in the Church, even as we pursue both questions seriously, together.

5. That the theological dialogue between our Churches also give careful consideration to the status of later councils held in both our Churches after those seven generally received as ecumenical.

6. That the Catholic Church, as a consequence of the normative and irrevocable dogmatic value of the Creed of 381, use the original Greek text alone in making translations of that Creed for catechetical and liturgical use.

7. That the Catholic Church, following a growing theological consensus, and in particular the statements made by Pope Paul VI, declare that the condemnation made at the Second Council of Lyons (1274) of those "who presume to deny that the Holy Spirit proceeds eternally from the Father and the Son" is no longer applicable.

All in all, it seems that the commission believes that the Filioque clause is no longer a "a Church dividing issue". Of course, it remains to be seen if the monks at Mt. Athos will sign on the dotted line and join in on the ecumenical group hug.

Aquinas on Women's Cosmetics

I've been reading Secunda secundae of Saint Thomas Aquinas' Summa theologiae and I came across an interesting topic - women's cosmetics. Who would have thought that there would be a Thomistic position on make-up?

Thomas Aquinas is aware that St Cyprian of Carthage had some hard words for women who painted their faces "with the aid of yellow pigments, black powders or rouge, or by applying any dye that alters the natural features." According to Cyprian, "This is an assault on the Divine handiwork, a distortion of the truth." Cyprian seems convinced that cosmetic wearing women will "not see God" - by which I assume he means that they will go to Hell.

Thomas replies that the wearing of cosmetics is only a sin for women who wear cosmetics for the "sake of sensuous pleasure or in contempt of God" (II-II, q. 169, a. 2, ad. 2). In the case of married women: "If a married woman adorn herself in order to please her husband, she can do this without sin" (II-II, q. 169, a. 2, c). Thomas explains in detail that married women may adorn themselves moderately with clothing and with cosmetics in order to please their husbands.

So rest easy, ladies. Saint Thomas has made a theological defense for your lipstick so long as its not for the "sake of sensuous pleasure or in contempt of God."

No Country for Old Men - Meaning of the Final Two Dreams

Last night I watched the film No Country for Old Men. Those with an interest in poetry might recognize the film's title from the opening line W.B. Yeats' poem "Sailing to Byzantium".

After the last scene, I thought: "Okay, this movie doesn't make any sense." Then after I thought about it for fifteen minutes, it congealed in my mind. I saw how all the pieces fit together.

Law and Grace as they relate to the Two Dreams of the Sheriff
Initial thoughts. The sheriff had two dreams. First Dream: The sheriff lost the money and is accused by his father. Second dream: He follows his father to the warmth of the fire in the midst of a cold world. The former refers to the legacy that the sheriff received from his father - he was a lawman. The sheriff lost this heritage. In the beginning of the film, the sheriff marvels over lawmen who didn't wear guns. The meaning is that lawmen, even with guns, are rather impotent in the face of evil. These lawmen of the old days knew that a gun couldn't protect them - the sheriff realizes this when he's in the dark motel room with Anton.

Lawmen and law (what Thomas Aquinas would call 'extrinsic principles' toward the good) are rather insufficient in the face of extreme evil. This is essentially the argument made by Saint Paul, that an outward law can never justify a man or a society. Saint Thomas Aquinas draws this out in more detail:

[M]an can can make laws in those matters of which he is competent to judge. But man is not competent to judge of interior movements, that are hidden, but only of exterior acts which appear: and yet for the perfection of virtue it is necessary for man to conduct himself aright in both kinds of acts. Consequently human law could not sufficiently curb and direct interior acts; and it was necessary for this purpose that a Divine law should supervene (ST I-II, q. 91, a. 4)

Outward law cannot curb great interior evil and so grace is necessary. The lawman as an enforcer of exterior law cannot "vanquish" an evil like Anton.

How Evil Rules Itself - Anton Chigurh
I like how Anton didn't kill the sheriff in the hotel room. The sheriff didn't "see" him and so he didn't die. This casts light on who Anton is and how he operates.

I also finally understood that Anton the killer lived under a simple discipline - if "destiny" brings you to see him (just like how destiny brings a certain coin to your possession), then you are destined to die. He doesn't think that it's his fault. It's destiny. People say to him, "You don't have to do this." His unspoken answer is "Yes, I do have to do this."

The only way he could have "mercy" is by an appeal to the destiny of the coin - a coin toss. Also, the coin opens the air vent, which leads to the money. Coin travel and coin flips define the modus operandi of Anton.

All in all, it's a very tight a film. It was disturbing so I'll probably wait before I see it again. Still, it's a great film for a group discussion - especially as it relates to evil. As my uncle said, "Anton Chagirh is probably the best villain in a movie since Darth Vader."

You may also like:

• Is it fun to watch people die? or "On Being an Inglorious Bastard"
• Is Mel Gibson Catholic?
• The Exorcism of Emily Rose and Divine Indwelling
• Sandra Bullock Meets a True Christian