As parents, my wife and I constantly weigh what we expose our kids to. Do we go full-Amish or full-tech? Who do we allow them to play with? What movies do we watch? Oftentimes we try to take a 'middle-line' approach to maintain their innocence and keep them protected, while not coming across as overly-strict so that they are feeling like they are living under a dictatorship. It's something every parent has to weigh for themselves in the culture we live in.
Last night I was weighing whether to watch the 1999 science-fi film "The Matrix" with my 9 year old son. It depicts a dystopian future in which humanity is unknowingly trapped inside a simulated reality, the Matrix, created by intelligent machines to distract humans while using their bodies as an energy source. When computer programmer Thomas Anderson, under the hacker alias "Neo", uncovers the truth, he "is drawn into a rebellion against the machines" along with other people who have been freed from the Matrix. Getting "red-pilled" on waking up to the truth of something is an expression used in reference to the film. There was some language and non graphic violence, but overall I found it thought-provoking from a Christian perspective when I saw it years ago worthy of exploration. We decided to watch it; you can judge me accordingly.
In his On Christian Doctrines treatise, Augustine writes, “If those who are called philosophers, and especially the Platonists, have said aught that is true and in harmony with our faith, we are not only not to shrink from it, but to claim it for our own use from those who have unlawful possession of it.” As an Augustinian at heart (having first read Confessions very early in my conversion), I always appreciated Augustan's pre-Christian background in rhetoric and philosophy and how God used it for the good after his conversion to Christianity. Though he rejected the incompatible heresy of dualistic Manicheasm, he "baptized" his neoplatonic philosophy in the waters of Christian theology.
Neoplatonism as a philosophy sought the One, the Good, extolled virtue, and recognized the soul. But it was a philosophy developed before the Incarnation, the "scandal of the particular" in human history with the One, the Good, the Eternal entering into the human fray. In Christ, the soul was no longer "trapped within the body" to be freed from its degraded cell, but dependent on it for existence. The body was good, because God made it good. The soul did not exist apart from the body and the human person. The resurrection means we will be reunited with our human bodies in the coming age. As Augustine came to realize, Christianity “is the religion which possesses the universal way for delivering the soul; for, except by this way, none can be delivered.”
Though The Matrix drew its themes from a mix of Taoism, Judaism, Gnostic thought, and Christianity, I felt I (and my son) had the Christian foundation to parse out what was of the True Good and what was not enough to have a discussion about it. My son loved the film. But what I loved more was he wanted to talk about the themes and what they meant, and so after we watched it we headed downstairs and I brewed some coffee.
We sat down and I brought over a jar of holy water and we blessed ourselves, lit the Advent candles, and I prayed over him for the gifts of wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord. What ensued was an hour long discussion at the kitchen table about Christology, soteriology, epistimology, metaphysics, Heaven, Hell, purgatory, human nature, sin, death, atonement, culture, and calling.
He knows his catechism pretty well, his prayers and the tenants of the Faith. But last night I went through the Scriptures with him, starting with John chapter 1: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. We talked about the pre-existence of Jesus as God before time and space, that he was co-eternal with the Father.
We then moved on to Romans chapter 6, in which Paul writes about our bondage to and struggle with sin and concupiscence, but also our redemption in Christ and by baptism. That like those in The Matrix, humanity is enslaved and asleep in a comfortable reality that is not the "whole picture," but has the capacity to be set free. But this rests on the need for "the One" to do it (personified by Neo in the film), who is Christ. Seeing things as they are, knowing the Truth, is not easy nor comfortable. In fact, in can be quite painful to come to terms with and live by.
Then we moved to Genesis. Why are we in this state? I read to him chapter 3 relating the Fall and the theology of Original Sin to the state we find ourselves in today--why it is hard to be good, to see things as they really are, and why we are constantly being tempted by the "agents" of the Devil to rest in our present reality rather than seek out and strive for Heaven.
We talked about the Oracle (the prophetess/seer in the movie who fortold Neo's coming), and moved into the prophets in the Old Testatment, and how they prefigured the expectation of Christ; they too were "waiting for the One," the Messiah, who would finally free the human race from their bondage.
There was a character in the film who gets tired of living in the Truth and longs for the comfortable life of illusion--steak dinners, wine, wealth, and fame--ultimately hands over Neo to the Machines. We moved into the synoptic Gospels and the Last Supper, where the Son of Man was betrayed by one of his own--Judas Iscariot, "who would betray him."
At one point in the film, Neo actually dies, but it is through the faith of Trinity (the female character, who believes Morpheus that Neo truly is the One who will save them from their enslavement) that this death is not final. So, we moved on to the Resurrection--that our belief as Christians is that even when all hope seems lost, Christ will come again to save us. That like the early disciples who saw Christ die a true death, we would see him rise and come again in glory--for them three days later, and for us at our particular or the Last Judgement.
And we talked about the saints, disciples who by merit of faith Christ gives the power to heal the sick, raise the dead, and work miracles. That Neo could stop time and dodge bullets and bend spoons--there is nothing stopping one with faith from working such miracles in the name of Jesus except his own unbelief.
The whole time, my son never blinked. He rested his head on his arm and listened to the scriptures, the Word of God which is a living Word, not a dead text, to put it all into context. We do not study philosophy for its own sake, or theology so we can use big words, I told him. We learn about Christ so we can know what is really going on; so that because we know what we believe, and who we believe in, we can live as people with purpose and an ultimate end that we need neither fear nor eschew. As Christ said, "you will have trouble in the world, but fear not, for I have overcome the world!"
It is a great responsibility and privilege to be a father, but thankfully I have a son who is worthy of that honor, and who I actually enjoy being with and teaching him the truths of our Faith. I have to work with what I have in the times we live in, along with the threats, the technology, the culture. But like Augustine who baptized his platonic thought and Paul, who adapted his preaching to different audiences and implored the Gentiles to connect the "unknown God" they pray to with the Living Christ, I try at least, when warranted and the opportunity presents itself, to "work all things for the good of those who are called according to purpose" (Romans 8:28).
