Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz and this is Ascension Presents
So I've been kind of really battling with the idea of doing a video about the movie Wonder Woman for a long time
which is kind of obvious by now because the movie has been out a while now
and so if I've been I've been struggling that entire time
interiorly battling with myself: Should I do it? Should I not?
and here I am, either winning or losing
but here's the result of the battle: I want to make a video about this movie because I thought it was great
Now, quick, keep in mind, this is not a movie review. What do I know about reviewing movies?
This is more of like a, What did I notice? What did I think was, like, "Wow. that was great"?
Disclaimer: There are some, I would say, problematic moments in the movie
that would not allow me to kind of carte blanche say, "This is awesome,
this is fantastic, bring all of your children to this."
Here is what I LOVED about the movie, the movie the Wonder Woman.
The Wonder Woman movie. Wonder Woman is the hardest character to get right.
Batman, Superman, the easiest characters to get right, and DC totally got them wrong
Wonder Woman, the hardest character to get right, DC nailed it.
Here's what they did. They did it by doing this: They lived up to the hero archetype without falling
into the heroine stereotype, like she's got some chip on her shoulder,
so she needs to prove something, that she's out for, you know, to kind of prove,
make her way in a man's world kind of a thing and so, she's the only one who knows what's going on,
she's the only one who's competent in a world where all of the guys have no clue
and are not competent and she just has to come in and kind of show them the way and save the day
and the whole time with this kind of chip on the shoulder.
Now the hero archetype is totally different
The hero, just living in their life. Harry's doing his thing. Frodo is doing his thing.
Ray! Think about the movie The Force Awakens, sees a problem and he's like,
"Well, someone has to do something" and does something.
Wonder Woman is the exact same thing - there's these incredible scenes -
where she's saying, "Wait, there's a problem out there?"
There's Ares, you know, the God of War who's, doing, having all this destruction. Someone has to do something.
There's this great scene where they're walking through the trenches in World War I
and all the the men around her are soldiers: they're brave men, they're competent men, they're strong men,
but they're defeated, right? They've been beaten down. They realize you can't gain an inch here.
You know, these people have been in this trench for so long, they haven't gained one inch in that time,
but Diana, Wonder Woman, says, "We have to do something," and so she's like,
"Okay, there's a need. The people who are hurting, I'm gonna rise up, I'm gonna do what I can do."
Now here's the crazy thing about this moment when she, like, charges across the field of battle
is she doesn't go in to the field of battle and everyone just watches her and goes, "Oh hey, go Wonder Woman!"
They all say, "Wait, she's going. She's drawing fire. Let's go now.
If she's doing what she can do, now we can do what we can do."
This is what the hero does ALWAYS.
Now this has a very, very key application to the Christian life, why?
Because when we walk through the Christian life, sometimes there are mad Christians,
angry Christians with a chip on their shoulder, right,
with that kind of sense of like, "Someone needs to do something.
I'm gonna do it because I need to prove myself, because no one else is competent around here."
and they lower everyone else, but there's others who simply say,
"You know what, I'm just making my way in this world, trying to do my best and I see a problem.
Okay, I have the big question - do I have it in me to do something about this problem?"
and they say, "Yes, I'll do whatever I can do to help this issue."
"I'll do it I can do to help this person." "I'll do whatever I can do to fix this situation."
By doing that, we raise up everyone alongside of us.
Here's the question out of this movie comes, like okay, so I don't want to fall
into any kind of stereotype but we want to live up to the hero archetype.
Where are you in your life? What are the issues that are surrounding you?
Not the ones you have to go and find, but what about the people around you who are hurting,
who need someone to act? Can you look inside yourself and say what is it that I can -
that's the question - what is it that I can do here?
You might say, "Well, I can't do, I can't fix their situations." You're probably right.
You probably can't, but the question is "What CAN you do?"
That's the hero's question: "What can I do in this situation?"
It could be, what I can do is, you know what, there's someone hurting, I can say, "I'm sorry," because actually I caused that
Here is someone else - they are struggling, I can listen, because I can do that
because what that does is, it elicits the response of all the people around you.
They say, "If they're doing what they can do, then I can do what I can do."
And this is the great key - it starts with us recognizing a couple things:
One is a need. Then we recognize, here are the gifts God has given me.
So question: What are the gifts God has given you?
and I'm not talking about just the massive gifts, the charismatic gifts. Maybe you have a gift of healing
or a prophecy or of some kind of like ability, knowledge, some kind of incredible power
but you also might just have the ability, like the gift you have is
I'm in a relationship with this person, so actually, I can give them counsel.
I am friends with this person so, I'm actually, no one is better suited
than I am to share the good news of Jesus with that person
Not because I'm the best at it, but because I'm their best friend.
It doesn't have to be huge, you just have to be willing to do it.
Now the crazy thing is the moment we do this,
and when you do this, what do you become?
You're not a stereotype, you become a person who lives up to the hero archetype.
This is one of the great lessons, there were great kind of moments and great motives in Wonder Woman.
In fact, you don't even have to do this perfectly because
kind of, towards the - it's a long movie - so maybe three-quarters through,
at one point she gets incredibly discouraged, she thinks, "I failed." She thinks, "I've been living a lie,"
and she is tempted to give up and so for a moment, she gives up
but then she looks down off of this tower she's on
and she sees the men she had previously inspired and what are they doing?
They're continuing to run, they're continuing to work, they're continuing to move.
I thought that is so good, why? Because sometimes you're the one who leads and everyone else lifts up
and sometimes when you're tired, when you're discouraged, the people that you've led,
when they're still going, when they're continuing to run, when they're continuing to serve,
they're the ones who are lifting you up.
Because as Saint Paul said, there are many parts there's one Body.
when one part of the Body is strengthened, the whole Body becomes strong.
We talked about that before: When one part of the Body is weak, the whole Body becomes weak.
Where's the moment where you can say, "There's a need"?
"Okay, I'm gonna lift, raise up, and I'm gonna become that strong part of the Body to lift up the rest of the Body
so we can actually do something with the Body of Christ as the Body of Christ.
What is it that only YOU can do in the Body of Christ today?
Do that thing. Be a hero.
From all of us here at Ascension Presents,
my name is Father Mike.
God bless.