ALERT: Major spoilers ahead!
I’m not ashamed to admit that I was super excited to go see The Force Awakens. Finally, the Tuesday
before Christmas my whole family got our schedules coordinated enough to head
off to the theaters after dinner.
But I’m not going to lie, as excited as I was to see the
most recent installment of the franchise, I was also a bit nervous when it became
clear from the previews that one of the central figures would be a woman. Why
did this make me nervous? Well, let’s just say that I’ve disagreed with some of
the more radical feminist undercurrents that seem to have become a staple in
Disney’s movies over the past several years; so much so that I even wrote a
blog post about it a year ago (which you can check out
here). However,
someone at Disney clearly read my blog post (haha, at least I’d like to think so!)
because I’m pleased to report that I was pleasantly surprised by the plot and
character development exhibited in the most recent episode of the Star Wars
saga.
Was it absolutely perfect? No. But ultimately I think the
plot and the characters of The Force
Awakens dramatize the struggles facing both men and women in the current
culture. Most importantly, the plot highlights how the struggles men face are
different from the ones that women face, and how the weaving together of these
struggles creates a galaxy with a cultural crisis much like our own (even if
that galaxy is one that is far far away). But the thing I found most refreshing
about The Force Awakens was that it
doesn’t just dramatize the masculine and feminine crises of our culture; it
also has given us two new characters (Rey and Finn) that, in my opinion, are
struggling against these crises and I think have a reasonable chance of
succeeding (that is, if the writers don’t decide to mess this up). It is Rey
and Finn’s story, captured and dramatized in this new movie, that I believe is
worth watching in order to gain a deeper insight into our own human experience.
The Masculine Crisis
There are several major male characters in The Force Awakens, but I couldn’t help
but notice that there was a common thread uniting them, diverse as they were.
It occurred to me that Luke, Han, Kylo Ren, and Finn were similar in that they
all were running away from something. The astonishing thing to me was that they
all seemed to be running away for the same reason: fear, and this fear was a
fear of failure. Luke and Han run away after Ben Solo turns to the Dark Side, a
perceived failure on their part as his teacher and father; Kylo Ren (Ben Solo)
runs away from the Light Side out of the fear that he will fail to be powerful
without the power of the Dark Side; and Finn is tempted to run away from Han,
Rey and the Resistance on Takodana because he fears that the Resistance is sure
to fail.
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| Expulsion of Adam and Eve by Aureliano Milani |
I think it is no coincidence that these major male
characters are similar in their running away and their fear of failure. In
fact, I believe this is one of the central struggles that all men face as a
result of original sin. If one turns to the account of the Fall in Genesis,
Adam’s silence is deafening. He must have been close by in the garden if Eve
gave him the fruit, but he fails to intervene and protect her from the wiles of
the serpent. Dr. Larry Crabb expounds on this idea in his book
The Silence of Adam in which he examines
the question of why men fail to act. His answer lies in the claim that most men
draw their sense of worth and identity from their competence. Thus, when life
presents situations that test this competence or reveal men’s inability to
“handle the situation” they feel like failures.
Katrina Zeno in her book Discovering
the Feminine Genius points out that Genesis reveals what happens when men
feel this sense of failure: they either (A) “become paralyzed by fear and
retreat into passivity” or (B) “try to dominate the situation.” In Genesis,
Adam does both of these things, first by running away and trying to hide from
God and then by his domination of Eve (“he shall rule over you”).
This biblical truth is clearly dramatized on the big screen
in The Force Awakens. Luke, Han, and
Finn retreat into passivity while Kylo Ren goes further and doesn’t just seek
to retreat but also tries to dominate others, specifically the woman Rey. All
of these men are afraid that their competency has failed and out of fear their
first instinct is retreat. If this fear continues to grow it leads to the desire
to dominate others, just like Kylo Ren is doing.
But it is important to note that this clear lack of
masculinity doesn’t always appear as such on the outside. We live in an age
where the Evil One whispers in the ears of men that the truly “masculine” thing
to do is to avoid situations where failure is an option. This is essentially
the “I don’t play games I can’t win” attitude. While it might come off as an
aloof and stoic macho toughness because it avoids all chance of vulnerability
or failure, in reality it is the exact opposite and is marked by cowardice. This
is where we find the characters of Luke, Han, and Finn towards the beginning of
the movie.
