#why must we hate on one Splinter for something that another does and is forgiven for?

[imagionationstation]

2012 Splinter: *takes away his sons weapons*

TMNTFandom: OMGEE LOOK AT THIS TOTAL JERK TRYING TO KILL HIS SONS. HE HAD TO KNOW THEY MIGHT LEAVE THE LAIR BEHIND HIS BACK AND GET INTO TROUBLE AND YET HE TAKES AWAY THEIR WEAPONS???!

Rise Splinter: *takes away their weapons*

TMNTFandom: Splints means well. He grounded them. Sure, they sneak out a bunch, but it’s not his fault if they get into trouble. It’s unfair to blame him for his sons’ actions :(

[shirtlesssammy]

1x02: Wendigo

Then:

No Chick Flick Moments

Now:

In Blackwater Ridge, Colorado, three dudes enjoy the wilderness by gaming inside their tent. Something stalks their campsite from the shadows but the unattended fire that’s dangerously close to their flammable homes must be keeping it at bay, right? Erm, well, one dude heads out to the little boy’s room (a nearby tree) and gets snatched. 

Another one pops his head out the tent door and gets snatched as well. The third dude kills his light and watches the shadow of a very fast creature circle his tent until it slashes the side and snatches him as well. 

Palo Alto, California

Sam’s visiting Jessica’s grave. It really didn’t affect me the first time I watched this. It’s devastating to watch now though. Knowing Sam now --knowing how he doesn’t let people in, knowing how he didn’t even really let Jess in but loved her and wanted this world he could never have with her. Knowing that it’s fifteen years later and he’s had no one to really be with (Amelia was a construct of his damaged brain when forced to face the supernatural without Dean or Cas. I will not be taking questions at this time.) (But I guess he gets a blurry wife so ALLS GOOD FOR SAMMY.) He tells Jessica, “I should have protected you. I should have told you the truth.” Gah. Nothing could have saved her, and he has to go another fifteen years before he realizes this for good. 

Psych! He was actually dreaming, but I hold firm with my thoughts on the dream scene. 

Dean asks if Sam is okay. 

Sam says yes and clears his throat. Classic! Then Dean asks if Sam wants to drive for a while. GAH. Like, Dean’s looking out for his little bro in the only way he knows right now --letting him drive. 

They discuss leaving Palo Alto, and Dean points out that if they’re going to find the thing that killed Jess, they have to find their dad. He’s sending them to Colorado. Specifically to a National Forest in Lost Creek, Colorado. 

They get to the warden’s station and introduce themselves as Environmental Study majors from UC-Boulder. “Recycle, man.” Bbys. The ranger sees right through their bullshit though. He asks if they’re friends with “that Hailey girl.” Dean sees his chance to learn more and leans into it. Hayley apparently has a brother that’s on Blackwater Ridge. He isn’t technically missing but she knows something is up. 

Dean gets the brother’s camping permit. And now I need to process the next couple of lines. Sam asks if Dean wants a hook up with Hailey. Like, fuck you Sam for not knowing your brother at all, but also I guess you’re forgiven because your brother does do everything in his power to project that kind of energy. However, Dean is working the case and wants to know what they’re dealing with on this mountain. 

Dean and Sam head over to Hailey’s to ask her about her brother, Tommy. They say they’re rangers.

Hailey gets on Dean’s good side by complementing his car. Hailey tells the brothers that she feels something is wrong because Tommy checks in every day via his cell and satellite phone. Hailey’s heading out first thing in the morning to try and find him. 

Later at a bar, Sam “NERD” Winchester pulls out his extensive research on the area. People disappear on the ridge every 23 years. There was one survivor in 1959. They go to interview him. He tries to stick to the grizzly bear story, but eventually admits that they won’t believe him since no one else ever did. He said it moved fast and came into their cabin. It took his parents and left him with a horrible scar. 

The next morning, Sam and Dean meet up with Hayley, her brother Ben, and the guide, Roy. The guide is skeptical but Dean just wants to help find her brother. 

Cut to Tommy tied up in a cave. He wakes just in time to watch one of his friends get chomped to pieces by the monster. 

