So I have been a little lax with the blogs…sorry guys. Today I think it is important to address a movie we just watched. Harry Potter 7.2. Great movie, I actually really like the Harry Potter series (mostly because of my wife) but I think it is a great work of fiction…much better than that Twilight stuff if you ask me… Anyway, the point of this blog is to show that Harry Potter should be left in the realm of fiction and not brought into our daily lives.
The Catholic Church has expressly forbidden and person to engage in magic. In Harry Potter, J.K Rowling portrays a good magic and a bad magic. It is with good magic that Harry and his friends conquer the forces or evil. But in reality, there is no difference between good and bad magic. It is all bad and leads the human soul into a very dark place. The Catechism of The Catholic Church speaks about magic in paragraph 2117: “All practices of magic or sorcery, by which one attempts to tame occult powers, so as to place them at one’s service… even if this was for the sake of restoring one’s health- are gravely contrary to the virtue of Religion.” (CCC 2117) This paragraph goes on to condemn the use of magic to hurt others as an even graver offense. If we remember back to a past blog of mine http://stltfamily.blogspot.com/2011/09/what-is-worst-sin-possible.html there are different types of sin, mortal or grave sins are the type that completely separates us from the love of God. In this paragraph the Catechism is referring to the use of magic as a GRAVE offense.
Furthermore, if any of you were in the Apostles class when I was talking about Angels and Demons, we touched on the reality of demonic possession and what causes it. All magic is of the devil and if we were to participate in the practice of magic even so called “White Magic” we are opening ourselves up to possible possession from a demon. If this is something that we have previously gotten into, we should run to the sacrament of Confession and confess it and then receive the Eucharist. It is in Christ that our defense against Satan is the greatest. Magic is extremely dangerous and should not be played with. Ignorance does not guard you. Unbelief in the devil and his power does not help, if anything it makes it worse. We should acknowledge the power of Satan but at the same time, understand that Christ is eternally more powerful than Him and is constantly protecting us as long as we strive to live in His Light "In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it." John 1:4-5
So where does that leave us with Harry Potter? It is a work of fiction and should be seen as that. But it does have a great redeeming quality to it. It is an epic battle between good and evil. No one can deny that this battle rages in our own time as well. As long as we concentrate on the battle if good and evil and see that Good will always prevail, we can learn something from Harry. In his sacrifice of himself, he represents everything that Christ Stands for, laying one’s life down for a friend. What greater love is there…
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