Let’s face it, the world today is filled with negativity. Darkness abounds in a world filled with lit screens. Life is submerged into the ocean of nihilistic philosophies whose trimmings and trappings bear many titles- materialism, relativism, consequentialism, etc. It is in this nighttime of discontent that super heroes fall from the sky, onto the silver screen, and revive the very fabric of our being.
We love super hero movies. The box office earnings prove that.
The latest Marvel installment, Avengers: Infinity War, earned more than $630 million in its first weekend. More importantly, it raised many eyebrows, including my own, and for good reason; IW did something that no other super hero move has done in recent history- it showed us who we are as a society.
In recent history, super hero movies have followed the same plot line: Superhero gets powers. Evil villain arises. Superhero defends people from super villain. Super hero defeats villain. End of story. This plot line ensures that our thirst for good to defeat evil will be satiated and all will be well with the universe.
Infinity War did not do that. At. All.
Rather, IW brought a mirror to theater and placed it smack dab in the face of the fallen, human audience who watched it. What we saw was something amazing on the surface, but when we looked deeper, we found the broken nature of our imperfections. Allow me to demonstrate:
Evil Wins Regardless of Our Combined Efforts
The villain won. It didn’t matter that the Avengers were already divided, when they were fighting on different planets, they fought together without even knowing it. As a result, they “joined forces” to establish the best onslaught possible against the god-man, Thanos, who, even when beaten by the good “god-man, Thor, was still able to win.
Isn’t this similar to our own spiritual lives? We know that our hearts call us to become better versions of ourselves, to constantly seek out perfection, beauty, goodness, and truth so that we can live our lives to the fullest. And yet, we fall so often. We are prideful, selfish, impatient, and crass. No matter how hard the hero inside us fights for control over our souls, we let the villain within us win.
Positive Motives Do Not Always Equal Prosperity
With the snap of his fingers, Thanos was able to eliminate half of the universes’ population. In his eyes, he was doing the world a merciful service by ensuring that each planet would have enough food to fill their bellies and resources to sustain their survival. But, is that really what life demands in order to be happy?
We too find our own evil desires to come in the form of positive motives. We think that if we satisfy our sinful desires, we will be happy. But, do the ends justify the means? Perhaps for a short time, but ultimately, the satisfaction wears away into guilt and shame because we realize that our actions were set firm in a solid moral theology. We become our own gods when we refuse to recognize the one true God whose moral precepts far outshine our own.
Sin Disintegrates the Soul
The effects of Thanos’ individual power are shown when half of the universe disintegrates into ash and then, nothingness. Normal people, superheroes, villains, even other life forms all become like air into which the nostrils of those who remain breathe in and out of their mouths. Like a faint echo, they are mourned in memory unable even to be buried into the ground from which their essence came.
When we fall into the temptations of our own sinful desires, the consequences that follow are life-sucking. We become less human and more like nothingness because we are slowly being separated from the Giver of life- God. Disconnected from his power, we are nothing, and sin is the dividing wedge that wanes our existence.
That Which We Love Most is Not What We Should Most Love
I’ll admit I was in utter disbelief when Spiderman, Dr. Strange, and Black Panther began to fade into dust. Here, some of the top money makers in Marvel’s cinematic collection were, well… gone. It was hard to fathom how it was possible to kill off these characters. How could Marvel sustain their economic stability without them? Much worse, on a personal level, why would they do it?! They were my favorites!
But it just goes to show you that what we really love in life isn’t always what we should love. There are many things in our lives that take the place of the real, life-giving experiences we long for. The football game trumps time with our families. The phone overcomes our desire to exercise. The late-night Netflix binge cuts into our necessary sleep hours and hurts our efficiency the next day at work. I could go on… The bottom line is that our priorities are not as they ought to be, and as such, our lives do not become what they should be.
The Director is Plotting the Sequel
We all stayed for the final credits. We had to. There was simply no way we were just going to let the ending of Infinity War be that final moment of “Are you serious!?”
Why? Because we are a people of intense hope. We know we are sinners. We know our lives are not being lived to their greatest degree. We know that we are not the best version of ourselves which is EXACTLY why we love watching the same super hero movie plot over and over again.
And when Nick Fury’s device flashed Captain Marvel’s symbol amidst the red and blue backdrop, that hope was ignited again.
We are in what seems to be an infinity war within ourselves. Within the constant barrage of attacks to our spirit, God loves us regardless of our faults and strengthens our will to overtake the enemy. This earthly life is just the beginning of a redemptive story. In the end, the seeds we sow in virtue during this life will be reaped in then next.
The sequel of our current misery and tribulation is the grande finale in our story of salvation- heaven, where infinite peace reigns forever. Just as Thanos will eventually be defeated in the next Avengers movie, so too will our souls be redeemed when we enter into the beatific vision.
Get your tickets in advance.
