Released in 2011, Rite is a movie with important names such as Anthony Hopkins and Rutger Hauer. While the movie has some scary moments and is categorized as 'terror', that should not discourage you, for the movie is worth watching for its strong message of faith.
The story begins with the main character, named Michael, who is the son of a mortician and a mortician himself. As he is preparing a woman’s body for her funeral, an interesting bracelet is shown to the viewer, with its (all seeing) eye ‘charm’. Pay attention because you will see this many times throughout the flick.
His father, a stern Hungarian, faces death with naturalism and respect, but he is also a distant father to his only son. Michael has constant flashbacks of his dead mother and resents having to face death so close.
Michael wants out. The way out he sees available is to become a priest. His bright mind is quickly cherished by his teachers, but there is one subject in which he struggles: theology. Michael struggles to understand it because he still lacks faith and challenges his teachers on basic theological doctrines, so he decides to give up his training. In order to avoid losing his student, his teacher offers him the opportunity to go the Vatican to study exorcism for three months as a way to have some time to think and make his mind.
Once in the exorcism class, Michael still has his immature mindset and challenges his teacher on whether possession is real or simply a psychological condition. In an attempt to show him reality, the teacher asks Michael to meet Father Lucas (Anthony Hopkins), a funny but bold exorcist.
Father Lucas quickly notices that Michael is struggling to believe and asks him to help him cast demons out of a young woman – who was pregnant. The demon possessed her ‘with her father’s seed’. In demonology, indeed one of the things that can open doors to demons is incest and rape.
Michael experiences several sessions with the priest and he still could not have faith, even when her demon managed to put her bracelet (with the same ‘eye charm’) in his pocket or when he exposed facts about Michael’s life that no one knew.
What we see next is a stubborn unbeliever insisting that the girl had mental problems, even when the most bizarre things happened right in front of him. Isn’t this something we can all see in some people? A complete blindness even at the most obvious evidence or a refusal to accept something out of their comfort zone. Because Michael could not grasp a supernatural explanation, he needed to bring his experiences to the physical realm.
An interesting scene before Rosaria, the possessed girl dies, is when Michael, filled with an arrogant attitude, decides to make conversation with the demon, even after Father Lucas tells him never to make conversation with it. The demon calls him ‘doubter’ and tells him straight: ‘A liar knows another liar’.
Here is the dialogue:
Michael: What is it you want me to believe? Rosaria’s Demon: There's nothing to believe. Michael: Then there is no devil and you’re not possessed Rosaria’s Demon: You fear me, mortal! Michael: How can I fear you if you don't exist?
Unfortunately, his smart-ass attitude did not help the girl and she and her baby ended up killed by the demon.
After the tragedy, Father Lucas is filled with guilt and sadness and becomes himself weak towards the attack of the enemy. Michael at this stage (finally) accepts that something is wrong, for he is now being hunted and realizes the only one who can help him is Father Lucas, but once he arrives to his house, his partner is already succumbing and Michael must now exorcise the exorcist!
In the climax of the movie, we see Michael, in what initially seemed like defeat, accepting that the enemy was real. The demon was delighted to hear it, but what he could not expect was what came next. Michael remembers his mother, giving him a picture of the archangel Michael where she wrote on the back ‘You are not alone’. This is when Michael realizes that his whole life was meant for this moment when he could finally say, ‘I believe you (satan), therefore, I believe in God who created everything’. Wow!
Ironically, Michael could only believe the Creator when another (weaker) supernatural force made its existence impossible to deny. When challenged by Michael, the demon was teased in his big pride to prove himself. The demon’s pride did not let him see that the moment his existence was proved, it also triggered Michael’s faith in the Father.
Michael’s story is not so rare, many are the people who could only understand Yahuah when they realized evil was real. We tend to underestimate evil or rationalize it as ‘there is only evil people’, but in reality, evil exists, is alive and well and if we can’t see it or believe it, it does not mean that it can’t do you harm.
Moral of the story: even if Satan’s smartest move was convincing people that he didn’t exist, the Creator, Yahuah Tseva'oth, is in control of everything and might even use the enemy to wake up a sleepy lamb.
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