On the flip side of this cowardice is the lie the Evil One feeds
men that “real men” are marked by the sheer power that they have over others,
specifically women. This is essentially the idea that the more money you have,
men you have beaten up, and women you have slept with, the more you are a man.
While this may appear to be the pinnacle and maturation of masculinity it is actually
its exact opposite, and is the embodiment of immaturity. “Men” who seek to
dominate others in this way may seem big and scary, but if you remove the mask
(a-la Kylo Ren) what you will find is the immature face of a little boy. I must say that
the casting of Adam Driver as Kylo Ren, while criticized by some, brilliantly
emphasizes this point. It is the fear that his power is insufficient that
eventually leads him to the Dark Side, just like it did with his grandfather
Anakin Skywalker.
Hmmm…I think a wise little green creature may have been onto
something when he warned that fear leads to the Dark Side.
The Feminine Crisis
But fear is not something reserved only for the men in The Force Awakens. We also see Rey
struggle with fears of her own, but these fears are different from the ones
haunting her male counterparts. Unlike the men who fear a failure in their
competency, Rey fears her own identity which likewise tempts her to run away.
As Finn is being tempted to run away from the Resistance on Takodana, Rey is
simultaneously running into the forest after having a flashback forcing her to
face her identity and the fact that the Force is calling to her. She knows in
her heart that she is someone important and special, but is not willing to
accept this yet because of another fear holding her back: the fear that she is not enough and that she is unlovable and forgotten.
As of yet we know very little about Rey’s backstory but what
we do know is not very cheery. She was left alone on Jakku as a young girl and
believes that she must wait for someone to return to claim her. But Rey is
having to face the reality that no one will likely ever return. With these
circumstances it is easy to see how she might feel forgotten and unlovable, so it
would make sense that she would not feel worthy of human affection or any sort
or a supernatural call (one could even use the language of “vocation” here).
Like I said, at the heart of this fear of being unlovable and forgotten is the fear that she is not enough. Turning back to Genesis we see the same fear take hold of Eve's mind. Eve begins to doubt that her identity as a daughter of God (who she is) is not enough; so she takes the fruit hoping that it will make her more like God and less like the person she is currently. Eve's desire for autonomy which leads her to grasp at the fruit is an inclination we see paralleled in the character Rey.
Rey must have parents, specifically a father, but he
has failed to act in her life by abandoning her. In the absence of someone to
look after Rey and defend her (namely her parents) she has been forced to take
on a hardened independence and a degree of autonomy. It is this autonomy, like Eve's desire for autonomy, that marks the separation of woman from man and from God. In the words of Katrina Zeno, “when men fail to
act, women develop an independency that excludes a real communion of persons.
The result is isolation.” This could not be more accurate in describing Rey’s
life. She has experienced isolation for so long that encountering another
person (like Finn) or her identity and past (linked to her parents) is going to
be a difficult experience for her: one that she might initially brush off but
can’t outrun (you can’t flee your identity after all).
A Story for Our Day
In The Force Awakens
we have a universe of men that have retreated into passivity or dominance and
women who have hardened their hearts in an effort to avoid confronting their
fear of being unlovable and forgotten. Hmmm…sound familiar? I don’t know about
you, but I think this is the exact cultural phenomenon that men and women from
our galaxy face on a daily basis. I can’t speak for the men out there, but I
know that Rey’s fears of being unlovable and forgotten, tied up in an inability
to recognize the dignity and worth of her identity and resulting in the
temptation to grasp at “independence” and autonomy is something I struggle with almost
daily. And interacting with women through Women’s Ministry I can testify that
I’m not the only woman out there with this struggle.
So the internal conflicts in The Force Awakens are human ones that we can relate to, but the
thing that excites me is that the plot and character development thus far in
the new installments give the audience characters struggling with, but also
struggling against, the persistent
cultural crisis they find themselves in.
Fr. Francis Martin, a theologian, says that a saint is
someone in whom God works out the problem of the age. The problems in our own
age are the same as in The Force Awakens.
In the characters Finn and Rey, we witness two people, a man and a woman,
working through the struggles, fears, and insecurities of the men and women of
their world and our own. They may not be perfect at it (in fact, they both have
a long way to go) but in the words of St. Josemaria Escriva “A saint is a
sinner who keeps trying.” Finn and Rey are our heroes not because they emerged
from the battle unscathed but because they continue to fight despite the
injuries they have already sustained.
Finn: Demonstrating the Masculine Mission
By far my favorite character to come out of the most recent
film is Finn. He is a character of heroic virtue, despite the fact that he’s
far from perfect. In fact, that’s why I like him: we get to see his character
grow and mature so much, even within the span of this one film. Is he there
yet? No, but I see great things in the future for Finn and the role he will
play in this story.
Jason Evert in his book Theology
of His Body/Theology of Her Body says that the mission of every man is to
protect, serve, and sacrifice. The model for this masculine mission is
obviously Jesus Christ whose passion and death counteracted Adam’s failure to protect,
serve, and sacrifice for Eve. Jason Evert says that this masculine mission is
specifically lived out when men “use [their] strength to cherish women and
protect life.”
At the beginning of the movie we see Finn as a Stormtrooper
attacking a village. But when ordered to slaughter the innocent townspeople
(including women and children) he is the only Stormtrooper who does not pull
the trigger on his blaster. Is he protecting, serving, and sacrificing in this
scene? No, but this is his first step in the right direction. Shortly after,
Finn releases Poe Dameron from captivity but by his own admission he does this
because he needs a pilot, not because it’s the right thing to do.
The first time we see Finn actually put his own interests
aside to protect another doesn’t come until a few movie minutes later. What prompts
him to step outside of himself for the first time? The answer is a distressed
cry from a woman (Rey). She is being attacked and he runs to help her. Is he
very effective at this? Well, maybe not. She’s an “independent woman” after all
and is pretty capable of fending off the attack on her own (at least initially).
Several times Finn takes her hand in this “escape-from-danger” scene and this
is something that Rey does not take too well to, to say the least.
But my opinion is, can we really blame her? Based on the
circumstances of Rey’s life it would be highly unlikely that she would
willingly accept help from a male stranger as this would be an admission of
weakness and the potential for danger. But Finn continues to offer his help and
when he comes-to after getting knocked over his first question is whether or not Rey is OK. I’m aware that
some are a bit
more critical of this scene and the role of the male characters in general, but I give Finn a solid “A” for effort in his
first attempt at chivalry, even if the execution is a bit flawed, which
admittedly is largely because of Rey’s own reaction to the situation. For now,
simply note that the conflict between Finn and Rey in this scene is the direct
result of the masculine and feminine crises of their culture (a culture of
masculine passivity and a hardened “independent” femininity).
Finn is able to finally embrace the masculine mission to
protect, serve, and sacrifice only on Takodana when he understands that Rey is
in great danger. Maz Kanata tells Finn that Rey and BB-8 need him and the
audience sees the understanding dawn on Finn’s face as he takes up the only
weapon available to him, even if it’s an unfamiliar lightsaber, to try to
defend her. He is unable to get to Rey in time and sees her being carried off
by Kylo Ren into his ship. Remember, before this scene Finn was about to run
away from the entire Resistance movement. But he changes his mind after
witnessing Rey’s capture and insists on helping with the attempt to rescue her
despite the danger to himself. For a character that was initially caught up in
the interests of the First Order and then in his own self-interest, Finn demonstrates
a tremendous amount of virtue in his selflessness regarding Rey. Such
selflessness is even more laudable when one considers that even Han Solo was
not so quick to embrace this masculine mission (recall that in A New Hope, Han only rescues Leia when
he finds out that there would be a large monetary reward for doing so).
Finn selflessly puts his own fear and interests aside to protect,
serve, and sacrifice for Rey. Critique
him all you want but that is the
embodiment of the masculine mission right there. Bravo, Finn.
Rey: Revealing the Feminine Genius
But don’t think I’ve forgotten about our heroine Rey. Where
would our story be without her? After all, the entire plot is able to happen
because of one characteristically feminine choice that she makes: rescuing BB-8.
She hears the cry of BB-8, rescues him, takes care of him, and refuses to let
him be sold and become an object of use. I recognize that BB-8 is a droid and
is not a human person, but in the Star Wars universe droids like BB-8 and R2-D2
are personified and treated like people, so I’m going to consider them as such.
Now, I have always considered droids like BB-8 and R2-D2 to
have certain “childlike” qualities in their innocence, humor, devotion and
all-around “cuteness.” So Rey’s choice to rescue BB-8 and care for him is a distinctly
feminine and maternal characteristic in
my mind. Furthermore, when Rey later hears the cry of a distressed child at the
cantina on Takodana she seeks out the source of the cries, drawn to them like any
mother is drawn to the sound of a crying child.
While Rey may not be a mother herself and has no experience
of her own mother that she can recall, what these two instances reveal is that she
still possesses a maternal instinct despite her otherwise hardened and “independent”
persona. This is because the tendency to care for and nurture a helpless
creature is natural for women. Motherhood,
even of a spiritual kind, is part of who every woman is. To be a woman is to,
in some sense, be a mother. At the heart of this maternal nature is a woman’s
natural and intuitive orientation towards persons.
This is the “feminine genius” that St. John Paul II speaks about that every
woman possesses by the very nature of her being a woman. A woman truly living
out this feminine genius has the ability to “see” the reality of who a person
is beneath the external qualities of their success, actions, or possessions.
To demonstrate further this unique ability of woman to “see
the person” we are presented with the character of Maz Kanata. She is
physically characterized with large lenses over her eyes, demonstrating her wisdom
and innate ability to read the inner motivations and thoughts of other
characters. While she is no Jedi herself, we know that she shares a powerful
connection with the Force which is the source of this ability within her.
Likewise, Rey will later be able to read the inner thoughts and fears of Kylo Ren
when she is beginning to tap into the Force for herself.
But the ability of woman to see into and be more oriented
towards the “other” has another consequence. The pain of others becomes a pain
that the woman experiences herself, and this pain is often manifested in the
form of tears. Hardened as Rey is, we still see her cry at multiple points in
the movie, an act that is not often seen from other movie heroines. But
contrary to what one might think, shedding tears does not diminish a woman’s
strength. Paradoxical as it may sound, Gertrude von le Fort in her novel The Song at the Scaffold claims that “to
tremble is to be strong.”
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| Pietà (detail) by Niccolò Frangipane (1593) |
It is true that a woman shedding tears can be shedding tears
of silliness and vanity, but to acknowledge this fact is not the same as believing
that the tears of every woman are therefore silly and vain. As Alice von
Hildebrand says in her book
The Privilege
of Being a Woman, “Tears can be expressions of what is best and noblest in
man.” A woman who cries in the face of immense tragedy, injustice, or cruelty
is not a weak woman. Furthermore, she is not a weak woman
precisely because she is crying,
for she has seen the suffering before her and has chosen to make it her own. In
doing this, she gives the proper response to the tragedy at hand. As von
Hildebrand wisely points out, “We live in a world in which tears are called for
daily.”
When Finn is lying on the ground injured and unconscious,
Rey weeps over his body. In doing so she is responding properly to the
situation at hand (“Blessed are those that mourn”). But even more importantly,
this is a moment in which Rey is imitating the actions of another sorrowful
woman: The Blessed Virgin Mary. There is a reason why Mary is called the Mater Dolorosa, or Sorrowful Mother.
Like Rey crying over the body of Finn, Mary likewise cried over the body of her
Son as he was taken down from the cross.
In her spiritual motherhood and feminine sensitivity to
persons manifesting itself in tears, Rey reveals the feminine genius that we
see embodied most perfectly in Mary. But the parallels between Rey and Our Lady
do not end there.
Salvation Will Be Born of a Woman
Based on the plot of The
Force Awakens one could reasonably make the prediction that Rey is going to
become the central character in the next several films (the parallels between
her and Luke were not coincidental, I’m sure). Now, the choice to create a
female protagonist in a film series whose target audience includes both men and
women is a bit of a gutsy move, and one could argue it is a move motivated by a
feminist ideology bent on tearing down men in an effort to extol women. And normally, I might agree with that
position. But I think, if the plot of the future movies is handled correctly,
there can be some serious truth about the heroic role that women play that can
come out of it, and not just the rhetoric of a confused ideology.
