Written by our Lay Leader, Doug
I admit: I am a Star Wars geek. Since I was a young teenager, I have loved science fiction. Not fantasy, but true science fiction, where a future reality could be believed, perhaps even lived someday.
In the most recent Star Wars movie, “The Last Jedi,” Luke Skywalker, by use of the Force, manifests his presence on another planet to help save the leaders of the Resistance. When we see him drawing enemy fire to give the Resistance time to escape from the planet Crait, we do not realize that the Luke we see is his projection through the Force, not his real self—until we see him seated in a lotus position on a jutting rock atop a high cliff, his eyes closed in deep concentration, at his hermitage on the planet, Ahch-to. He is lost in contemplation. His presence is not there on that rock. His body is there, but his presence is seen and heard on another planet.
This is a fictional story, but this movie series is so popular because its themes are so central to the meaning of our lives. In this scene, we see the Force being used by Luke Skywalker to manifest his body in another location light years away. Is such an ability unimaginable to us? Thomas Keating says “We all have the innate capacity to manifest God because we already are that image by virtue of being created.” We see evidence of this when someone speaks to us a message that we know comes from God. We recognize that God was manifested in that person, that friend or acquaintance of ours! We are created in God’s image that we would act in His place.
So is it that difficult to believe that we might somehow manifest ourselves in another location from where our physical body exists? There are many examples where our presence is manifested in this way. Imagine your son, away at college, considering doing something that you taught him not to do. In that moment, he remembers your words of instruction, your warning. It is as if you are standing there beside him. Or think about this: Each time you speak, text, or email someone on your device, you are being manifested wherever they are, whether it is in the next room or a continent away. We take this for granted, but a century and a half ago, this occurrence would be viewed as a miraculous manifestation.
After Luke Skywalker had served his purpose, we see his cloak blow away in the wind, and his body is not there. He gave himself completely to save his fellow Resistance fighters. In silence and contemplation, he gave all he had that others might live. He sacrificed his life to redeem the lives of others.
What happened to his body? Did it dematerialize like being “beamed up” in Star Trek? Was it consumed like the conversion of matter into energy? Was he able to tele-transport himself to another location in the universe? This is a fictional story, so we can’t analyze it as if it is real.
The relevant lesson here is that Luke knew his purpose. He had studied to be a Jedi Knight as a young man. He had become a Jedi Master, capable of performing what normal people would call miracles. He lived an ascetic life, denying himself and serving others. Like Jesus, he “did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.” He stood up against evil and willingly sacrificed himself to help others in resisting that evil.
In Christ,
Doug