Let me say some things up front -
1) Today "The Third Way" was in our Archdiocesan newspaper, which was awesome, and a great honor. I do not see that as now giving me some authority to critique Catholic short films like this one. I just happened to watch this last night, and I felt something needed to be said about it
2) I love Fr. Barron's ministry, he is an inspiration and does amazing work; I have noted this countless times on this blog. This video was just one that I found confusing.
3) I played in the basketball tournament that comes up about half way through the film, and it was one of my favorite weekends of the year when I was in the seminary. In fact, I blogged about the tournament here
I just thought I should comment that I found the video very confusing. If it helps someone who is on the fence about the priesthood, that's great, but I think we can't just necessarily endorse everything that is done by solid Catholics.
I agree that athletics does a GREAT job of helping prepare men to
a) prepare for a life of sacrifice and
b) to be more likely to also consider becoming a priest
but you can be the most unathletic human being to walk the face of the earth and still be a saint.
I think the priesthood is a fascinating and curious subject, and thus in Catholic circles especially (but also even among non-Catholics) the seminary and the priesthood lend themselves to being the subject of art. I just think we also have to make sure that the art we produce on those subjects conveys a discernible message to the viewer, and, although I love playing basketball and I love the priesthood, I'm not exactly sure what the message was for this video.
Fr. Hollowell: I enjoy your sermons, the Third Way video and your blog posts. I also enjoy Fr. Barron's work. I have grown in faith over the last few years based on these efforts. I enjoyed the heroic priest video because it shows the fullness of the priestly "yes" Those young men in formation are not "giving up" anything to be priests. It shows young men enthusiasticly responding to God's call. I think the same message could have been portrayed with any sport, or showing the young men developing friendships or going to class or talking about previous relationships, etc.. The basketball wasn't the point. Seeing young well rounded men say yes to God's call was the point. It made my cry with happiness knowing priests, such as yourself, who are so dedicated to sinners like me. Thank you for saying YES to God.
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