I rarely go to the movies. In fact, I think the last new movie that I saw in theaters was Mission Impossible 6 in the summer of 2018. I intended to go see the new James Bond film in October when it came out, but I missed the narrow window. I watched it this weekend and it was terrible.

The problem with film, and art generally, is that it comes from the culture in which it was created. We live in a world that likes to flirt with evil, as if it’s nothing. The Bond movie touched on several fictional, but evil themes and events. The problem is that evil is very real, and it’s totally destructive.

In the Creation allegory, the writer shares with us an essential truth about good and evil in our world. Before the Fall, the serpent had access to the Garden of Eden, but no power over it. Despite the presence of Satan, evil itself, the Garden was good, and the world was at peace. It was only when Satan gained the complicity of man that evil entered into the World.

We see this truth shared again in the Gospel. Jesus tells the crowd, “Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person; but the things that come out from within are what defile.” (Mark 7:15).

God, in His wisdom, granted humankind creative powers. We can create ideas, art, and structures. Our greatest creative capacity comes in our ability to co-create new life. But when we use this creative capacity for darkness, evil enters more deeply into the world.

The World has enough evil. It is better to use our creative powers to create beauty all around us.

Tags: Virtue