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Matt Fradd

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Mark Cobuzzi@AquinasPupilMC73

December 01, 2024

Pop-Cultured Catholic #21: Revisiting God’s Transcendence of Time and the Problem of Evil, Through the Ending of “Samurai Jack”

And here is the finale to my latest trio of posts, which brings together the themes of my “Interstellar” and “The Imitation Game” posts. Now it is time to enter the world of “Samurai Jack”. It is an acclaimed fantasy adventure cartoon by Genndy Tartakovsky, the same man behind the other fantasy cartoon I posted about called "Primal".

The main premise of “Samurai Jack” involves the titular samurai getting teleported into a dystopian future, then seeking to time travel back to Feudal Japan, so he can stop a shapeshifting demonic overlord Aku from taking over the world in the first place. In the first episode, a warrior emperor has beaten back Aku, named after the Japanese word for “evil” (悪) and bearing a face possibly inspired by hannya masks in Japanese theater. Aku had sadistically laid waste to the emperor’s kingdom, being invincible to all mortal weapons. The only available weapon that can truly harm Aku is the emperor’s mystical katana blade. Channeling the wielder’s righteousness, the sword has the power to purify and cleanse away dark powers, making it kryptonite to Aku, a manifestation of evil and corruption. But Aku has returned and managed to capture the emperor before he can grab the sword, leaving the empress with no choice but salvage the sword for their son and send him off around the world, where he trains until he is ready to wield the sword against Aku. When the grown samurai prince faces Aku, he is winning and about to finish off Aku for good. As a last ditch move, Aku opens a portal in time, which yanks the prince away into the distant future. When the samurai falls out the other side, he finds himself in a world where Aku reigns supreme and various monsters are allowed to thrive. This futuristic Earth is also full of robots, sci-fi weaponry, and even aliens. Quickly earning the nickname Jack by the future inhabitants, “Now the fool seeks to return to the past, and undo the future that is Aku!”.

Seasons 1-4 of “Samurai Jack” became a favorite show on Cartoon Network from 2001 to 2004, seamlessly blending multiple genres and tones to yield a wide variety of episodic adventures. The typical episode’s formula involves Jack hunting for a portal or artifact that can take him back in time, while Aku tries to foil Jack’s hunts, send assassins after him, and sometimes fight Jack himself. Along the way, Jack also takes time to help those who have been ravaged, enslaved, or cursed by Aku and other villains. This gains Jack many friends and allies over time. His greatest and most recurring one is a loudmouthed Scotsman warrior, armed with his own magic sword, a prosthetic machine gun leg, bagpipes, and an endless array of flowery insults. Aku fully delivers as the main villain. He is ruthless and powerful enough to commit atrocities played for serious drama, yet also goofy and hilarious, thanks in large part to a delightfully hammy vocal performance by the late Mako (Makoto Iwamatsu). Episodes range in tone from simple cool adventures to sincerely emotional tales, comedy scenarios, and even horror plots. One latter episode has Jack saving a little girl and her family, who are held captive by a demon. The haunted house’s demon is played unnervingly straight and one of the few villains with no ties to Aku. Finally, there are many stylistic uses of animation, yielding uniquely memorable fight scenes, environments, and bits of visual storytelling.

When the story resumes in Season 5, airing on Adult Swim after a thirteen-year hiatus, the tone takes a darker turn and the titular samurai is at his lowest point. Fifty years have passed since Jack’s abduction through time. As an unexpected side-effect, Jack is unable to age. But Aku has destroyed the last time portal Jack could have used. This has made him finally give in to rage, become unworthy of the sword, and lose possession of it. He is left to wander aimlessly, fighting with whatever weapons he can scrounge, haunted by visions of those he failed to save, and hoping Aku never learns that his sword is lost. Even Jack’s best friend, the Scotsman, is literally on his last legs and soon dies defiantly confronting Aku. Speaking of Aku, he is now voiced by Greg Baldwin and not doing too well himself. Aku knows Jack cannot age now, everyone he sends to kill Jack fails, and Aku has become too afraid to go after Jack himself, unaware that his sword is missing. So while Jack is on the brink of despair and contemplating seppuku, Aku is also at wits end. In a moment of comic relief, Aku even starts giving himself therapy sessions.

As Season 5 unfolds, Jack soon meets a new enemy that will change the course of his battle, Ashi, one of the “Daughters of Aku”. During Jack’s journey, one woman has founded an all-female cult dedicated to worshiping Aku. The one time Aku visits her cult, he leaves behind a cup of his essence and the High Priestess drinks it. She later gives birth to seven daughters, one of whom is named Ashi. Their mother indoctrinates and hellishly trains them for the purpose of killing Samurai Jack, as a dark mirror of Jack’s childhood training to destroy Aku. Once their mother deems them ready, the seven assassins are sent out on their hunt. Over the course of many skirmishes, Jack is nearly killed by the Daughters of Aku multiple times and struggles with having to now kill flesh-and-blood human beings. But the tide slowly shifts and Jack whittles the assassins down, leaving Ashi as the only one left.

When Jack safely subdues Ashi and tries to help her, they eventually go from being worst enemies to best partners. Jack is bewildered to see Ashi so brainwashed that she believes Aku is the universe’s benevolent creator and ruler, while the samurai is the evil one. Ashi rejects all of Jack’s attempts to teach her the truth and continues trying to kill him while shackled, even as the two are trapped in the gut of a colossal beast and Jack still keeps her alive. Ashi finally realizes the truth, after they escape the “belly of the whale” and she sees him gently handling a ladybug, while her mother would callously squish such "distractions". From there, Ashi comes to learn more about Jack, then repays the favor by helping him to overcome his inner demons and finally reclaim his sword. In the process, she even defies and slays her fanatical mother. Over the course of other adventures, Jack and Ashi’s camaraderie evolves, slowly budding into a romantic relationship.

Jack and Ashi’s relationship reaches its climax, when Aku receives outdated news of Jack losing his sword, then rushes out to confront him. When Aku encounters Ashi with Jack, he senses his own essence lying dormant inside her and takes advantage. Aku is able to awaken his powers in Ashi, possess her body, and turn her on Jack. With seemingly no way to free Ashi without killing her, Jack relapses back into despair and surrenders. Aku gloatingly broadcasts Jack’s capture and plans to have Ashi execute him as the world watches. Thankfully, all of the friends Jack has made in the earlier seasons come to Jack’s aid, including the Scotsman in ghost form. While Jack’s allies distract Aku, the samurai tries once more to free Ashi. When Ashi hears Jack utter that he loves her and she focuses on that, only then does Aku’s control over her weaken. As cliche as it is for the “power of love” to be a villain’s kryptonite, I can buy it here, finding it consistent with Jack’s sword harming Aku with “righteousness… the strength and power of the human spirit”. To their surprise, Ashi not only frees herself from Aku’s control, but also discovers she can wield Aku’s powers… including his ability to create time portals.

Using her powers as a literal Daughter of Aku, Ashi is able to take both Jack and herself back in time to finally stop Aku in past… but at a tragic cost. Jack and Ashi emerge from the time portal, mere moments after Aku originally flung Jack into the future. The samurai wastes no time finishing off the surprised and terrified Aku. Once and for all, Aku is destroyed, and Ashi feels his power leaving her. For a while, it looks like a clear happy ending, with Jack’s family and homeland saved, the dystopian future averted, plus Jack and Ashi preparing to wed. Unfortunately, Aku has the last laugh, for it appears the world of “Samurai Jack” operates on “Back to the Future” rules of time travel. During the wedding procession, Ashi suddenly collapses. When Jack rushes over and begs to know what’s wrong, Ashi can only reply, “Without Aku… I would have never… existed”. Ashi then fades away before Jack’s eyes, as the rest of the crowd shares his heartbreak. The show ends on a bittersweet note, with Jack sitting amongst the cherry blossoms and eying a ladybug that lands on him. The insect flutters away, reminding him of his fond memories with Ashi and her sacrifice.

When I first saw the ending, I found it a resonant and thought-provoking note to close on, which left me pondering for the next day. I remember calling it, when I predicted the show having one of two possible endings. I figured that one possible ending would be him going back in time to avert the future with Aku’s takeover, at the cost of Jack’s friends in the original future all no longer existing. The other possible ending I imagined would have Jack ultimately deciding not to return to the past, instead focusing on destroying Aku in the present, so the current timeline’s people can now experience a future without Aku. Surprisingly, I looked up that before the show’s revival, the creators toyed with the latter idea in a series of (now non-canon) comic books titled “Tales of the Wandering Warrior”. There, Jack resolves to do that.

