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Terrance KleinSeptember 14, 2012

"I lift my hand to my mouth, taking one last look at the world. The berries have just passed my lips when the trumpets begin to blare.” It’s not quite Socrates sipping the hemlock, but it’s probably a better known scene, at least among young people. It ends, “The frantic voice of Claudius Templesmith shouts above them. ‘Stop! Stop! Ladies and gentlemen, I am pleased to present the victors of the Seventy-fourth Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark! I give you — the tributes of District Twelve!’” (345)

The Hunger Games is adolescent fantasy, but the novel nicely illustrates two fundamental Christian themes: the suffering that comes from sin and our need for a savior. Take the first, the pain that comes of moral evil. The Hunger Games is set in the not-too-distant future. America has been destroyed by an unexplained cataclysm. (Like most American creations, this novel doesn’t give a thought to the rest of the world.) Taking the place of the U.S.A. is a system of thirteen districts, administered and exploited, by a new capital region, located in the Rockies.

At first glance, the idea that the denizens of the capitol would be so callous as to order selected young people — two from each of the subjugated districts — to fight each other to the death as a form of entertainment certainly seems fantastical. But does it really? We already live in a society that creates celebrities only for the purpose of exploiting their suffering, their hopes, even their dignity. That’s the premiss for so much of reality TV. Many suggest that college athletics is equally exploitive. And watching the news coverage of an event such as the shooting in Aurora, Colorado, one can’t help but wonder if we’re being conditioned to accept the suffering of others as stimulant. Wherever one might detect it, the great moral affront of our times is turning human beings into commodities. Like any good piece of fantasy or science fiction, The Hunger Games allows us to see a bit of who we already are, simply by extending a trajectory into the future.

How one apportions the blame for exploitation isn’t as important as the recognition that humanity is caught in a web of suffering that we ourselves have woven. Like the combatants in The Hunger Games, we’re forced to hurt each other as a means of survival. Could there be a better illustration for the doctrine of Original Sin? No one of us created the snarl of sin, yet each of us finds ourselves suffering from its effects. We may not send young people to their deaths as a form of entertainment, and yet the very nature of sin involves exploiting others so as to save ourselves. The demonic irony is that each of us suffers because each of us is afraid of suffering. We wound rather than allow ourselves to be wounded.            

But Katniss won’t have it. In the climatic scene of The Hunger Games she and her friend Peeta are the last contestants standing. The game’s logic demands that they now turn upon each other, but each of them would rather die than kill the other. Suddenly Katniss remembers the lethal berries she is carrying.

My fingers fumble with the pouch on my belt, freeing it. Peeta sees it and his hand clamps on my wrist. “No, I won’t let you.”

“Trust me,” I whisper. He holds my gaze for a long moment then lets me go. I loosen the top of the pouch and pour a few spoonfuls of berries into his palm. Then I fill my own. “On the count of three.”

Peeta leans down and kisses me, once, very gently. “The count of three,” he says.

We stand, our back pressed together, our empty hands locked tight.

“Hold them out. I want everyone to see,” he says.

“I spread out my fingers, and the dark berries glisten in the sun. I give Peeta’s hand one last squeeze as a signal, as a good-bye, and we begin counting. “One.” Maybe I’m wrong. “Two” Maybe they don’t care if we both die.” “Three! It’s too late to change my mind. I lift my hand to my mouth, taking one last look at the world. The berries have just past my lips when the trumpet sounds (344-45).

Every religion in the world tries to make sense of suffering, presents itself as a response to suffering. The Gospel takes on the task of explaining why Jesus must suffer, why he must fulfill in his own flesh the prophecy of Isaiah. “I gave my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who tore out my beard; my face I did not hide from insults and spitting” (50:6). Or, as St. Mark puts it, why must “the Son of Man suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and rise after three days” (8:31) The answer? Because only someone in the arena can end its evil.

