Since today is May 4, Star Wars day, I thought I’d share something I wrote after seeing episode 3 after it came out:

I saw Star Wars Ep. III last Saturday… After watching Revenge of the Sith you’re really feeling the sense of what is meant by “A New Hope” The movie was really intense and dark. It was an insightful look into good and evil, sin and even fallen human nature (with limits). I thought it was the most intelligent movie of the whole series [of crappy prequels].

[In one of the beginning scenes, Anakin has a dream in which Padme dies in childbirth. Eventually, fear gets the better of him and leads him into bargaining with Darth Sidious/Palpatine who claims that he has the power to prevent this vision from becoming reality.] Fear leads to the dark side. Yoda was right… “ Fear is the chief activator of our faults,” I heard a priest say once. Anakin is so gripped by the fear of loss and suffering that his fears are realized by his own doing! Instead of trusting and confiding in the Jedi council for help, he trusted in the deceitful promises of Palpatine. Sounds a lot like Adam giving in to the false promises of the serpent.

When Anakin gives in to the temptation of joining the dark side, a ripple effect of destruction ensues wiping out all but 2 Jedi––and the Sith get a foothold. Mortal sin [ravages] the entire Mystical Body [leaving nothing but destruction and sadness in its wake].

Palpatine refers to the Jedi way as “narrow and dogmatic” and believes that there is a broader view of the force. That kind of spoke to me of the heterodox mentality. “Liberal Catholicism” [which holds the view that truth can be open to interpretation, fluid, relative] is a path to the dark side. Contrast this with Kenobi’s line that only the Sith deals in absolutes which is itself ironically an absolute statement––George Lucas seems to be confused as to which side of the Force deals in objective truth and which side deals in relativism.

[in the final moments,] as Anakin and Obi-wan battle in the lava pit, in a last attempt to bring [the former] back, Obi-wan warns,”the sith are evil!” Anakin responds, “to me, the Jedi are evil!” Obi-wan: “then you are lost!” [And indeed, Anakin proceeds to lose his humanity and completely transforms into Darth Vader.]

Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness

–Is 5:20

Here are some lessons [that I took away from the film]: never take too much stock in dreams; “be not afraid! just believe,” [because fear and mistrust are the beginnings of a catastrophic fall;] satan is always about death, never life; don’t try to reason with the deceiver; sin disfigures.