I am not a huge fan of the Harry Potter series. I mean I watched them and enjoyed them but it was never an obsession. But I also don’t have the opinion that they are dangerous to watch because of the emphasis on magic and spells. I guess if a young person watched them without proper grounding in faith, perhaps they could take the place of God in their lives. After looking over today’s readings, and formulating how I would like to approach them, I went looking for an example in popular culture that would help illustrate my observations. And I came across this clip from The Order of the Phoenix.
Just prior to this section, Harry sees his friend, Sirius Black, die by the hand of Bellatrix Lestrange. He pursues her and is poised to kill her. At this point the evil Voldemort encourages Harry to go ahead and kill her in revenge. He turns to kill Voldemort instead and this sets off a battle between Voldemort and Dumbledore, Harry’s mentor. Voldemort appears to lose but instead enters Harry’s body igniting an inner struggle, as seen in this clip, between Harry’s dark side, represented by Voldemort, and truth, as seen in the images of his friends:
I recall when I was young that I had this vague sense that there was something wrong with the world. That it seemed to be spinning out of control and in the wrong direction.
I just could not put my finger on why I felt this way and what was happening. Yes we had the ongoing Vietnam War, racial unrest, and assassinations of leading figures like the Kennedy’s and Martin Luther King. But it was more than these events. It was if these things were just the symptoms of a broken world.
Not only did I get this sense about the external world but I felt this struggle going on internally as well. Not to say I had an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other. But I felt the ebb and flow, push and pull of the urge to do the right thing versus the wrong thing going on inside. I think, over time, I began to understand that the closer I came to aligning myself with God, the greater the likelihood of the “right thing” gaining greater control of my actions. And this gave me a sense of order. That the unrest I had felt did have an origin. That the devil was real but, more importantly, God was in charge. No matter how strong the evil appears to be, our relationship with God will win out in the end.
And I have come to understand that the internal struggle I experience occurs with everyone and it is the collective result of all these individual battles that determines the direction of the world we live in. This is why what each of us does effects the rest. It is as if there is an overall balance and each of the decisions we make contributes to the direction that the balance tips. Will the world’s balance tip to the dark or to the light? To God or to the Devil?
John discusses this struggle in both readings today. He stresses how the power of prayer protects us from the Evil One and moves us closer to understanding God’s will. The closer we are to God, the more our prayer centered on the true will of God. And the more the internal struggle within each of us tips to the truth and to light.
Many of you may remember the show, “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. In it contestants had to answer questions from a list of possible answers. They also got 3 lifelines that allowed them to get help from the audience or from a friend by calling them on the phone. I think of prayer like that telephone call. When we have to decide on an answer, to make a decision, we call God as a friend to get help with the choices we have. But the contestants in the show could not just randomly call someone for help. They called a friend. For only a friend would know them enough to recognize their voice and give them a good answer. The same is true with our communicating with God through prayer. He needs to know us and we need to know him for prayer to be effective. We need to be following him daily in prayer, scripture and the sacraments. So our call to him is recognized but, more importantly, we recognize the answer.
John also tells us in the Gospel, through the words of John the Baptist, “He must increase: I must decrease”. It is humility versus pride. Being prideful says that I know better than God in terms of what is best for me. Letting the idols in my life take over. Money, power, hobbies, sports, addictions, and even relationships, can all occupy primacy over God in our minds and then in our actions. Harry’s understanding of the truth allowed him to choose the light and the good over the evil of Voldemort. To recognize that the power of good comes from putting others before yourself. Sacrificial love trumps the allure of self. This is the true power in the world. Christ showed us this during his 40 days in the desert when he accepted the coming suffering of the cross and rejected the immediate temptations of the devil. May we recognize, through prayer, our own idols and temptations. And then choose the truth of the light over the darkness.
