When I first began discerning a call to religious life three
years ago, I did as any reluctant servant might: I recklessly tore through the
recesses of YouTube, watching anything and everything related to discernment.
From high-quality promotional videos to nap-inducing question and answer
sessions, I filled my hesitant brain with all the digital-spiritual guidance it
could contain. While I felt that God was calling me to consecrated life, an
element of apprehension still remained. Then one August day, only a few weeks
before I was scheduled to report to rural Pennsylvania to begin my nine-month
postulancy, I flipped through the movie channels on my home television. I
stopped on Spider-Man 2, one of my
all-time favorites, and watched it from beginning to end. By the time the
credits rolled down the screen, I knew that God was calling me to be a priest. No multi-part catechetical series or motivational talk from a
well-known priest was necessary—just the Holy Spirit working, as it often does, in
the ordinary.
This event got me thinking: what other Hollywood
Blockbusters are loaded with themes of discernment? After doing some of my own
brainstorming, as well as talking-over this very important matter with my friar
brothers, I have put together a list of five films that I believe are “must-see”
material for anyone discerning a religious vocation. And, as I am dealing with
film synopses, a SPOILER ALERT goes without saying!
MEN IN BLACK
 |
| "So, confessions will be from 2:00-4:00, then the Knights of Columbus spaghetti dinner to follow." |
I don’t know if Men in
Black director Barry Sonnenfeld set out to make a sci-fi movie about
religious life, but yeah, he totally made
a sci-fi movie about religious life. The film’s plot is as follows. After a
life-changing encounter with the unexplainable, a loose-cannon police-officer
(Will Smith) is confronted with the reality that the universe may not be as it
appears. Ceding to a deeper calling, he leaves behind the world he once knew to
join the ranks of an organization that spends its days quietly and humbly
defending Earth from evil enemies which most people don’t believe exist. As if the
religious-life parallels weren’t yet uncanny enough, our quick-witted hero
cannot attain full initiation into the mysterious “Men in Black,” until he is
vested by his superior with “the last suit [he] will ever wear” (his habit). Oh,
and he also receives a new name, J,
which I’m like 90% sure stands for either Jerome or Jeremiah. In the end, Smith’s
character leads an obscure and often thankless life as a man who, while part of
the world, certainly does not belong to it.
 |
| Still more comfortable than clericals... |
SPIDER MAN 2
In this critically-acclaimed 2004 Marvel sequel, Peter Parker, a.k.a. Spider-Man, faces a common dilemma:
he discovers that it is way easier to
be a normal guy than to be a superhero. Who would’ve thought? After a fancy-free montage in which the-hero-formerly-known-as-Spider-Man
literally eats a hot dog instead of combatting crime, Parker realizes that the
eight-appendaged villains of the world aren’t exactly going to fight
themselves. While normal life had its perks—namely climbing the ladder of
academic prestige and flirting with Kirsten Dunst—it is way cooler to be the
man he was born to be. If nothing else, Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2 reminds us
that it is not we who choose the vocation; it is the vocation—err, radioactive
super spider—that chooses us. As Aunt May says: “I believe there's a hero in
all of us, that keeps us honest, gives us strength, makes us noble, and finally
allows us to die with pride, even though sometimes we have to be steady, and
give up the thing we want the most. Even our dreams.”
 |
| Made nice crispy bacon. Remembered it was Friday. |
THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING
“I wish the ring had never come to me; I wish
none of this had happened,” Frodo says.
Gandalf replies: “So do all who live to see such times, but
that is not for them to decide. All you have to decide is what to do with the
time that is given to you.” (Queue
awesome Howard Shore soundtrack).
THE MATRIX
 |
| "Woah. This is like, less confusing than Trinitarian theology." |
Anyone who has ever felt a call to the priesthood,
deaconate, or consecrated life has undoubtedly held a common thought: there is something more to this world than what
we can perceive with our senses. In the 1999 neo-noir science-fiction
masterpiece The Matrix,
computer-programmer Thomas Anderson finds himself pondering this same truth,
which ultimately results in a 136 minute-long battle against the
super-intelligent humanoid computer programs which police his fake reality in
order to prevent him from discovering that humanity is being harvested by
cyborgs. We’ve all been there. But what makes Neo (as he comes to be known) so
interesting is that, well, he’s pretty sure that this isn’t his battle to
fight. As a matter of fact, a few of his fellow freedom-fighter comrades agree
that they picked the wrong guy for the job. But a few thousand turbo
face-punches and slow-motion bullet-dodges later, Neo decides that there is no
way he can go back to his normal existence now that he knows the truth. With
humanity’s future at stake, he pushes forward, eventually coming to realize
that he is, indeed, The One—the man prophesied to overthrow the evil Matrix. Good
thing he didn’t keep his desk job.
 |
| Pictured: a normal day at the monastery |
STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS
