The Great Warning: A Horrifying Grace

One of the unfortunate realities of “Catholic movies” crossing the Rubicon and making it onto America’s big screens is the temporality of its moment. The pattern so often unfolds like this: A few big-hearted folks, who cherish a movie’s message and inspirational storyline, start a grassroots movement that convinces a theater manager to “allow them” a screening room for a night or two. Through their grit, the big-hearted folks manage to fill the theater, where a few hundred folks are brought closer to Christ—until, presto, their “Catholic movie” is jettisoned as quickly as a one-liner from Iron Man and the $400 million budget that does well to pay Mr. Downey, Jr.

Mostly gone are the days of quaint, Catholic, award-winning box office hits like A Man For All Seasons, It’s a Wonderful Life, and The Bells of St. Mary’s, that not only remained in theaters, but are still shown throughout the world today.

You will remember, though, that Sound of Freedom shocked the system. Although the movie certainly wasn’t quaint, the Catholic-heavy stable of actors and producers put together a film that grossed more than $250 million on its way to becoming one of  Hollywood’s top-grossing movies in 2023.

Last week, one of these traditionally “fleeting Catholic movies”—The Great Warning—squeezed onto theaters throughout the U.S. However, this is not just a movie for Catholics; it’s a film every person alive should view. If you’re evil, holy, or milquetoast—the movie was made specifically for you. Atheists, Buddists, P. Diddy, desert hermit, Donald Trump, Seventh-Day Adventist, Southern Baptists, beggars, bricklayers, and billionaires—The Great Warning has been carved uniquely to the contours of your own conscience, soul, and essence. 

The movie is for mankind because each of us will be judged by God. For many, the movie will be terrifying. I wish Jeffrey Epstein could have seen it. 

I just saw The Great Warning myself…it felt like an enormous 3-D fist reaching through the screen and shaking my soul. This movie will shake you to the core, if you believe in the weight of God’s justice, and thankfully, His mercy.

Before I unpack the film—and I won’t divulge too much because I’d like you to see it—I want to share the major theme of The Great Warning—namely, sin—and an often-neglected characteristic in me that it revealed. Unless I’m examining my conscience to prepare for the Sacrament of Reconciliation, I don’t very often regard the untamed state of my soul. But my negligence goes deeper than that. Too often I’ve spent time considering the seemingly rudderless nature of the Church, e.g. the foundering Synod on Synodality, the pop-art mascot of the Holy Year 2025, and the ideological moral poison pushed into the souls of our children that Church leaders seem to ignore addressing in Sunday sermons. 

But why should any of this matter to me? Other than praying, I have little skin in the game to make an impact. More to the point, rather than mulling over Church travails, why should I spend more energy considering the state of my soul and whether I’m choosing to live virtuously? 

Well, by the time of the closing credits to The Great Warning, I wasn’t so much thinking about the Synod, mascots, or even the upcoming election. I was thinking that one day I will be judged, a day when each of my sins and omissions will be revealed by God. The Great Warning is for all of us. There’s no escape; we’re all in the same boat.

The movie, which debuted to wide audiences in Spain earlier this year, featured intimate accounts and recollections of a half dozen individuals who survived what they call an “illumination of conscience,” where each was shown the horror of the corpus of their sins. They understood, for the first time, the impact and ripple effect each of their sins had had on countless souls they had forgotten.

“I saw I had nailed Jesus to the Cross,” said Fr. Rick Wendell, a layman who became a Catholic priest after his illumination of conscience. “I saw my whole life…my whole life in a matter of minutes.”

The movie is based on Christine Watkins’ best-selling 2019 book, The Warning: Testimonies and Prophecies of the Illumination of Conscience, which chronicled the first-hand accounts of more than a dozen people who shared similar experiences. Watkins, who appears in the film reading excerpts from her book, poignantly cites prophecies from mystics, seers, saints, and scripture passages that foretell “the Warning.” 

Fallen-away Catholic Fr. Wendell was an adrenaline junkie and thrill-seeker who for years skied and rode motorcycles without abandon. When he turned 30, doctors said he was “dead for two and a half hours” after a sudden cardiac arrest.

Wendell shares the languorous encounter he’d had with God while incapacitated on the operating table. Shortly thereafter, God allowed Fr. Wendell to see every sin he had ever committed, including his first, when he stole a small toy. “I saw the pain I caused God through stealing that little car, and how it hurt the storekeeper.” That was just the first of countless thousands of sins revealed to Wendell, who was so shaken that he broke his wedding engagement and enrolled in a seminary. Today he is a priest in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

The film unpacks first-hand testimonies on sudden encounters with God—often triggered by near-death experiences—where individuals become abruptly awakened to the far-reaching implications of their sins and omissions. Some of the accounts, each believable, are startling.

Alan Ames, once a notorious fighter, alcoholic, and hedonist, is now married with two children. He, too, was shown every sin he had committed. “It was disgusting, revolting,” he said. He was also visited by St. Teresa of Avila, who warned him, “If you don’t change your life, you’re going to hell. Change your life and discipline yourself.” Thereafter, Ames began to pray the Rosary and commit to a life of holiness. Today he travels the world to share the testimony of his illumination of conscience, where he implores whomever he will listen to strive for holiness.

Fr. James Blount, an internationally known Catholic priest, exorcist, and preacher stationed out of Covington, Georgia, appears periodically in the film to explain the dire state of the world. “The current situation for humanity and the spiritual and moral arena today is nothing less than a disaster,” he said. “We’re in quite a war today. We don’t know up from down, right from left. We need a true rescue from Heaven. … You might say this is a final chance, a final warning to wake up and go on the upper path.”

And that is the transcendent and hopeful message of The Great Warning. Its creators stress that God rejoices over those who appeal to His mercy and repent after the revelation of their lifetime of sin. Those who’ve lived through the divine illumination say their humiliation was God’s gift that saved their soul. Their horror was their second chance.

I urge you to drive to a theater to see The Great Warning before it leaves U.S. theaters. Although you might find yourself driving home a little more carefully, it will be worth your $15. You might even find yourself in the confessional the next day. 

The Great Warning implores three things: Repent. Turn to Jesus. Listen to Mary’s prophetic words at Fatima. It is a necessary reminder that every person one day will see their souls in the light of divine truth. And for many, it will be horrifying. 

Lastly, I don’t know the mind of God, but I sense that He’s allowed the seeming collapse of societal norms and the tenuous state of the Catholic Church for reasons more expansive than we know. I don’t know why God seems to be disappearing in the world. But I do know this: He will judge my soul.

A few days after seeing this film, the melody of a record still spins in me: Kevin, don’t fall asleep on your eternal soul. Examine it daily—before He does, one by one by one.

Author’s Note: For showtimes in your state, visit TheGreatWarning.com.

Photo by Bhavya Pratap Singh on Unsplash