Dean and Roy try to out alpha each other. Roy finds a bear trap and saves Dean from a nasty injury. I’m over here wondering wtf that’s doing in the middle of a national forest. 

Hayley calls Dean out on their lack of provisions and wants to know who they are. He comes clean and tells her that they’re brothers looking for their father. But also, uh, Dean wearing jeans and boots is way more practical than SHORTS when hiking. Who wants to fuck around with ticks and poison ivy? All these years we thought Dean was just posturing about shorts when he was actually being a practical son of a bitch. 

They reach the ridge and hear absolutely nothing. Roy decides he’s going to wander off alone. Solid choice, dude. The rest stick together. Soon they hear Roy call for Hailey. They run to him. They find her brother’s destroyed campsite. They find tracks of where the bodies were dragged and Tommy’s destroyed phone.

They explore the campsite, which is torn to absolute bits. Dean tracks the struggle to just outside of the campsite, where the trail quickly grows cold. Everyone gets lured further into the woods by desperate cries for help but it gets them nowhere. When they return to the destroyed camp, Sam pulls out their dad’s journal and they use it to pinpoint the monster: it’s a wendigo. 

They hunker down for the night at the camp, and Dean protects them with Anasazi symbols drawn in the dirt. Soooooooooo in one breath you’re telling me that wendigo are found around the upper midwest / Canada, and in the next you’re telling me that the Anasazi (Southwestern/Western US) created widely-established protections against the wendigo? STARES DIRECTLY INTO THE CAMERA. The timelines! The geographic areas! Sigh...Supernatural ain’t ever had that good of a track record.

Dean tries to unpack Sam’s gourd. Sam doesn’t want to waste time hunting a wendigo when he can find their dad and hunt for what killed Jess instead. Dean holds out John Winchester’s journal like it’s a friggin’ (gags a little) bible and delivers the now-iconic line: “I think he wants us to pick up where he left off. You know, saving people, hunting things. The family business.”

Sam wants to know why John doesn’t just call his boys and give them an update - “It makes no sense.” OMG RIGHT, SAM? #JohnWinchester’sA+Parenting 

Dean tells Sam that helping other people and other families is what helps him make it through each day. We cry in Dean’s face a little, even when he immediately attempts to mask his empathy in his very next (also iconic) line: “Let me tell you what else helps. Killing as many evil sons of bitches as I possibly can.”

Pleas for help start to echo through the woods again. Roy fires indiscriminately into the trees and races after his prey, sight unseen. Hands grab him by the head and haul him up into the trees. Everyone else makes it through the night safely and Roy’s demise reminds us that toxic masculinity KILLS.

The next morning, Sam’s moodily staring at their dad’s journal while Dean chats with Haley about the hunt. 

For LOOK AT THIS BEAN Science:

We get info-dumped a truly mixed bag of lore, attributing wendigo tales to the Cree people (right region, at least!) and saying that wendigo are created by cannibalistic acts gone into overdrive. The implication here is that cannibalism equals power but alas, it also turns one into a monster. Wendigo like to squirrel away humans like nuts, so Haley’s brother might be alive and trapped for later snacking. And they can kill it! Kill it with fire. 

Cut to Dean striding through the woods with a molotov cocktail in hand. THAT’S MY BOY. They follow an easy trail of bloody claw marks along the trees. Too late, Sam realizes it was TOO EASY.  Roy’s body drops from the canopy and the group splinters as they flee. Dean and Haley get nabbed, leaving Sam and Ben to find their missing siblings. Ben finally gets some lines, alerting Sam to Dean’s breadcrumb trail of peanut M&Ms.

They head into a defunct mine. (Speak friend and enter?) Growls echo through the darkened tunnels, but Sam and Ben discover the body storage by accident when they fall through floor boards into a lower level. They discover Haley and Dean trussed up and free them. Tommy’s there too! And still alive! 

Dean finds some flare guns and they make their way out of the tunnels. Dean tries to lure the wendigo away from the siblings and Sam. All his attempts are for naught, because the wendigo tries to attack Sam, and the three siblings. It’s okay, though! Dean fires a flare gun right into its gut and it burns into embers.