I’d like to begin my defense of Rey’s central role in the
plot with a quote from Gertrude von le Fort’s book The Eternal Woman (and if you’ve never read this book, you should
seriously check it out). Von le Fort says that woman, specifically the virginal
woman, “always comes to the rescue when there is a need.” This is precisely
what Rey does in rescuing BB-8 and it is this action that draws her into the
larger plot of the movie, a plot that will require her to come to the rescue
again and again.
Now, some might argue that von le Fort’s claim that women
will “come to the rescue” when there is a need may sound like a position that eliminates
any role for men. But consider what else von le Fort says on the matter before
you discredit her entirely: “The highest vocation of woman is always by way of
a last expedient, and we grasp the astonishing significance of a St. Catherine
[of Siena] or a St. Joan [of Arc] only when we know who had already failed on
the missions that later became theirs.” There is precedent within the realm of
Catholic orthodoxy for von le Fort’s claim that woman will always come to the
rescue when there is a need, but notice this is only as a last resort
because those (men) that came before them had already failed on these missions.
As von le Fort says, “The need of woman coming to the rescue
indicates that…there is some lack of man power.” I think it has already been
sufficiently demonstrated that this galaxy far far away is one with a serious
lack of the necessary “man-power.” Perhaps this lack is most significant in the
characters Luke and Kylo Ren who both possess the powers of a Jedi. Both of these
men have succumbed to fear and failed in their masculine mission, one by
fleeing and one by seeking to dominate. With the betrayal of Kylo Ren to the
Dark Side and the flight of Luke to isolation, there are no Jedi left to
maintain balance in the Force. According to von le Fort this is precisely when
woman is called to the rescue because historically “when the male line fails,
the daughter becomes the heir.”
No surprise here, but in our story that “daughter” is Rey.
But what exactly does it mean for woman to come to the
rescue and become the heir? Von le Fort answers that, “For woman coming to the
rescue means, in the strictest sense, that her action is not activity in
itself, but surrender, which is but another form of the womanly ‘Be it done
unto me.’”
Stop. Read that last sentence again and let it sink in,
because this is the key to von le Fort’s entire argument.
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| The Annunciation (detail) by Fra Angelico (1433-34) |
Von le Fort’s reference here to the Annunciation is no
accident. After all, the world was in serious need of rescue after the Fall and
mankind was doing a pretty poor job of trying to change that. So what did God
do when the line of mankind failed? The heir became a daughter of Israel. Yep,
you guessed it: Mary. Mary’s virginal surrender to God in her
fiat is the very act of heroism that
makes the defeat of “The Dark Side” possible because “the Light shines in the
darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (Jn 1:5).
And who is it that Mary surrenders to? God. He is all things
spiritual, immaterial, and life-giving. In the Star Wars universe one can
describe the Force that way. Like Mary, Rey must learn to surrender herself to
the Force, to “let it in” as was said in the movie trailer. This surrender
means embracing her identity as having its roots in the Force, just as Mary’s
identity was rooted in her identity as a daughter of God the Father.
When Mary surrendered to God, all of creation was saved.
Salvation entered the world through a
woman’s act of surrender to God. This is the heroic moment of woman and it
is such an integral part of the world’s salvation that Mary is given the title
of Co-Redemptrix. Mary, a woman, participates in the salvific act of the man
Jesus.
We have been given a plot in The Force Awakens where the universe needs saving and that
salvation appears to be coming through the woman Rey, just as salvation came to
this world through the Virgin Mary (“When the fullness of time arrived, God
sent His Son, formed from a woman…so that He might redeem those who were under
the law” Gal. 4:4-5). But the role Mary plays in the salvation of the world is
significant precisely because it is different from the role that Christ plays. What
this tells us is that the heroism of Mary, as the perfect model of womanhood,
is different from the heroism of Jesus who is the perfect model of manhood. If
the salvific role of Rey is to continue to be a truly feminine image, it must
model Mary’s salvific role; but this salvific role is not one of “Redeemer” but
is one of “Co-Redemptrix.”
A Hidden Heroine
Now in order to justify this seemingly “lesser” role of
woman as “Co-Redemptrix” rather than “Redeemer,” I’m going to need to backtrack
a little…but stay with me. This is a position that is crucial to understand and
yet is so often misunderstood that I’m not going to cut any corners in trying
to explain it.
