Buzz Lightyear is real, and he is from Switzerland! Former Air Force pilot Yves Rossy leapt into the skies 2,500 metres above the small town of Bex in western Switzerland clad in a special carbon wing. ‘Swiss Lightyear’ performed various manoeuvres for five minutes before landing with the aid of a parachute. The pictures look awesome. I want one of those wing to fly to my parish churches on Sunday!
Ever since I watched ‘Toy Story’ in my last year in seminary, Buzz Lightyear has been my hero. He is the modern metaphor of every seminarian and priest. You feel called by God to ‘reach for the skies’, but every time you try to fly on your own strength, you crash inevitably.
Buzz Lightyear and Saint Peter
Toy Story has a great scene in which Buzz is launched into the air, beaming with confidence and faith, thinking that he is really flying. A few seconds later, when the first momentum is gone, Buzz loses that confidence when he realizes that he can’t fly on his own. That’s when he starts tumbling down.
The scene is almost like a Pixar version of the scene in the gospel where Peter is called by Jesus, leaves the boat and starts walking on the water towards Jesus, then loses faith, and immediately starts sinking.
Fasten your cinctures
If Buzz really wants to reach for the skies, he will need help – like the rocket at the end of the movie. If we really want to fly to the ends of the earth with God’s message, we need some help too. The wings of the Holy Spirit, a gallon of grace and we are ready to go. Put your Church pew in the upright position and fasten your cinctures!
I might still email ‘Swiss Lightyear’ and ask him if he can build me a pair of those wings.
Fr. Roderick,
What a great story! This is exactly the kind of thing Catholic teachers can use in their classrooms. We’re always looking for new ways to make the gospel understandable to younger Catholics.
I’m going to mention this article on my new blog project, Catholic School Chronicles, and I’ll also add your blog to my list of Catholic resources for educators. I’ve already linked to SQPN, and I’ll be writing about individual shows in the coming weeks and months as Catholic School Chronicles takes off.
Good luck with your blog, and thanks for all you do to spread the Good News!
Nick Senger
Catholic Teacher
I want one to avoid traffic!! Great article!
I want one of those! Awesome! Good insight, too. Thanks! God Bless!
Ben
That does look like it is straight out of the Buzz Lightyear movie. It’s been a long time since I saw the movie. Buzz still does a good business in Tomorrow Land at Disney World. I saw Buz & Co busily entertaining children last Summer. I like your analogy.
[...] teaching elementary students about St. Peter be sure to check out Fr. Roderick’s article, Buzz Lightyear is My Hero, in which he compares the Pixar hero to the Christian hero. You’ll also learn about the real [...]
They () actually launched Buzz into space, to an email sent around the WWW.
Bob P.
Sorry about the bad coding above, but here are the two links mentioned above:
NASA’s Website:
http://www.NASA.gov
Email link:
http://www.email.MyDisneyParks.com/P/v3/r.aspx?r=T1_ONL&e=809%3B784259%3B301513294%3B10%3B02&a=1007
Sorry about my horrendous coding above, the 2 links mentioned above are as follows:
NASA
http://www.nasa.gov
mail link
http://email.MyDisneyParks.com/P/v3/r.aspx?r=T1_ONL&e=809%3B784259%3B301513294%3B10%3B02&a=1007