Restart

The 2000 psychological thriller Memento is the story of a man who, as the result of a past trauma, suffers from the inability to form any new memories. He’s desperately searching for the person who attacked him and killed his wife. And since he can’t remember anything new for more than a few minutes, he uses an intricate system of Polaroid photos and tattoos to help him remember what he’s learned.

The film begins dramatically with the Polaroid of a dead man, shot. As the sequence plays backward the photo reverts to its undeveloped state, entering the camera before the man is shot.

The story restarts, building up to the intense moment you’ve already seen.

That is Advent.

In his insightful book For the Beauty of the Church, David Taylor, writing about the Church year said, “If the Church doesn’t tell us what time it is, the surrounding culture surely will, and we usually end up all the worse for it.”

Time for a restart.