Rey clearly possesses a supernatural call from the Force
which, despite her hardened external persona, she still demonstrates a natural
intuition for. It is this natural intuition for the spiritual that is a
distinctly feminine quality which (thank goodness!) the screenwriters decided
to include in her character. Untrained as she is, Rey has a very strong natural
connection with the Force. Case in point, she demonstrates a greater command of
the Force than Kylo Ren in her confrontation with him despite the fact that he
has much more experience than her. Likewise, Maz Kanata also exhibits a strong
natural intuition for the Force. It is no secret in our own galaxy that women
are naturally more in-tune with the spiritual life even without much formal
instruction. This is why there are usually more women at church than men.
Now don’t misunderstand me: I’m not saying that women are
spiritually superior to men. But I am saying that it is more in women’s nature
than men’s nature to be receptive to the unseen and immaterial (and therefore spiritual) forces in the universe. This
does not mean that women can then “sit back and relax” in the spiritual life
though, because “to whom more is given, more is expected” (Luke 12:48). But I
digress.
One of the central points of von le Fort in The Eternal Woman is that women are
naturally more spiritual because they are, by their very nature, characterized
by what cannot be seen and is hidden from view (i.e. the immaterial or the
spiritual). They are characterized by the hidden because their primary sexual
organs (whose presence makes them a woman) are hidden or “veiled” inside of
their bodies, unlike the primary sexual organs of a man.
In Star Wars, the hidden, immaterial and spiritual part of
reality is the Force. Some may critique The
Force Awakens for giving Rey a stronger natural connection to the Force
than her male counterparts because they see this as just another way that
Hollywood has tried to build women up by tearing men down. And that might have
been Hollywood’s intention, but this is the one instance where I actually think
the result may have turned out for the better because Rey’s natural affinity
for the Force reveals a fundamental difference between men and women while
characterizing the unique “genius” of woman.
But before you go around proclaiming that “girls rule and
boys drool” because of women’s innate spirituality, take a moment to really
understand the nature of this feminine genius and its connection with the hidden
act of surrender. The genius of woman, and her most profound gift, is her
natural predisposition for the spiritual. Woman is therefore uniquely
characterized by her spirituality in a way that man is not. This is the
“privilege” that Alice von Hildebrand (a reader of Gertrude von le Fort) is
thinking of when she writes The Privilege
of Being a Woman. But remember that what is “spiritual” is also what is
“immaterial” and is therefore what is “hidden” or “mysterious.” Therefore, woman
is more naturally spiritual precisely because she is more naturally hidden.
And when we say “natural” here, we mean natural in the sense of “this is how
God created woman to be before the Fall.”
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The Coronation of the Virgin (detail)
by Francesco di Giorgio Martini (1472-73)
|
This natural “hiddenness” is what leads von le Fort to say
that the symbol of woman is the “veil” because “the veil is the symbol of the
metaphysical.” She points out that the veil has never represented woman’s
diminishment, despite what many people began to believe in the 20
th
century. Rather, the veil has always been a symbol of woman’s profound
exultation.
Woman, wherever she appears most truly exalted, always appears in a hidden and
humble manner “under a veil” even if that veil is a figurative one.
It’s no surprise then that the most exalted woman in all of
time (the “Eternal Woman” that von le Fort speaks of) is the Virgin Mary. Furthermore,
the moment of Mary’s greatest exaltation, the moment that merited her title of
“Queen of Heaven and Earth” is the precise moment of her surrender to God in
the Annunciation, a surrender allowing herself to be “overshadowed” by His Holy
Spirit. Her veil then becomes a Veil of Flame and the Crown of her Glory. In
case you didn’t catch that, Mary’s veil is literally the Holy Spirit.
Remember that von le Fort said that “For woman coming to the
rescue means, in the strictest sense, that her action is not activity in
itself, but surrender, which is but another form of the womanly ‘Be it done
unto me.’” Why is this important? Because the moment of Mary’s exaltation when
she heroically “comes to the rescue” is also the moment that she is
“overshadowed” and “veiled” by the Supernatural. In other words,
when
Mary is most heroic she is also most hidden. When she is most exalted
she is also most veiled. This truth has profound implications for what women are
called to do when they are called to “rescue the world.”
