The Jedi and the Messianic Hope

This post first appeared at the amazing Coffee With Kenobi.

This is my Christmas post.  Trust me for a bit on that.

Allow yourself to rise up.  Meditate on what it means, or the process by which, you can become greater than you have ever thought you could be.  Leave behind ideas of materialism, or even what pop culture offers as spiritualism.  Identify not with the crude matter, but give great psychological effort to becoming one with the Force, that the Force may become one with you.  If we can find clarity enough to look inside of our own souls we will find that there is a secret hope there, implanted by the Creator.  While the Jedi hoped for the Chosen One, we have a hope for the messianic.

The Hope of the Jedi was the Chosen One of the Prophecy.  Mace Windu did not speak broadly, but specifically.  Of all of the prophecies that the masters of the Force had uttered, this was THE ONE.  And it called for one knight who would rise up and bring balance, securing peace and tranquility for all.  True, George Lucas maintains that Anakin was the Chosen One, but that bothers me.  It affronts my desire and need for the redeeming messiah figure (which, I have said, is innate to humankind).  The messiah of the prophecy must fulfill the prophecy and cannot fail.

A Selfless Season of Communing with the Force

 

There has been awakening. Have you felt it? There is a stirring in every fangirl and fanboy. Something is about to change. I completely expect that our minds will be blown in ten short months when the screens explode with the next chapter in the Star Wars saga. The change will be something impossible to guess at this moment. It will be a surprise that makes us examine our own presuppositions – if only for the movie, but maybe even for our personal lives. We will be challenged to grow from the experience, after this excruciatingly long wait.

The Reliquary of an Old Jedi Master

There was a familiar motif in the expanded universe novels that often frustrated me:  the long journey to an uncertain destination.  There are quite a few examples.  In The Approaching Storm, Obi-wan and Anakin meet up with Luminara Unduli and Barriss Offee to trek across a desolate planet for many days.  Come to think of it, the same story element appears in the movies as well.  Why did the AT-ATs land so far from Echo Base?  Seriously, if they had landed a few kilometers closer far fewer transports would have been able to escape.

Freedom, For the Good of the Order

Get it!  Read it!

This post will have limited quotes from the recently released A New Dawn by John Jackson Miller.  There are just a few words form the book, and they are in no way a spoiler to the story (which I myself haven't even finished yet).  However, if you want to finish the book first, remember to come back to this post immediately afterwards.

If there is anything that strikes your fancy within the Star Wars universe, it does not take much time to find an answer.  You can check out the venerable and precise Wookiepedia, ask your local aficionado with geek cred, or many questions can be answered by a simple man on the street interview due to the saturation of our society by the great mythology.

Are the Sith Admirable?

Here is a conversation I had recently on Facebook with a friend.  It was a lot of fun, and I hope you find some benefit in it.  These Sith lovers, sheesh. 

Darth Jersey:  The Sith Empire has a lot of good to it.
1. Structure
2. Discipline
3. The ability to feel.
4. Jedi deny human emotion and the ability to love.
5.Respect for Authority
6.All teachings out of Sith Teachings are anathema
7. There is a judgment day for those who are loyal and unloyal.
8. Love of Empire above all else.
9. Master/Apprentice relationship. One must learn while finding his/her own path. The ways of the teacher at times are always not correct, so the student must come to realization on his own to become his master and to excel beyond.

Luke Skywalker: From Farmboy to Student to Hero of the Rebel Alliance, Part II

            In Empire Strikes Back, we find our heroes on the run.  Having found a base on Hoth, they are now living solely for the opportunity to survive and spread their message.  Luke receives the message that he needs to leave his friends for a little while to receive training in the Jedi arts.  After the evacuation of Hoth, he leaves for Dagobah without any reservation.  It is there that he is given knowledge that he never even knew to ask for before.  He is illuminated with a knowledge that was kept safe from all harm.  It is a knowledge of the deeper mysteries of the universe.  For the Church, " Only in the state of illumination does divine grace makes possible the contemplation of the divine light. The hidden truths of Holy Scripture are not revealed to everyone, since illumination comes through the special divine gift of revelation. For this reason in the early Church, the holy Bible was read only in the Church and only by a charismatic person. In the Orthodox Church, we have never experienced "bibliolatry" or "worship of the Book," as in some sects. The Church holds fast to the unadulterated spirit of the Bible as it was delivered to the Saints, and through them, to us (An Introduction to Orthodox Spirituality at www.goarch.com)."

