Stories are just as important in today’s culture as they have always been and perhaps even more so. The currently top 50 grossing movies worldwide of all time are primarily fantasy, sci-fi and stories about the extraordinary – a testament to our desire for transcendence. They are often how we learn truth – not fact, but truth. Much of the deeper truths of Christianity come to us through stories. Christ taught primarily through the Parables. Even prior to Christianity, much truth was conveyed through story, so much so that the Church did not reject pagan myths and stories as much as it illuminated and completed the elements of truth in them in light of the fullness of the truth of Christ.
For nearly two centuries, most English literature was based on Christian truth. It is only fairly recently that literature (if you can even refer to some of today’s fiction as such) became simply intended for entertainment. Books, movies, television, and the Internet are all mediums media now where stories are provided and the sheer amount is overwhelming. Yet, the truth still often comes through in today’s stories. But it takes discernment to see and experience the ones that still point to truth.
I wrote in my book Sacramental Living in the chapter, Myth and Truth, how the movie The Titanic by James Cameron, one of the highest grossing movies of all time, is so much more than about a great ship sinking. It is about how Jack’s unconditional and sacrificial and redemptive love of Rose saved her, in her words, in every possible way a person can be saved. He saved her physical life and her spirit from wilting due to the hell-like bondage of the misguided society she was immersed in. This element of the story, the core element, is a version of the Gospel story. Cameron is not Christian nor was it likely his intent to tell a version of the Gospel story. However, if the Gospel is true, then it is true for everybody whether they are Christian or not. That means the Gospel will often shine through in stories whether the creator of the story is Christian or not, of whether he or she intended it or not.
Just like The Titanic, this holds true for another popular set of movies, the Star Wars saga. George Lucas was raised Methodist and is now Buddhist (if articles about him are factually correct). However, the Star Wars saga also has many Christian elements not the least of which is Luke’s redemption of Anakin through love and resistance to evil. These movies move people’s hearts tremendously. Many books do as well. For example, The Tale of Two Cities, The Lord of the Rings, and the Harry Potter series regularly top the lists of the best and most popular books of all time. Each of these books is often re-read by millions. The reason people (myself included) re-read these books repeatedly is because of how their hearts are stirred. That deep stirring of the heart is something that is important for us to understand and goes beyond mere emotion.
Our conscience is not entirely our own. That little voice in our head prior to a wrong act that warns us not to do what we were about to do, or, after we committed the wrong act lets us know what we just did was not good, is not entirely from us. If it was, it would kick in prior to our wrong acts and control us. It is the Holy Spirit, God who dwells in us; and, due to God’s loving gift of free will, He never tries to control, just gently persuade.
The nous, the part of us designed to connect with God, is often obscured by sin, so often there is a fog or a degree of barrier surrounding our hearts that keeps us from hearing clearly the “the still small voice within,” especially before we do something we are not supposed to. Once sin has a foothold we tend to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit in our hearts in the form of our conscience which tries to admonish us and strives to get us to correct our behavior.
Our conscience or our nous or heart faculty – whatever you wish to call it – also stirs deeply when we experience books and movies such as I mentioned earlier. Why is that? To answer this question, we first need to look at ourselves in relation to others. We often form deep bonds with people when we have things in common, especially when these things are profound interests that are motivated by core values. Many of my deepest relationships are with people who are striving and struggling to be with Christ daily. We see ourselves in them and them in us. We recognize aspects of ourselves in each other and this binds and bonds us in love. Christ told us multiple times in the Gospel to “love your neighbor as yourself.” The proper translation is more clearly stated “love your neighbor as being yourself.” When we recognize each other in ourselves, the image and likeness of God in each of us, we love each other as being of ourselves.
When we experience transcendent truth in movies, books, or other media, this deep stirring we feel, is essentially our heart faculty seeing its own reflection in stories. It is the numinous recognizing itself. It is similar to the delight we feel when a new friendship is forming when we discover ourselves and another have something in common we deeply both treasure. It is said that the Persons of the Holy Trinity dwell together in an eternal movement of love. In a sense, we feel a taste of the delight of the Three Persons of the Trinity, though One, have in each other.
Further, this feeling of immersion into a story that makes us forget all else for a while and makes us feels so completely alive, echoes especially the resurrection experience, the feeling of moving from death to life, that we all long for. That is why many us watch and re-watch, read and re-read the same stories again and again. We are experiencing the transcendent coming through in our secular society as we shut off logic and experience with our heart. We essentially get out of our mind and come to our senses.
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