The show’s ending made me imagine the Problem of Evil in another way, when I first combined it with my observations of “Interstellar”. In my “Interstellar” post, I focus on the scene with Matthew McConaughey’s character floating in the tesseract, which allows him to view his daughter’s bedroom at infinite points in time and send messages to her past self as the “ghost”. I have wondered if that scene is a taste of what it would be like to see everything through the eyes of God, who transcends time. There, the past, present, and future are all perceptible at once. With that in mind, is it possible that every time God chooses to act through divine intervention, it is the equivalent to Samurai Jack altering the timeline by going back to slay Aku in the past? That is, in the sense that God knows/sees every potential “Ashi”, whose very existence will be prevented by his intervention? While undoing Aku’s future reign no doubt saved countless lives and allowed countless new people to be born, the ending of “Samurai Jack” points out that there are also good people, whose existence was only possible because Aku’s reign happened in the first place. Those invested in Ashi’s character still found it an emotional gut-punch, when she fades away. Jack ends up with the power to transcend time, but does not feel the cost of meddling with it until he has already intervened. Would this give God similar reservations about directly intervening in his creation, versus leaving it to its own agency?

Things also got deeper, when I added my observations of “The Imitation Game”. There, Benedict Cumberbatch’s fictionalized portrayal of Alan Turing is eventually faced with ethical decisions, where he might need to allow certain attacks by the Nazis to come to pass, in order ensure greater victory in the long term. Speaking of Benedict Cumberbatch’s roles, I forgot to mention that even my very first “Pop-Cultured Catholic” post on the Avengers films references a scene in Infinity War, where his portrayal of Dr. Strange chooses to let the villain have his way in the short term, since it is the only way to enable the villain’s defeat in the long term. That is, after he examines 14 million possible futures… which is still nothing compared to being omniscient. Also in my post on “The Imitation Game”, I make a callback to George R.R. Martin‘s quote, that the battle between good and evil is chiefly fought within the human heart and not something to be decisively finished by a mere external fight. I used that to suggest God cannot instantly end the war between good and evil to the fullest he would want, merely by smiting evil forces, and he might still have to make similar decisions as Turing even with his omnipotence. With the themes of “Samurai Jack”, one is reminded of the fact that there are even people, whose very existence is only made possible by evil being allowed to have its way in the short term. For example, think about a refugee meeting someone in a foreign country, starting a family with them, and having one of their children accomplish wonders. This is yet another layer to the 4D Chess games that God is playing, every time he chooses when to intervene and how to answer every prayer.

While I do not claim to have definitively solved the Problem of Evil, my G.R.R. Martin post, these three latest posts, and the brief callback to my Avengers post might collectively be my best exploration into that conundrum’s possible answers. With the end of “Samurai Jack” marking its conclusion, I will be linking some clips from that show and its finale episode…

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Fr. Gregory Pine, O.P.@frgregorypineop

September 02, 2025

Where Should I Live? On Cultivating Intentional Community - Fr. Gregory Pine, O.P.

A lot of folks have to decide, at one point or another, where they are going to live and what parish they are going to attend. At times you might be torn between growing where you're planted and moving to where you're nourished. I was in Tulsa this past weekend with a really excellent community, and it sparked some though on the theme.

Also, I have a new book out. You can find it here: https://www.amazon.com/Your-Eucharistic-Identity-Sacramental-Fullness/dp/162164796X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2ELJ81ZJUVT1G&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.HRZlgfwsmxjGFj1ePRw-OgluBhzhKL7XiQCNKyHEK_s.V0RluCVNmFRjkIZWue1otfyktDPiZN_QnWrjE_LTPtU&dib_tag=se&keywords=your+eucharistic+identity+gregory+pine&qid=1756821967&sprefix=your+eucharistic+%2Caps%2C107&sr=8-1

00:19:28

Matt Fradd@Matt_Fradd

September 02, 2025

WATCH: Intro to Marian Consecration

Please watch this beautiful introductory video to our 33 day preparation for total consecration to Jesus through Mary which starts September 4th. We will conclude on the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, October 7th.

00:19:52

Fr. Gregory Pine, O.P.@frgregorypineop

August 18, 2025

You Can Always Offer Something - Fr. Gregory Pine, O.P.

