“I am one with the Force and the Force is in me…”
It is the oft-repeated mantra chanted by the blind warrior Chirrut Imwe as a way to remain focused during an intense battle. It is also arguably the catchiest and most annoying line in the 2016 film Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. If you haven’t seen the movie, then you are just going to have to trust me when I say it’s the kind of line that gets stuck inside your head faster than a chorus of “99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall.” If you have, then you know exactly why it popped into my head when I read today’s gospel.
In an effort to understand this irritating line a little better, I looked it up and was surprised to discover that it is rooted in the Advaita Vedatna – a Hindi belief espoused by Adi Shankara who suggested that everything in existence is an extension of The One who created it. Like the Force (aka science fiction’s answer to the Holy Spirit) the Advaita Vedatna is the kind of thing that surrounds us, penetrates us and binds the universe to its source. That’s all well and good for a galaxy far, far away, but I can’t help wondering if this 1,000-year-old concept is derived – at least in part – from today’s conversation between Jesus and Philip.
Don’t misunderstand…while I willingly admit that Jesus has a more unique connection to the Father than you or I, is He not also implying that there is a little bit of God in all of us? Although we do not speak in parables, heal the sick or walk on water, is it not God that inspires our thought-provoking words and charitable actions? Here’s Philip looking to be introduced to the Father like he is standing behind Curtain Number 1 and Jesus tells the apostle to find God in the guy standing next to him.
Despite His verbal gymnastics in this reading, I love the way Jesus is consistently telling His followers to stop looking for something to come and start focusing their efforts on the here and now. If you believe in His message and believe in His works because He is doing what God sent Him to do, then you have to take up your mantle and do the same. If you do, then you too will accomplish great things because you are one with the Father and the father is in you. This is more than genetics or some kind of consubstantiation and yet it is exactly that because all things come from God and we are part of His glorious creation. He surrounds us, penetrates us and binds the universe together. It is a concept that is simple in its complexity and quite literally a “force” to be reckoned with.
Perhaps if we were more like the sightless monk who places his faith in a “force” he cannot see, we can open our eyes to that little bit of God inside of everyone. After all, Jesus told us it was there – we just need to recognize it.
Today’s readings for Mass: ACTS 13:44-52; PS 98:1,2-3AB, 3CD-4; JN 14:7-14