If Christianity is right, and suffering came from the misuse of our freedom, then only the sacrifice, the offering, of our freedom can end it. Put another way, if human history wove the web of sin, human history must sunder it. In the words of one of our Eucharistic prefaces, “you came to the aid of mortal beings with your divinity and even fashioned for us a remedy out of mortality itself, that the cause of our downfall might become the means of our salvation, through Christ our Lord.” Christ comes as God, but it is also his obedience as a human being, one in the arena, that saves.

Everyone in The Hunger Games laments what happens in the arena. Most are grateful not to have been consigned to the games, but of course the moral of the novel is that everyone is the victim of their tyranny. The games are simply a way of masking evil, but Katniss willingly risks taking their poison into herself. It’s her decision, one forged in freedom, that will slowly tear away the shackles of sin.

It helps when the Gospel is reset, rewritten in another key. Maybe, for the first time, we get the point.

Isaiah 50: 5-9a James 2: 14-18 Mark 8: 27-35

Rev. Terrance W. Klein

Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.
Jennifer Kane
11 years 6 months ago
Agreed! He has precious insight that is rare and wise. We would all do well to listen to the Wisdom he graciously shares each week. Apologies for an overreaction to a little hiccup. Stupid on my part. He's a fine homilist, gifted writer... and a blessing to us all. 
Irene Baldwin
11 years 6 months ago
Thanks so much for this reflection! My 12 year old daughter a couple of nights ago said she understands why Jesus came to Earth but that she doesn't understand why he died. I gave her kind of a fumbling answer and have since been googling around try to find something that can respond to  her question.  My daughter's a fan of the Hunger Games, so this blog post works just great and I e-mailed it to her. Thanks!
Maggie Rose
11 years 6 months ago
where's the ''like'' button! ;-) ... dear heavens, i get so much rich theology from this column. 
Jennifer Kane
11 years 6 months ago
Earlier this week on MSNBC, the prime-time evening host ridiculed a former terrorist who said his life was transformed when he met Jesus. Berating Christians and their beliefs is common on that network. But I felt sorry for the man who described himself as a "former terrorist" because all he was trying to do was get the message out about the saving power of Jesus Christ. Perhaps it is only coincidental, but I am currently reading about the treatment of Catholics in Portugal 100 years ago. The treatment the man received at the hands of MSNBC harkens back to that fascist time and place. Elements of our American society, sadly, have become mouthpieces for that same dark spirit which crept its way throughout Christian communities in Europe-belittling and demeaning their religious beliefs in an effort to eradicate religious influence from society.
The point of Fr. Terry's reflection in this piece-which I heard in oral version in the form of a homily-totally escaped me after his parenthetical quip about Fox News, a network which makes great effort to refrain from ridiculing religious beliefs. I realize he was only trying to offer humor. The point I did take from the homily (after I returned from a lengthy retreat to the church hall downstairs) was that sarcasm kills the message. I shall keep that in mind the next time I am tempted to use it. I am grateful for this lesson. 
 
Maggie Rose
11 years 6 months ago
in today's world. the sheer amount of sarcasm and it's more wealthy cousin cynicism is indeed amazing. and allegedly we don't live in a fascist country (debate could be had on that matter, imo). if this former terrorist entered a public arena such as msnbc, i hope he had sufficient and smart support that the derision served up to him was countered with wisdom and caused him to move deeper into his faith. community matters. if he was going it alone, he could still move deeper into his faith; it would just take longer and be a harsher journey.

the idea that ''we wound to keep from being wounded'' seems an extraordinarily succinct summation for the rampant human condition that causes pain more than it builds up. we lose ourselves in our own defenses (the ambiguity of that statement is intended) ... and, imo, it may end in the public arena and be seen more easily in the public arena but it begins at home.

i wouldn't ordinarily respond on an america post with personal disclosure but this particular subject cuts too close to the bone for me since my entire first family thrived on sarcasm, superiority, and putting each other down. so this particular subject of how we wound each other through careless and callous words is a sensitive area for me ... which is why i inevitably over-react when i read or hear words used that so clearly intend to call attention to wrong thinking and cloudy vision yet leaves me wiser about my faith tradition and more empowered. fr. klein's column consistently does this for me and i am so dang grateful!

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