Fr. J. D. Ousley

The Matrix has been one of the most discussed films in recent years. The primary reason for its popularity is the movie's special effects: many scenes in The Matrix depict what appears to be a shimmering line between illusion and reality.

In the film, only a very few souls realize that the world that appears to be the real world is in fact a fantasy -- a fantasy forced on people of the world by its evil rulers.

But beyond these special effects, The Matrix stimulates the viewer's thinking about the age-old philosophical question of appearance versus reality.

What things look like. What things are. Long before the birth of Christ, this question was raised by Plato. The Greek philosopher told the parable of a cave. According to Plato's parable, people in the cave are chained to one spot; they are forced to watch shadows cast onto a wall of the cave in front of them.

The people can't turn around so they can't see the fire that is providing the light, nor can they see the actual objects behind them -- they can only see the shadows of real things.

Plato used this image to illustrate his philosophical belief that the world we see is only an imperfect reflection, a shadow, of what is really true.

Now, of course, this question is very pertinent to religion. It's not surprising to learn that Christianity was deeply influenced by Plato. Like him, we Christians distinguish between appearance and reality. We talk of the difference between "earthly things" and "heavenly things."

So we realize, for example, that we are often mistaken about our true selves. How many aspects of ourselves are far from ideal! How often we are "in denial" about what we do and what we leave undone. How often we ignore the "devices and desires" of our own hearts.

The First Lesson today, from the Letter to the Hebrews, makes its own complex allusion to the differences between the divine and the material. The lesson talks about the contrast between two mountains, Mt. Sinai and Mt. Zion.

Both mountains were considered holy in Judaism -- Sinai, because it was where Moses received the Ten Commandments, Zion, because the Messiah was expected to appear on this mountain.

The author of the Letter to the Hebrews refers to Mt. Sinai as a place that cannot be "touched" as though God were too powerful to be approached. When Moses received the Ten Commandments on Mt. Sinai, he had to remove his sandals, for he was standing on holy ground. People later believed the mountain to be so sacred that no one was allowed to set foot on it.

The author of this New Testament books of Hebrews then compares the revelation to Moses with the later revelation of God in Jesus Christ. The second revelation comes on Mount Zion -- that is, in Jerusalem, where Christ the Messiah appeared to his disciples at the Last Supper, before his crucifixion and then after he rose from the dead.

On this second mountain, God is revealed in a new way. On Mt. Zion, God can be approached; God can be "touched" in Jesus Christ. God's holiness is not distant; we can come to his spirit in our hearts. On Mt. Zion, Christians are allowed to behold "Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant" between God and humanity.

Now a defender of the ancient Hebrew faith could claim that his religion was being misrepresented. In the Jewish religion, there were plenty of opportunities to approach the divine.

As in Christianity, shared meals such as the various feast days of the Jewish calendar gave people an occasion to sense the presence of the Lord in the Hebrew community.

There remains, though, a profound difference between the two ideas of God. The Hebrews saw God as completely Other. Alone on the holy Mount Sinai, the Lord of Israel could not be touched. By contrast, on Mt. Zion, God appeared incarnate in the human life of Jesus of Nazareth.

Thus, in a real way, in a sacramental way, the God of Jesus is not distant or unapproachable. The divine matrix enters the human matrix. The God of Jesus Christ can be "touched."

There are two important consequences of this belief -- two intellectual consequences that have the highest practical impact.

First, the doctrine of the Incarnation assumes that all reality is connected. The world we see and touch is the real world; there is no false "matrix" that hides some other "reality."

Even the world to come, the world of Heaven, even the ultimate destiny promised by Christ will be integrally with this world.

Thus, the persons we are in "this world" are continuous with the persons we shall become in the next; you know that difficult doctrine of the "resurrection of the body," well that doctrine insures ensures our lives will continue in a recognizable form in the next.

That means the world around us isn't a realm we would wish to "escape." After all, we live in a world God loves and for which God's Son gave his life. Even if the world is marked by disturbing, unspiritual concerns and ungodly behavior -- this world before our eyes is still God's world.

And second, this world is consistent with science. An old scientific theory taught that everything consists of "matter." But that theory was disproved by Einstein almost a century ago.

The newest theories of physics suggest that there are other dimensions beyond the one we perceive. According to the String Theory, for example, in this same universe, there are possibly another eight dimensions in addition to the three dimensions we can recognize in space and the one in time.

Physicists also claim that subatomic particles work in pairs, and these pairs of particles can sense each other's actions across great distances! There's no way to explain this in "material" terms!

No wonder so many physicists these days are interested in religion. This world is mysterious beyond anything the first scientists could have imagined. Mysterious beyond what even filmmakers can create.

Thus, while we share the awe Moses felt during his vision on Mt. Sinai, we also recognize our place in this world. Jesus said, "My Father's house has many mansions. I go to prepare a place for you." The world has many dimensions, yet it has a place for each of us.

We are incarnate beings, beings with spiritual selves -- touching God on Mt. Zion, breaking through illusion to reality, finding our place in God's wondrous world.

In the words of today's final hymn,
"Glorious things of thee are spoken,
Sion, city of our God,
He whose word cannot be broken,
Formed thee for his own abode,
On the Rock of Ages founded,
What can shake thy sure repose?
With salvation's walls surrounded,
Thou may'st smile at all thy foes."

And now unto God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit be ascribed as is most justly due all might, majesty, power, dominion and praise, now and forever. Amen.