Fr. Thomas M. Pastorius
July 31, 2016
Spiritual Ponderings
Faith & Film: Daredevil (Netflix TV Show)
 
S ince, I move to Epiphany, I have discovered that I do not wash nearly as many movies at movie theaters anymore.  I think this is because they are somewhat a distance from me and I don’t plan far enough ahead to just go to the movie.  I also believe that the time for movies to be released on Netflix and other streaming options has increase.  Therefore for my last Faith and Film reflection for July I have decided to reflect on The Netflix television show Daredevil which I found fascinating to watch because the main character Matt Murdoch is supposedly Catholic with a priest for a confident.  Some of the scenes are very bloody.
 
 Daredevil tells the story of a young boy who was blinded in an accident with toxic chemicals.  The chemicals may have taken away young Mathew’s ability to see but they also at the same time enhanced his other senses.  Mathew is orphaned is also orphaned as a young boy when his father who is a boxer refuses to lose for money and is killed by a group of mobsters.  While in the orphanage Mathew meets a blind man named “Stick” and Stick teaches him how to use his enhance senses to fight. 
 
Mathew eventually leaves Stick’s mentorship behind and graduates from law school with a new best friend Foggy Nelson.  Together they refuse great opportunities with great law firms in order to open up a law office in Hell’s Kitchen, New York to help the poor.  Mathew discovers though that he can only do so much good as a lawyer and therefore puts on a mask at night and begins a career as a vigilante. 
 
One aspect of Mathew/Daredevil’s Catholicism is extremely apparent is his respect for life.  Mathew is absolutely convicted that only God can and should choose when someone dies in the eyes of some this makes him look week but for Mathew this is what separates him from the bad guys.  Recently, I have been doing a lot of reflecting on the phrase from the Gospel of Mathew “turn the other cheek.”  So often in the past, I considered this to be a very passive, wimpy, statement.  The more I reflect on this idea of “turning the other cheek,” I see a deeper meaning.  For me “turn the other cheek” has come to mean “do you worse to me but you will not change me.”  I am a loving and caring person and your anger, hate, torture, etc. will not turn me into anything differently.  Jesus’ death and resurrection could be summarized in this manner.  We did our worse to the king who entered into Jerusalem on a donkey (Israelite kings always rode donkeys in time of peace and war horses during times of war) and Jesus still remained the prince of peace as on the night of His resurrection, He appeared to the ten in the upper room and offered them “Peace.”  Our hate did not turn Jesus into a hater.  Mathew/Daredevil is someone who respected life even if no one around him did.
 
Another aspect of Mathew’s Catholicism is his and Foggy’s desire to fight injustice.  There disgust at the violence in their city does not create an apathy in them or cause them to move away to a safer place.  Instead each in his own way chooses to fight for justice and champion the poor.  The following quote from Pope Benedict XVI comes to mind: “The world promises you comfort, but you were not made for comfort. You were made for greatness.  Mathew and Foggy’s desire to help people refuses them to allow them to sit on the sidelines comfortably while others suffer.  They hunger and thirst for righteousness. 
 
Daredevil’s main nemesis in the first season (and probably beyond) is the “King Pin” Wilson Fisk.  The television show goes a long way in trying to help the viewer understand why Fisk has become an evil mastermind.   The show explains that Fisk, who with his mother was physically and verbally abused by his father, ended up killing his father.  From that moment on, Fisk because a tormented soul as he struggles to come to grips with what he had done and tries to fix Hell’s Kitchen.  Fisk’s plan to fix Hell’s Kitchen though is for the most part self-centered and he shows that he thinks the best way to fix the city is to get rid of the poor and criminal element and bring in richer “more civilized people”.  While one can feel sorry for Wilson Fisk and his upbringing this does not excuse his treatment of others as objects and obstacles.  He has not respect for life.  If God would have used Wilson Fisk’s way about bringing salvation none of us would be here because God would have wiped us out and started a fresh.  Thank be to God that God is more loving and caring.