Batman Begins - Community and Living on the Edge

 

Let’s face it - life isn’t easy.  In fact, it can be downright hard.  Health, education, work, family - not to mention making ends meet and navigating the waters of the community and culture that we find ourselves.  Add in the layers of politics, crime, and environmental challenges and all of a sudden we are exhausted.  For many the Covid-19 pandemic also caused withdrawal and isolation from other people - so much so that they now are challenged to simply reconnect with co-workers, family, and friends who they once depended upon to do life together.  

So, what if you experienced something so traumatic that it caused you to withdraw completely from your community?  Something that caused you to flee from everyone and everything?  To loose trust in the moral and social constructs that held your world together?  This is the story of Batman Begins, starring Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne.  His parents murdered in front of him, this lone child withdraws from society and ultimately flees looking for answers across the world.  Trained in the martial arts he appears to be set on a course of vigilantism upon his return to his home in Gotham City.  So what prevents Bruce Wayne, working under the mysterious persona of “The Batman” to guard his actions with moral fortitude?  What prevents him from becoming no worse than the criminals he is hunting in the darkness of night?

The answer to the question is community.  Even though “The Batman” is a solitary creature of the night who hunts criminals and villains, there is a community behind him - some knowing exactly who he is and what he is doing - and others who simply know him Bruce Wayne.  Alfred (played by Michael Cane) and Lucias Fox (played by Morgan Freeman) work with Bruce Wayne - they assist him in his nightly endeavors.  They provide him tools to accomplish the task but also moral boundaries and reminders of who he is and why he is doing what he does.  And Rachel Dawes (played by Katie Holmes) reminds Bruce that he is the son of Thomas Wayne and he has a responsibility to be a beacon of light and hope for the people of Gotham City.  And let’s not forget Jim Gordon (played by Gary Oldman) who is the police officer who “partners” with “The Batman” for the sake of cleaning up and protecting the city.  In a word Bruce Wayne/Batman has a community - a moral, supportive, corrective, and loving community.  

So “who” is your community?  Where do you find people to do life together?  Who helps you remain on the straight and narrow?  Who  corrects you when you are wrong and you are willing to listen to?  In the beatific world this ought to be the church - a community of people doing life together.  The church should be a gathering of people who can be honest and transparent - correcting and supporting, loving and forgiving - to each other.  It doesn’t mean we will always agree…but what it does mean is that we will strive to work and mutually support one another.  Life was never meant to be lived out alone - even God notices when looking down at the Garden of Eden that it was “not good for the man to be alone.”  
So, find community.  Don’t think you can simply do life alone.  Life is more than work and neighborhood, school and family, budgets and community.  Life is to be lived out together - remember, even Batman needed a community - and so do you!