When the Homily is about Immunology

Jedi Knights, Orthodox Monks, and the Matrix

For my fellow geeks out there: An old article in which Fr. Dn. Lev Puhalo ponders some strange connections. I should like to talk to Fr. Dn. Lev about The Matrix which is ripe with Orthodox Mystical Theology...in fact I recently watched the film again and was even further amazed at the parellels.

Morpheus says of Neo: "He is learning the difference between knowing the Path and walking the Path."
Oh how I have learned this lesson from Orthodoxy. Intellectual assent is not enough...we need to start moving. And I don't just mean here doing good works because we are saved. Nonsense. What I mean is Salvation itself, because salvation is NOT being made legally right with God...thankfully I am beginning to not even understand what that means anymore. Salvation is Theosis...see below.

There is an interesting dynamic that goes on between Neo and Agent Smith. Over and over again Agent Smith refers to Neo by his real name "Mr. Anderson." And at one point while struggling with the agent in the path of an approaching subway train, Neo protests : "My...name...is...Neo." Later, when the agent finally kills Neo, Smith makes a rather prophetic statement: "Goodbye Mr. Anderson." Yes indeed, Mr. Anderson is gone.

It is quite common for Orthodox Christians, when being received into the Church to take a new (Neo) name. It is symbolic of our participation in the death and resurrection of Christ. We sing, as the newly illumined are processed around the font "As many as have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ Hallelujah." As Christ overcame death and sin (in the same sense that Neo overcame the Matrix), we now are afforded the oppurtunity to overcome by "partaking of the divine nature." This is the process of Theosis also known as deification. Becoming perfect just as He is perfect. It is within our reach because He put it there.

This is another critical difference between Orthodox and Protestant practical theology. In participating in God's life we Orthodox believe that we CAN and should overcome sin. The belief that we cannot is apart of the deception (the Matrix). In and through Christ we fulfill our destiny to be in perfect communion with God, to become fully the IMAGE and the LIKENESS of God. In this sense I see Neo's character as being not only a type of Christ, but also a type of the Church (you and me). The pathway, created by God in the beginning, was obscured and hazed over by sin and darkness, but when Christ assumed full humanity he enlightened and restored to us the Path and now we must begin walking it. We must begin training, working, and struggling to bring light and life into the world using the ascetic tools which the Church, in her 2000 years of experience, has given us.

Kill the Passions! Practice the Virtues! Partake of the Divine Nature! Overcome!
We can do it, really we can.