{"id":4110,"date":"2024-10-21T07:18:37","date_gmt":"2024-10-21T11:18:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=4110"},"modified":"2024-10-21T07:18:37","modified_gmt":"2024-10-21T11:18:37","slug":"defeating-evil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2024\/10\/21\/defeating-evil\/","title":{"rendered":"Defeating Evil"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0<\/em>click here<\/a>

As J.K. Rowling was putting the finishing touches on her seven-part Harry Potter series, she received a lot of advice.

Parents, teachers, psychologists, and fans of all ages around the globe made one heartfelt request:

Please don\u2019t let Harry die.\u00a0<\/em>

A number of key characters had already met their demise at the hands of the evil Voldemort and his associates on the pages of the first six books.\u00a0Even Harry\u2019s beloved owl had been struck down.

Surely it would be wise to spare the world\u2019s children, who adored the Harry Potter narrative, the shock of his death.

Spoiler alert: <\/strong>Harry dies.\u00a0

He sacrifices himself, taking Voldemort with him, to give life to all those who are bravely standing against Evil.\u00a0There\u2019s more to the finale than that (including a few genuine surprises), which you\u2019ll no doubt enjoy reading on your own.

Meanwhile, when the Wachowski siblings were wrapping up the third film in their Matrix <\/em>trilogy, fans wondered what would happen to Neo.

From the beginning Neo had been presented as the Chosen One, the savior who would defeat the forces of Evil threatening humanity.\u00a0How exactly would he pull it off?

Spoiler alert:\u00a0<\/strong>Neo dies.

Neo willingly surrenders his life \u2013 taking Agent Smith into his own body \u2013 then dying, as if on the cross, with his arms stretched out to the left and the right.

Devotees of The Matrix <\/em>rolled their eyes.\u00a0Can\u2019t we have a decent modern mythology that doesn\u2019t involve echoes of the Crucifixion?

Well, that depends.\u00a0

How else do you propose defeating Evil?

Psychologist and author M. Scott Peck writes:\u00a0\u201cI cannot be any more specific about the methodology of love than to quote these words of an old priest who spent many years in the battle:

\u201c\u2019There are dozens of ways to deal with evil and several ways to conquer it.\u00a0All of them are facets of the truth that the only ultimate way to conquer evil is to let it be smothered within a willing, living human being.\u00a0When it is absorbed there like blood in a sponge or a spear into one\u2019s heart, it loses its power and goes no further.\u2019

\u201cThe healing of evil \u2013 scientifically or otherwise \u2013 can be accomplished only by the love of individuals.\u00a0A willing sacrifice is required\u2026 I do not know how this occurs.\u00a0But I know that it does\u2026 Whenever this happens there is a slight shift in the balance of power in the world.\u201d

It\u2019s possible to write off Jesus\u2019 death on Calvary as a cruel lynching; religious extremism gone amuck; a miscalculation on Jesus\u2019 part; or a gallant example of love.

The Gospels see it rather differently.

It is nothing less than the only way God can defeat Evil.\u00a0God takes Evil into God\u2019s own self, and smothers it there.

Or to put it a bit more simply, Jesus dies so that we might live.

Spoiler alert:\u00a0 <\/strong>He doesn\u2019t stay dead for very long.
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To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here As J.K. Rowling was putting the finishing touches on her seven-part Harry Potter series, she received a lot of advice. Parents, teachers, psychologists, and fans of all ages around the globe made one heartfelt request: Please don\u2019t let Harry die.\u00a0 A number of key characters had already met their demise at… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4111,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[520,208],"class_list":["post-4110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-evil","tag-sacrifice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4110"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4110\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4112,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4110\/revisions\/4112"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}