Herald of Peace : Reflections on Harry Potter

Spoiler alert

by Melissa Konetchy

We must unite, or we will be destroyed from within! (Or, alternatively: “[O]ur Hogwarts is in danger from external, deadly foes and we must unite inside her or we’ll crumble from within.” p. 206) This is the message delivered to the Hogwarts students and staff in JK Rowling’s magical realm by the Sorting Hat, in The Order of the Phoenix. It is sad that this beautiful, deeply spiritual concept can be overlooked by readers seeking to denounce the value of the series with claims that it teaches nefarious or satanic concepts.

The hero of the series, Harry Potter himself, is a profoundly courageous, tolerant, charitable, unselfish, and hopeful character. His arch-nemesis, known as Voldemort–“flight of death” in French–is bent on pain, murder, destruction, and self-glory. A Hitler-like character, descended from equal-parts of magical and non-magical lineage, Voldemort is determined to eradicate non-magical people, and all others who stand in his way. What Voldemort cannot know is that his greatest weakness is his inability to understand what he does not possess. His downfall will be his lack of love. Harry Potter fans learn that Voldemort can never really destroy Harry. All he can ever destroy is himself.

Today, and always, our world needs peace. This is not something that can ever be accomplished by letting petty differences divide the residents of the planet we call home. In a war-torn world, our differences matter very little. Mothers are sending their sons into battle to kill other women’s sons. No matter what nationality or language, no matter what religion, we are all human. We all feel love, hope, and joy. These are universal. Most major world religions are also monotheistic. If we truly evaluate the meaning of monotheism, we must conclude that if there is one God, He/She is the universal power of the whole universe, and not individual for only Muslims, or perhaps Jews, or maybe a certain Christian sect. We can unite, as monotheists. We can learn, together. We can teach each other. We can care for each other, as brothers and sisters.

What are some of the lessons we can learn from Harry Potter?

1. To destroy his enemy, Harry learns that he must vanquish all tendencies he shares with The Dark Lord. He must not allow himself to be like his enemy in any way. This includes, in part, willingly walking into a death trap, and not fighting in his own defense. Sound familiar? It should. Christians will remember that our leader, Jesus, was willing to allow his body to be destroyed, in order to completely destroy any traits of self-righteousness or willfulness in his personality. When he rose from the grave, he left all his human weaknesses in the tomb. We, too, can lay down selfish or self-righteous tendencies, and let them die without a victim to prey upon.
2. Average folks can do extraordinary things! It isn’t important to be the most clever, good-looking, wealthy, well-bred, or influential person. There is not a limited amount of goodness and happiness to go around. Because God is all good, there is more than enough for everyone. What is most required of us is not our individual talent, but our goodness, courage, persistence, and love. Does this seem contradictory to what we are taught in life? Perhaps. Many of the world’s greatest thinkers were not prized for their charm, looks, or religion. What is it that we remember most about Einstein and Socrates? Their contributions to thought and society!
3. Worldly weapons do not help us be better, happier, or healthier. Harry doesn’t want worldly weapons. He doesn’t want to become immortal, by drinking the elixir of the Sorcerer’s Stone, and he certainly doesn’t want the world’s deadliest dueling wand. Harry’s greatest defense is his shield of goodness and purity. His only desire for a weapon is to destroy it, before it can fall into the wrong hands. Mankind can also learn to lay down its weapons. We can renounce double-standards, such as: “life is important, unless we’re talking about the lives of people who think differently than I think, or who want the things that I want to have.” Again, there is an unlimited amount of goodness to go around. What kind of vast, infinite Creator could possibly create anything limited?

4. “The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death” (1 Cor 15:26). This quotation, from the Bible, graces a tombstone in Harry’s home town. The passage does not state that the last enemy is a rival political faction, or a religious denomination. It does not state that the last enemy is global warming, a corrupt government, poverty, hunger, disease, or human weakness. I see the enemy as a misunderstanding of our identity by perceiving it as being mortal, limited, and dying. Jesus gave the world two commandments: “The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these” (Mark 12:29-31).

   By living these two rules, even when the going got tough, Jesus proved to the world that he could overcome death. Not only did he bring the dead back to life, he brought himself back to life.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 23rd, 2007 at 3:04 pm and is filed under New Perspective. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response.