Gertrude von le Fort gives a bit of clarity in the very next
line: “From this it follows that the activity of woman withdraws of its own
accord, when the need for it no longer exists. In this circumstance woman’s
objective achievement finds its extraordinary, its largely thankless, therefore
deeply veiled, recognition; but it finds there also its limitations. This is to
say that the significance of woman in historical and cultural life cannot
basically be dependent on her objective cooperation; it is much more profound
than this.”
Translation: The heroism of woman has limitations and the
beauty of these limitations is that they ought to be applied by the woman
herself of her own accord. Therefore, woman has a more profound significance in
historical and cultural life than may be objectively or visibly apparent because she withdraws of her own accord.
The heroism of woman is her act of hidden surrender. Therefore, if
woman’s act ceases to be one of hidden surrender it ceases to be heroic. As von le Fort says, “At the moment when the
stronger power no longer desires to surrender but seeks self-glorification, a
catastrophe is bound to ensue.” What does this mean for the character Rey? I’m
not sure what the screenwriters have in mind, but if they cared about portraying
the true feminine genius, they would be attentive to a character who represents
the other half of humanity: Finn.
Symbiotic Salvation
Why should Rey not be the sole savior of her galaxy? Why
must Finn somehow be involved? I think the answer lies in understanding why
Mary is unable to be the sole savior in our galaxy. As Gertrude von le Fort
says, “The salvation that woman brings ranges far beyond her; its proper
fulfillment, its success upon earth, is man’s appointed mission.” It is true to
say that Mary brings salvation, but to stop there is to leave out the best
part: the life, death, and Resurrection of the man Jesus.
It is Christ who is the world’s Redeemer, but it is through
Mary that Christ enters the world. Mary is the “gate” between Heaven and earth.
It is in her womb that the spiritual and the material worlds meet. Mary’s
heroic act of surrender allows the material world to encounter the spiritual
world. Through her surrender, we are able to encounter the supernatural force
that is God-Made-Man (Jesus). As von le
Fort says, “Woman has, in the utmost sense of the word, been the bearer of
salvation. This does not apply to the sphere of religion alone—but because it
is true in this sphere, it is valid in general.”
Like Mary, a woman acting heroically is not the savoir
herself but is the one who brings salvation forth by helping men to fulfill
their appointed mission of protection, service, and sacrifice. It is the
difference between being the Co-Redemptrix and being the Redeemer. I mentioned
St. Catherine of Siena and St. Joan of Arc earlier. Recall their missions:
helping men (the pope in St. Catherine’s case and the king in St. Joan’s) to
fulfill the mission God had called them to. Here, woman is man’s “helper” just
as Eve is Adam’s helper in Genesis.
But to call woman a helper is not to imply that she is less
than the man. Remember that when a woman is most veiled, she is also most
exalted. Dr. Deborah Savage points out in her article “The Nature of Woman in
Relation to Man” that the Hebrew word translated as “helper” in Genesis doesn’t
mean “servant” or “slave” but rather “divine aid.” Eve is Adam’s partner and
equal given to him by God, and as such she can help him to live and to become.
In the words of Katrina Zeno, “The woman helps the man discover his own
humanity, his own capacity for relational self-giving.” How awesome!
It’s clear that Rey has already been an important part of
helping Finn discover “his own capacity for relational self-giving.” In doing
so, Rey has helped Finn gain competency in this area, a crucial aspect of his
coming to understand his own worth and masculine mission. I would love to see,
in future movies, a plot in which Rey helps Finn grow even more in his “spiritual
competency” (cough, cough…the Force) and that he learns to use this competency
to better protect, serve and sacrifice for others (perhaps even as a Jedi himself).
I would also love to see Rey (or perhaps Leia) help Kylo Ren come to this same competency,
facilitating his return to the Light Side of the Force. And based on the ending
of The Force Awakens I think there’s
already a good indication that Rey will convince Luke to return to his
masculine mission.