Sometimes we have it in our mind that we need to offer the Lord a perfect gift of ourselves if it's going to count for something. Aware of our various attachments and imperfections, we put off making the gift until such time as we are in a position to make a more pleasing sacrifice. My counsel to you is to offer what you have at present, even if it's imperfect. Because that's the git you actually have and that's the gift in which the Lord actually delights : )

Here's the link for the book: https://www.amazon.com/Your-Eucharistic-Identity-Sacramental-Fullness/dp/162164796X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1SME6J5KYKVXI&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.HRZlgfwsmxjGFj1ePRw-OgluBhzhKL7XiQCNKyHEK_s.V0RluCVNmFRjkIZWue1otfyktDPiZN_QnWrjE_LTPtU&dib_tag=se&keywords=your+eucharistic+identity+gregory+pine&qid=1755616701&sprefix=your+eucharistic%2Caps%2C94&sr=8-1

00:19:19

Matt Fradd@Matt_Fradd

April 16, 2024

Simple NEW Lofi Song

Working on an entire album of lofi music. Here's one of those songs. Album should drop next week. THEN, a couple of weeks after that we hope to have our 24/7 stream up and running.

Matt Fradd@Matt_Fradd

December 01, 2022

Day 5 of Advent

THE ERROR OF ARIUS ABOUT THE INCARNATION

In their eagerness to proclaim the unity of God and man in Christ, some heretics went to the opposite extreme and taught that not only was there one person, but also a single nature, in God and man. This error took its rise from Arius. To defend his position that those scriptural passages where Christ is represented as being inferior to the Father, must refer to the Son of God Himself, regarded in His assuming nature, Arius taught that in Christ there is no other soul than the Word of God who, he maintained, took the place of the soul in Christ’s body. Thus when Christ says, in John 14:28, “The Father is greater than I,” or when He is introduced as praying or as being sad, such matters are to be referred to the very nature of the Son of God. If this were so, the union of God’s Son with man would be effected not only in the person, but also in the nature. For, as we know, the unity of human nature arises from the union of soul and body.

The...

Matt Fradd@Matt_Fradd

November 27, 2022

Day 1 of Advent

RESTORATION OF MAN BY GOD THROUGH THE INCARNATION

We indicated above that the reparation of human nature could not be effected either by Adam or by any other purely human being. For no individual man ever occupied a position of pre-eminence over the whole of nature; nor can any mere man be the cause of grace. The same reasoning shows that not even an angel could be the author of man’s restoration. An angel cannot be the cause of grace, just as he cannot be man’s recompense with regard to the ultimate perfection of beatitude, to which man was to be recalled. In this matter of beatitude angels and men are on a footing of equality. Nothing remains, therefore, but that such restoration could be effected by God alone.

But if God had decided to restore man solely by an act of His will and power, the order of divine justice would not have been observed. justice demands satisfaction for sin. But God cannot render satisfaction, just as He cannot merit. Such a service pertains to one who ...

Matt Fradd@Matt_Fradd

September 03, 2025

Prayers for Marian Consecration

You will need this PDF for each of the 33 days leading up to your consecration.

At the end of each daily meditation you will be asked to say a few prayers. All of those prayers are here in this PDF

prayers.pdf

Counselor_Troi@Counselor_Troi

15 hours ago

First shirt came. And dude, at 45 I'm obviously not of the selfie culture nor do I take them but I will proudly wear a shirt honoring this man and his family whenever I can.

Bill@Billdozer_9108

September 14, 2025

My wife and I welcomed our second child into the world yesterday at 3:30p!. A healthy and beautiful baby girl.

My wife’s labor started at 2:19pm. Between her first signs of labor and delivery was less than an hour and thirty minutes! To say we were being watched over would be an understatement. The nurse said that had we caught a red light we would have been delivering the baby in the parking lot.

Needless to say, we made it! I was praying like crazy the whole time and started a rosary right when labor was over. I then immediately felt the presence of our lady watching over my wife and daughter. It was such a warming feeling that I broke down crying.

Christ is good. So grateful for Blessed Mary interceding on our behalf. I appreciate continued prayers for our growing family.

God bless.

Matt Fradd@Matt_Fradd

August 29, 2025

What St. Thomas Means by "Curiosity"

In today's livestream I spoke about the sin of curiosity. In this article, I thought I'd sum it up for you in case I didn't do it well in the livestream.

You can read Thomas' own words here, btw.

For Aquinas, “curiosity” is not simply the healthy desire to know the truth. He distinguishes between the virtue of studiositas—the ordered pursuit of knowledge—and the vice of curiositas, which is the disordered pursuit of knowledge.

Curiosity becomes a vice when we seek knowledge in the wrong way or for the wrong reasons: for pride, idle speculation, gossip, or knowledge that leads us away from God rather than toward Him. For example, indulging in occult practices, probing into sinful matters for fascination, or prying into things that are none of our business (all of social media, or just most?) are all ways that curiosity corrupts the good of knowledge. In other words, knowledge itself is good, but the way we desire, seek, and use it can be distorted.

