Homily

I watched a couple episodes of a tv program called “Salvation.” The basic storyline is that a young, male MIT grad student accidentally discovers a huge asteroid that is heading toward earth and scheduled to strike our beloved planet in 6 months. His professor-supervisor checks out his data and decides the student is right. A few days go by and the student is able to reveal his startling finding to a guy who is a wealthy tech wizard, kind of like a Steve Jobs, founder of Apple. The tech wizard invites the student to work with him on finding a solution to the problem of this asteroid, which is so large, that when it crashes into the planet it will wipe the human race off the face of the earth. The story also involves the Deputy Secretary for Defense and his secret girlfriend who is the Press Secretary for the Pentagon. In the meantime, the young grad student meets a lovely young woman and he instantly falls in love with her.

Here’s some of my thoughts. The young student meets this girl and a few hours later they are in bed. A few days later and they are living together. Several of the main characters have committed adultery, and none of the main characters are currently married; they are either divorced or never have married. None of them. None of them have families that we know of, except for the press secretary, who has one daughter. There’s a lot of sleeping around and sex is never portrayed as something any more special or important than enjoying a good lunch. It made me stop and think. These actions, this portrayal of life, love, sex and family is repeated over and over again in films and tv programs for quite a few years now. All this immorality is seen as simply normal ways of living normal lives. I believe these ways of living, as seen on the screen, have a real impact on the moral values of our fellow citizens.

I think about these tv characters as they face the prospect of this asteroid extinguishing all human life in just 180 days. Except for the press secretary who worries about her daughter, none of the other major characters have any fear for, nor any mention of concern for any family members or relatives in the face of this great threat. For all we know they were test tube babies raised by wolves. The young grad student works with the wealthy tech master for several days on seeking a solution to the problem, but then he tells his new colleague that he is quitting and going home. And who is he going home to? His mother and father, brothers and sisters, grandparents, cousins, uncles and aunts? Of course not. He is going home to spend the rest of his time on this earth with his new girlfriend of five days. The whole idea of the family as the basic unit of society is completely trashed in this tv program, as it is in so much of the entertainment we see today. Any loyalty, love or sense of duty to one’s family is often shown to be unimportant. What matters is what you want to do and who you want to spend your time with. Worse than that, family members are often shown, not always, but often, in today’s films as weak and unhelpful, or even as the opposition to a person’s desire to find their own path and seek their own goals.

The main characters are interested in “saving the human race from extinction” but we are never told why they want to do that. I can understand them wanting to save their own lives, but why this great emphasis on saving the human race, if they don’t even seem to be worried about their own relatives? Once again, family is not that important, but other people, society, is very important – yet nobody seems to have a reason for why that is so. Self-preservation I understand, but what is the basis, the philosophical or moral reason for wanting to save everybody else? They never even hint at it.

The show is called “Salvation” and the Merriam Webster dictionary gives the first meaning of that word as: “Deliverance from the power and effects of sin.” With that title for the program, and an apocalyptic theme, one might think that perhaps somewhere, in some tiny little place, with maybe just one of the characters, there might be the slightest suggestion that someone, somewhere, believes in God. But you would be wrong. This is an atheist world view where only people can save other people. We’re just not told why they would want to save other people, or what they are saving them for. The sinful lifestyles and the understandings that this show presents to us are the same things we can find over and over again in today’s entertainment. They’re portrayed as normal. Is it any surprise that so many adults and even children accept them as normal?

When the young grad student says he is leaving the project, he tells the techy guy that before the world ends, “I want to live my life.” For him, this means getting back to his girlfriend of 5 days. Granted he is very young and immature, but really? This is what living your life means? For some reason, which, as I said we are not given, everyone else who knows about this cosmic threat thinks they must find an answer to save mankind. But the young man is only interested in his own life.

When people say things like, “I want to live my life” I am always tempted to ask, “whose life are you living up until now?” In the face of extinction, he shows what is most important in his life. What about us? In 50 days we face not extinction, but the joy of the Resurrection of Christ and the hope of eternal life in glory with Him. The main plot element of this program raises an always interesting question: If I knew I only had 6 months to live, how would I live? How would I act? What would be most important to me?

Now it’s true that none of us can say we will live to see another Easter, but since the Lord is not giving us a guaranteed death sentence in 180 days, and instead He is offering us the celebration of our life in Christ in 50 days, how shall we live until then? Can we focus on our life in Christ more intensely in these coming weeks even without the threat of death? Can we ask pardon for our sins, give thanks for our blessings, strive to find greater holiness and virtue in these coming days of prayer and renewal in spirit, even without a threat to our lives? Yes, we can! But we have to use our free will and our determination and our love for Christ to make that happen. We’re living in an increasingly pagan culture, so it’s not easy to stand against that tide. But let’s do our best to live our best in Christ this Lent, for only He can carry us into everlasting joy.