This more “hidden” role that I hope Rey will eventually take
to allow Finn and the other male characters to fully step into their masculine
mission is a humble one, I’ll admit. And some people, perhaps even devout
Christians, might really criticize me for saying that such an apparently
“lesser” role is representative of woman’s nature. But I would urge such people
to look again at the idea that is at the heart of Christianity, an idea that is
radically counter-cultural and is seemingly preposterous. This central idea is
one that maintains that “power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor 12:9), that
“the last shall be first” (Mt 20:16), and that “the meek…shall inherit the
earth” (Mt 5:5). At the very center of Christianity is the virtue of humility
and the act of surrender yet Christianity maintains that these moments of
weakness and apparent failure are really moments of triumph and exaltation (again,
the moment woman is most veiled is also the moment she is most exalted).
Scripture gives us two images of this humble surrender, one
feminine and one masculine. The first, as we’ve already discussed, is the image
of feminine surrender: a humble woman
veiled by the Holy Spirit. The second
image is the masculine one: a humble Man hanging
naked on a cross. Both man and
woman are called to humble surrender. Both are called to give totally of their
selves. Both are called to make heroic acts of love. And these acts of
surrender to heroic, self-giving love are moments of triumph and exaltation for
both Jesus and Mary, despite their apparent weakness and failure. Yet the
simultaneous weakness and triumph of these acts is distinct for men and women.
While the veil is drawn over the woman the veil is torn away from the Man (quite literally, not only in Jesus' nakedness but also in the tearing of the temple veil).
 |
| Crucifix by Benvenuto Cellini (1562) |
It is this distinction that makes the humble and yet
triumphant and heroic acts of man and woman complementary, just as the sexual acts of man and woman are complementary. Both the heroic and the sexual acts of man and woman are acts of
surrender but the masculine acts are acts of initiation and the feminine acts are acts of
reception. The point is that salvation (a new life) needs both. In order for us
to be saved Christ “needs” us to be receptive to His gift of self but the
Church also needs Him to give Himself to us. Christ and the Church, man and
woman, are complementary in their salvific roles, and this is a “great mystery”
(Eph 5:32). If one diminishes the salvific role of man, one diminishes the
salvific role of Christ. Likewise, if one diminishes the salvific role of woman
one diminishes the salvific role of the Church. To emphasize one sex over the
other, regardless of whether it is the masculine or the feminine sex, is to
quite literally eliminate the possibility for salvation of any sort.
So where does this leave us with The Force Awakens? I don’t have any more insight into the minds of
the writers than anybody else when it comes to the plot for future movies. In The Force Awakens the writers have given
us two main characters who have the potential to work together to bring
salvation to their galaxy. This is encouraging, and I applaud Hollywood for the
effort. That being said, there is still plenty of opportunity to derail this
complementarity and make the newest installments all about Rey, to the
detriment of Finn and quite honestly, everyone else. While Hollywood could
literally put any collection of rubbish together, call it a plot and still make
tons of money (ahem, Episodes I—III), if they are looking to present something true
in these movies (as all great art should) then they will not waste the perfect
set-up they have written for themselves in The
Force Awakens.
Perhaps one of my favorite scenes from the movie is the one
in which Rey and Finn are flying around in the Millennium Falcon as they are
chased by TIE fighters. This is a great example of a man and a woman working
together in an interdependent manner. Neither is dominating the other and I
think it’s safe to say that they would not have survived this situation without
their mutual cooperation. This is the type of scene we need to see more of in
movies: a scene characterized by the interdependent cooperation between
men and women.
Please Hollywood, I beg of you, give us more of this. It’s
OK if the characters are broken and struggling with the wounds that
characterize the men and women of their day (and ours). But show us models of masculinity
and femininity fighting on, side by side, despite these wounds. Show us men and
women helping and sacrificing for each other. Show us men and women working
together to save their galaxy.
Because who knows, maybe, just maybe,
if enough people saw it, that galaxy wouldn't be that far far away after all...
**********************************
Alyssa is a Junior at Franciscan studying Humanities and Catholic Culture, Theology, and Philosophy. She is a native of Texas where she lives with her family in a blue-roofed house on top of a hill. She is passionate about the Truth of the Lord's Incarnation and loves spending time discovering and discussing ways in which others have incarnated the Gospel in film, history, literature, politics, and art. Her favorite saints are St. Teresa of Avila and St. Catherine of Siena because they both personify St. John Paul II's "feminine genius" in her mind.
Ashley Ackerman