Aquinas says that curiosity can show itself in several ways: when someone prefers trivial knowledge over what would truly benefit their soul (c'mon ... this is how many people live their lives), when one seeks knowledge to boast or to sin, when one is distracted by an endless hunger for new information at the expense of wisdom, or when one turns to forbidden sources of knowledge.

By contrast, the virtue of studiousness disciplines the intellect so that we seek truth for its own sake, for God’s glory, and for the service of others. Thus, Aquinas sees curiosity not as the love of learning itself, but as the disorder of that love—an appetite for knowing that forgets the proper end of knowledge, which is to lead us to truth and ultimately to God.

So here's a challenge for you and me: What is one practical way that we can avoid curiosity and grow in studiousness?

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Matt Fradd@Matt_Fradd

August 20, 2025

33 Days of Preparation for Marian Consecration on Locals – Starts Sept 4

Hey everyone!

Beginning September 4th, our Locals community will enter into 33 days of spiritual preparation for total consecration to Jesus through Mary.

We will conclude together on October 7th, the Feast of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary.

Here’s how it will unfold on Locals:

- We will be guided by Fr. Boniface Hicks’ beautiful book, The Fruit of Her Womb: 33-Day Preparation for Total Consecration to Jesus Through Mary. (I’ve received special permission from the publisher to share it with Locals members.)

- A daily meditation and prayer will be posted each day for the 33 days.

- To accompany us, Fr. Boniface will provide several exclusive videos recorded just for Locals, offering guidance and encouragement along the way.

This is an opportunity to consecrate—or renew your consecration—to Jesus through Mary in the company of a prayerful community, with the wisdom of a priest who has written deeply on this devotion.

Mark your calendar: We begin September 4th.

You can purchase a copy of the book here: https://www.amazon.com/33-Day-Preparation-Total-Consecration-Through/dp/1644138409

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Matt Fradd@Matt_Fradd

July 12, 2025

A Practical Method For Spiritual Warfare

In this article, I want to suggest a powerful, practical method for spiritual warfare—one that I believe will be a game-changer in your everyday life. We'll explore how consistently announcing what is true and renouncing what is false can become a potent weapon, helping you navigate the unseen battles that often manifest as struggles in our thoughts and emotions.

At the Catholic Easter Vigil Mass, there is a significant moment where the congregation renews their Baptismal Promises.

In essence, the priest leads the faithful to announce what is true and to renounce what is false.

For the purposes of this article we’ll begin with the questions that invite annunciations. He asks:

"Do you believe in God, the Father almighty, Creator of heaven and earth?"
"Do you believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was born of the Virgin Mary, suffered death and was buried, rose again from the dead and is seated at the right hand of the Father?"
"Do you believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting?"

In responding “I do” to these questions, we are in a very real sense aligning ourselves with reality. While emotions may be present, they don’t need to be. Simply stating our agreement with the way things are is enough.

Prior to the above questions are a series of questions which invite renunciation:

"Do you renounce sin, so as to live in the freedom of the children of God?"
"Do you renounce the lure of evil, so that sin may have no mastery over you?"
"Do you renounce Satan, the author and prince of sin?"

In responding “I do” to these questions, we are renouncing, repudiating, what is false.

To those who may attend Holy Mass once or twice a year they may be surprised to discover just how seriously the Church takes the reality of the Devil and spiritual warfare. But anyone somewhat familiar with the Scriptures and the consistent teaching of the Church would not be. Here I could dump a multitude of Scriptural verses proving my point, but one will suffice. From the first letter of St. Peter:

"Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world."

And now for the main point of this article: Just as it is beneficial to regularly align ourselves with what is true (say through an act of faith), it is also beneficial to regularly repudiate, and disassociate with, what is false.

And given that our lives are situated squarely within a world at war. A world which “lies in the power of the evil one.” in which demonic forces are seeking to blind us to the things of God (2 Cor. 4:4). This is something we are going to be needing to do in one form or another on a daily basis. Multiple times a day.

Let me offer a personal anecdote that will illustrate this. I was about to interview someone on a topic that I knew would get blowback from the Demonic realm. I was going on a walk praying my rosary before my guest arrived. While I was walking I slowly became aware of a sort of oppressive force. I felt sad and restricted, somehow. Anxious. I’m not sure how long I was feeling that way, but at any rate I didn’t become conscious of it until that moment. I stopped walking and tried to sum up what I was experiencing in a word. It clicked. intimidation. That’s was it. I felt intimidated. And so I said the following prayer:

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