Later at the ranger’s station, they spin tales to the cops about a grizzly. 

Haley thanks Dean with a gentle kiss, and Dean watches the siblings leave with a fond and wistful expression. JENSEN ACKLES YOUR FACE IS A MENACE!

The Winchesters hit the road, Sam behind the wheel of the Impala. Time to hunt some evil sons of bitches and play some classic rock!

Oh sweetheart, I don’t do quotes:

Recycle, man

Nobody likes a skeptic

I think he wants us to pick up where he left off. You know, saving people, hunting things. The family business

Man, I hate camping

Want to read more? Check out our Recap Archive! 

[frmartinshomiliesandreflections]

10th September >> Fr. Martin’s Gospel Reflections / Homilies on Luke 6:27-38 for Thursday, Twenty Third Week in Ordinary Time: ‘Love your enemies’.

Thursday, Twenty Third Week in Ordinary Time

Gospel (Europe, Africa, New Zealand, Australia & Canada)

Luke 6:39-42

Can the blind lead the blind?

Jesus told a parable to the disciples: ‘Can one blind man guide another? Surely both will fall into a pit? The disciple is not superior to his teacher; the fully trained disciple will always be like his teacher. Why do you observe the splinter in your brother’s eye and never notice the plank in your own? How can you say to your brother, “Brother, let me take out the splinter that is in your eye,” when you cannot see the plank in your own? Hypocrite! Take the plank out of your own eye first, and then you will see clearly enough to take out the splinter that is in your brother’s eye.’

Gospel (USA)

Luke 6:39-42

Can a blind person guide a blind person?

Jesus told his disciples a parable: “Can a blind person guide a blind person? Will not both fall into a pit? No disciple is superior to the teacher; but when fully trained, every disciple will be like his teacher. Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own? How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me remove that splinter in your eye,’ when you do not even notice the wooden beam in your own eye? You hypocrite!  Remove the wooden beam from your eye first; then you will see clearly to remove the splinter in your brother’s eye.”

Reflections (5)

(i) Thursday, Twenty Third Week in Ordinary Time

We live in an information age. We have access to information today to a degree that wasn’t conceivable even a generation ago. We are more knowledgeable about so many things, compared to our parents or grandparents. We place a high value on knowledge and on those who have it, people who are experts in their field. It is clear from the beginning of today’s first reading that some members of the church in Corinth also placed a high value on knowledge, declaring proudly, ‘We all have knowledge’. However, in Paul’s view, this claim to know has made some of them very arrogant and somewhat indifferent to the impact of their knowledge on others in the community. They may have knowledge but they lack love, the fruit of the Spirit, which according to Paul in that reading ‘makes the building grow’ or builds up the church. Paul was convinced that knowledge without love can be destructive of others or, as he puts it, ‘could become the ruin of someone weak’. In the gospel reading, Jesus elaborates on this love which the Spirit inspires. It embraces those who have done nothing to deserve it, our enemy. It is given to those from whom no return of love can be expected. It is a love that is compassionate, that is ready to suffer with others, no matter who they are, and that refuses to condemn others, leaving judgement to God. This quality of love, which is a reflection of God’s love for us, has a much higher value in God’s eyes than any form of knowledge. If knowledge is to serve others well, it needs to be infused by such love. Jesus concludes by declaring that those who love in his way and who allow this love to shape all their other qualities will be opening themselves up to receiving the ‘full measure’ of God’s generous love.

