Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) is now a young man, past being a student at
the Hogwarts school for aspiring young wizards, but he continues to hang
out with his best buddies from the school, Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermione
(Emma Watson), who have developed a decided interest in each other. But
this film isn’t about their budding romance. It’s about Harry’s fight to the
finish with the evil Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes), or, if you prefer, “The-One-
Who-Cannot-Be-Named” because to even invoke his name is to stir up the
fear in his dark power and add to his dominion of darkness (hmm, I wonder
how Christians’ attitude toward Lucifer would change if that name were
treated the same way….but I digress).
Harry seems mostly left to his own devices here, because his mentor,
Professor Dumbledore, is dead, the Hogwarts school is itself assaulted by
the evil magic army of Lord Voldemort, and even smart Hermione and loyal
Ron just seem to be tag-alongs. But help comes from unexpected sources:
a former school rival, a dour old goblin who gives Harry a cryptic clue
about a sword with special powers, and, most importantly, the spirits of the
dead, especially his parents, whom he not only senses around him but can
converse with. This is a rather advanced concept of the communion of the
saints, bordering on angelic host: not only are the faithful departed watching
over us, they’re surrounding us with goodwill and encouragement, especially
when we venture forth to combat evil.
But now we borrow a page from “Star Wars,” and realize that just as Luke
Skywalker and Darth Vader had a family connection which made them
enemies literally of the same flesh and blood, so also do Lord Voldemort
and Harry Potter share a mystical connection through the deaths of Harry’s
parents, when some of Voldemort’s “life-force” literally rubbed off on the
infant Harry. The good news is that now, his special powers developed,
Harry senses where Voldemort is, and seems to know what he’s up to
(similar dynamics in “Star Wars”). But Harry also, to his distress, feels a
kind of furtive kinship with his archenemy and nemesis, as if ….. Lucifer
really is a fallen angel, formerly soaring in the heavenly habitations but now
forever banished.
It seems that Dodge City isn’t big enough for both Voldemort and Harry.
So one of them has to figure out a way to undermine, disenfranchise, isolate
and remove the other. Not at all a pretty sight, but then, a fight to the finish
rarely is.
But you know, that is an interesting concept, from the allegedly non-
religious J.K. Rowling, about the spiritual communion of the saints being,
instead, a kind of invisible commune of the magicians, passed down from
one generation to the next, kind of like, well, faith itself.
Ronald P. Salfen is co-pastor of United Presbyterian Church, Greenville,
Texas.
