"Life is Beautiful" is a 1997 film that won three Academy awards, including Best Foreign Language Film and Best Actor, and the Grand Prix at Cannes. Director Roberto Benigni also stars in the lead role. In order to protect his young son from the impacts of Nazi atrocities, Guido convinces his child that "we are all acting and participating in a game." In the end, when he is captured by Nazi soldiers and about to be shot, the son watches, thinking that it was his father's best

We are all familiar with the many "divine passives" found in the New Testament, especially in the words of Jesus. 'Do not take God's name in vain' was one of the Ten Commandments. When it came to saying things like "God will lift up"; "God will put down"; "God will give"; etc., Jesus used to put it instead of using the name "God" in passive form, "shall be lifted up"; "shall be brought down"; "shall be given". Accordingly, I suspect whether the passage that says "Do not be af

"Real progress is not measured by power, speed, or efficiency, but by our ability to live in communion with others - listening with openness, seeking wisdom and choosing unity over division" Pope Leo XIV quotes this from the ‘Compendium of the Social Teachings of the Church’ by John Paul II in his encyclical Magnifica Humanitas. That is quite different from what our time has been telling us over and over again. Isn’t the mantra our time and our world have been telling us ove

Even before the Cold War, since the Industrial Revolution itself, people had been defining themselves and others on the basis of economic parameters. Later, Marx gave it another dimension through his critical class theory. However, it did not take the world long to realize how shallow these considerations were. The First World War, and then without much delay the Second World War, forced all wellmeaning people in the world to think differently. Since then, the world has been

In my childhood, senior citizens, especially those who didn't work, men who had come home for vacation, would gather at rural tea shops to have a cup of tea, perhaps also some snacks in the morning. Everyone knew each other. One of the notable things was that there would be at least one or two newspapers availed there. Many people would be reading different pages of the same newspaper. Once done, they would exchange the pages. While each person read each news story or told t

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) Adopted and declared by the United Nations on 10th December 1948. Today we complete 77 years and a half since then. Why am I thinking about it now? My Dad passed away when he was 77 years and a half. It's good to remind ourselves there were such things in history, right? Article 1: Right to Equality — We are all born free and equal in dignity and rights. Article 2: Freedom from Discrimination — Everyone is entitled to all righ

It was a few years ago. Was one of the first Sunday Masses at St. Bonaventure's in Detroit. The feast of the Holy Trinity. I began the homily with a reference to the depictions of an old white man with a long white beard and a young man with a shorter red beard, and a white dove between or below them in the western churches. After the Mass Suzie Gavin approached, pushing her young, handsome son Jimmy in a wheelchair. She shared her appreciation about the homily. She asked if

Pearls, gems, and jewels are scattered all over in the Sacred Scriptures. It is always the case in the world. If we walk carelessly, we will hardly see anything. If we walk intently, paying attention, we could find anything. We realize that what we had once kicked over with our back foot seems priceless when we return the same way. What was revealed to a person once, is not the same the second time. To another person it will be totally a different thing. What a kaleidoscope

The book of Acts tells us that after the risen Christ’s ascension to heaven, as instructed by Him they were all gathered together in the upper room and praying. Luke adds some details when he writes about this. After naming the eleven apostles, he says that they were praying with other women and with Mary his mother and with his brothers. Because of the mention of his mother, I believe, some church groups have understood “his brothers” to mean the children of Mary and Joseph,

Someone once asked me, "What does the Holy Spirit have to do with the world?" The question was in the context of the thought that the world is evil. "Oh, She only has got business with the world," I replied. I said: First of all, God creates through the Spirit. The very second verse of the Bible says that. Second, through provision, God sustains and nourishes all the creatures in the world, and He does it through the Spirit. (God is not the one who created and then ran aw

I watched it after five years of it's release. Written and directed by a fresher Sîan Heder, 'CODA' is an independent movie that premiered at the 1921 Sundance Festival and won all three Oscar nominations in 2021 (March 2022) for the Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Film Adapted from a Foreign Language (French). CODA is abbreviation for Child of Deaf Adults. The word coda means the satisfying conclusion of a song or performance. Frank Rossi (Troy Kotsur) and Jac

In the US, ancestry.com and the consumer genealogy industry, I think have become excellent examples of how corporate enterprises can powerfully reshape openness and social empathy. By democratizing genetics, and by historical archiving, this industry has activity deconstructed rigid social concepts of race, identity and otherness for tens of millions of Americans. Genetic data frequently reveals mixed global heritage of individuals who previously held rigid, ethnocentric vie

Cain murdered his brother Abel, an experiential reality that stares at us from the very beginning of the Bible. How terrible it is that the gentle one was killed and the aggressive one remained! Should we be sad that the world has become a land where the Abels have been eliminated and the Cains have survived? In each era, those who were killed or eliminated: weren't they at least a little gentler? Weren't those who survived at least a little bit more aggressive? Aren't we

There is a line in the Gospel of John that says, “The world cannot receive the Spirit of truth, because it neither sees him nor knows him.” This can be seen as John’s usual way of putting things into binary. But what would have prompted John to make such an unambiguous categorical statement? John often emphasizes that the ways of the world are entirely different. If you think about it, in a way it is true. Although the Spirit of Jesus tells us to stand up for the rights of

The Rise of Populist Leaders: Social Media's Role in Creating Modern-Day Heroes Have you noticed that populist rulers have emerged all over the world with the advent of social media? The point I am trying to make is not that social media created such a thing. It is only that the influence of social media is certainly decisive in this regard. In fact, what social media does is to creates "heroes". Don't we see hero-worship and stardom-worship happening more than ever before?

It was some years ago. We decorated the resurrection statue in the church with 'Golden shower flowers' (cassia fistula) and fruits and grains. That year, Easter and 'Vishu' - the native solstitical Hindu festival were the day before and the day after. There are people who are annoyed to see golden-shower flowers in a church. They get to think that roses, dahlias, lilies, and asters are Christian flowers, and that golden-showers, ixora, marigolds, and lotuses are Hindu flowe

To be honest, the Roman soldier who was at Golgotha piercing the side of the already dead crucified man with a spear was to make sure that he was certainly dead. When John describes this, he adds a little detail. "Immediately blood and water came out." Isn't that a very natural thing? If you pierce the side of a person who has been dead for less than an hour and hanging, with a spear, some blood and body fluids that look like water will flow from the pericardial layers of the

That stone was not moved by human hands. It was moved by an intervention from above! It was a huge stone. For years and years we wondered that who would roll it away for us. It wasn't God who rolled it up there. It was us. That stone separated life from death by dividing the heretofore from the hereafter. As long as it remained there, we were afraid of it. That tomb is death. But we didn't know that it was just a doorway. We are clear that upto that stone is our life. But w

There was a garden in that place and a new tomb in it, is the testimony of John. By garden what is meant is a private plot of land planted with olive trees. Joseph was a wealthy man. He was a member of the Sanhedrin. There were many tombs hewn out of rock outside the city walls of Jerusalem. However, it's unlikely that Joseph had made a tomb or had bought a tomb for himself in that area. Because, given his devotion and stature we can rightly assume that he would have had it s

At what time did Christ rise? I don’t know. The Gospels don’t say the exact time. They don’t even say that anyone saw the resurrection. I think it must have been early in the morning, just before the rooster crowed. In other words, when the Lord rose, the cock crowed! The Gospel says that an angel came from heaven and rolled away the stone that covered the entrance to the tomb. According to Matthew, there were members of the temple guard assigned to guard the tomb. Psychology