And/Or

(ii) Thursday, Twenty Third Week in Ordinary Time

The teaching of Jesus in this morning’s gospel reading makes us sit up and take notice, because so much of it goes against the grain. It is out of step with what would be considered common sense, day to day wisdom. The teaching of Jesus in that reading ends with the exhortation, ‘Give, and there will be gifts for you; a full measure… will be poured into your lap’. In other words, it is in giving that we receive. The common wisdom is that it is in acquiring, in gathering, in taking, that we receive, whereas in giving we loose out. Yet, Jesus’ own life bears out the truth of the paradox of his teaching. It was in giving that he received; it was in laying down his life for us that he gained eternal life for himself and for all who believe in him; his giving was life-giving for himself and for others. His way of finding life through death, of receiving through giving, is the way he holds out to all of us, his followers. When we give of ourselves to the Lord, present in others, we discover that we receive from the Lord much more than we give to him. When we die to ourselves so that others may live, we ourselves become more alive; we come to share more fully in the Lord’s own risen life. The gospel reading suggests that our self-giving can take many forms. It might mean being compassionate towards others, being slow to judge others, refusing to condemn others, showing love to those who show little love to us, praying for those who treat us badly. This form of self-giving is visible in the life of Jesus- he healed the ear of the person who came to arrest him; he prayed for those who crucified him; he washed the feet of the man who betrayed him. In giving of himself in this way, Jesus was revealing God. When this kind of self-giving is visible in our own lives, we too will be revealing God.

 And/Or

(iii) Thursday, Twenty Third Week in Ordinary Time

The gospel reading this morning is taken from Luke’s version of the Sermon on the Mount. We find here some of the most radical of all Jesus’ teaching. At the heart of the reading is the call to love our enemies and to give to those who do not deserve our generosity and who will never be in a position to pay it back or to give something to us in return. In the culture of the time, people who were in a position to give generously expected some kind of return. Giving to others put them in debt to you; there was a cultural expectation of some kind of return. Perhaps our own culture is not all that different, because we are not all that different. We struggle to be completely selfless in our giving. Jesus cuts across that culture of giving with a view to receiving. The love he calls for which has no trace of self-seeking in it is a divine kind of love; it is the way God loves. God is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked; God does not give with a view to receiving. God does not love his enemies less than his friends. Jesus is calling on us to be God-like in our loving and in our giving. The world would consider this kind of giving a folly; we will be left with nothing. Jesus, however, promises that if we give in this God-like way, a full measure, running over, will be poured into our lap. This morning, we are invited, in the words of today’s first reading, to let this message of Christ, in all its richness, find a home with us.

 And/Or

(iv) Thursday, Twenty Third Week in Ordinary Time

The calling of the gospel reading this morning is very demanding. We are to love our enemies, do good to those who hate us, pray for those who treat us badly, to give to others without any hope or expectation of a return, not to condemn but to forgive others. More fundamental even that this high ideal of how we are to relate to others is how God relates to us. We are to relate to others in all these ways because that is how God relates to us. As the gospel reading says, God is merciful and compassionate; he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. God has loved us in an extraordinary way in the person of Jesus and we are to relate to each other out of that tremendous grace that we have been given. The gospel reading also declares that in giving as we have received, we open our hearts to receive even more from God. ‘Give, and there will be gifts for you’. We give out of what we have received and our giving opens us up to receive even more.

And/Or

 (v) Thursday, Twenty Third Week in Ordinary Time

There is an extraordinary wealth in both of today’s readings. It is very difficult to know where to focus. Any line from either of the two readings would give food for thought for the day. What both readings have in common is that they call us to live in a certain way. In essence, both Paul and Jesus call us to live loving lives, lives which reflect the loving life of Jesus. Paul calls on us to put on love as a kind of outer garment that covers the other garments of compassion, kindness, gentleness, patience, readiness to forgive. Jesus takes call to love to a new level by insisting that we love even our enemies and that we do good even to those who hate us. This is the call of the gospel. Yet, in both the first reading and the gospel reading there is something that comes prior to the call of the gospel and that is the gospel itself. Paul expresses that gospel very simply in the opening line of the first reading, ‘God loves you’. It is because God loves us in all our frailty that we are to be clothed in love so as to love others. In a similar way, Paul goes on to say, ‘The Lord has forgiven you; now you must do the same’. It is because the Lord has forgiven us that we are to forgive one another. Likewise, in the gospel reading, Jesus’ call to love, the call of the gospel, is rooted in the gospel itself. We are to be compassionate as God our Father is compassionate towards us. We are to love our enemies because we are sons and daughters of the Most High who is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked, which is the gospel itself. Both readings suggest that we need to hear the gospel as addressed to each of us personally, the gospel of God’s unconditional, undeserved and all forgiving love for us all, before we can rise to the call of the gospel.

Fr. Martin Hogan.