Luke Skywalker: From Farmboy to Student to Hero of the Rebel Alliance, Part I

This post has to be written in the next 499 days, in order for it to make sense (assuming the saga of Luke will continue in Episode VIII).  In the life of Jedi Master Luke Skywalker, we see a growth from farmboy to hero; from innocent child to mature adult.  The unspoken thing in each of those phrases is the path in between.  Luke went from moisture farmer to student to hero pilot.  He went from his innocence, through an awakening of cause which resulted in a mature Jedi.  This progression is a good way for us to talk about the Christian teaching of theosis. 

Good Morning! Nice of You to Drop By!

Some things have an odor from the outside - and you find out that the stink even more on the inside.  Every relationship has ups and downs.  If you think that any relationship - marriage, family or friendships - is all fun and games, you are kidding yourself.  True and lasting relationships are built on hard work and the willingness to stick with the other through the worst of times.  Through this, the best of times are even better.  

Losing Hands

During today's service, I read the Gospel of Matthew 5.29-30:  

"If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell.  And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell.

Father's Day gift for your favorite blogger?

            Hands.  What an iconic image within our favorite franchise.  Lots of people lose their hands.  Anakin and Luke - but also Mace Windu in the magnificent showdown between the Jedi and Sith Orders.  There are also the losses suffered by Count Dooku, Panda Baba, Grievous and other beings.  Now that you have all of those images brought back to mind, let's move on.  They can lose power when a hand is cut off, or lose a bar fight, or lose an identity.  In all times, this loss has the potential to lead to a deeper understanding of the universe.

Standing at the Feet of Your Master

Bring up these images in your head:  Anakin standing before the Jedi Council.  Luke standing before the Emperor on Death Star II.  The icon of the Samaritan Woman at the Well (this is the image included here, in case you don't know it). 

Fr Andrew 

My dear friend, Fr Andrew, was giving a lecture one time and noted that in the classical era, the teacher would sit and the people would stand to hear his words.  How much things have changed.  If a student stands in class now, you can bet his afternoon dance card will be full.  When I give a sermon, I stand at the front of the congregation and watch everyone else take a rest.  My parish is good, but in other places I see people go right for the bulletin, the bottom of the purse for the much-needed linty hard candy, or just plain doze off.  The sermon is there for illumination and to make clear the words of the Gospel lesson to today's challenges. 

Seduced by Idols of Our Own Design

It is easy to be seduced by anything. Sometimes seduction can come from something neutral or good.  When the Jedi became too secure in their power, it stultified and became the object of their veneration.  The Force is theoretically neutral.  Neither good nor bad.  And they came to worship the good side, the Light Side, to their own detriment.  By the time of Order 66 they were not fully in step with the Force because they had made it over in their own image.

            When we worship something, we give it utmost value and control over our lives.  When we worship ourselves or the next American Idol, they become our gods and drive us to their ultimate inherent end.  If I were to worship me, as Mrs Darth Father says, I would be 400 pounds, covered in Dorito dust, suffering from Nintendo thumb and living in my mother's basement.  Since my mom lives in a second floor condo, I have to reevaluate this option.  My god would be gross. 

A Villain Redeemed, Part I

Perhaps one of the complaints about the Prequel Trilogy is that it makes Anakin, and therefore Darth Vader, a sympathetic victim and not the galaxy's most evil villain.  On this blog, you will not hear any PT trashing, so that is not where I am going here.  I will posit in these first few postings that we see the fall of someone to the uttermost depths of despair, hatred, self loathing and narcissism.  Darth Vader becomes the one who needs to be saved not only from his oppressor, but from himself.  In Part I we will deal with the former proposition.