Photo from BBC News*Warning, do not read this blog post if you haven't watched the series finale!
For 6 years now Stephen and I have been devoted L O S T fans and have watched every episode. Although to be honest the TV series had SO many storylines, that I had forgotten many of them and annoyed Stephen with my memory of some of the characters. But last night we spent 4 hours watching the recap and finale of this show. I can't believe it's over.
From the begining Stephen and I tossed around the idea that the writers were giving us a story about Purgatory. Now obviously we are influenced by our Catholic beliefs, but we read elsewhere of others thinking about the same concept. I believe during one of the years the writers came out and said it wasn't Purgatory, but last nights finale for us confirmed it was.
For those non-Catholic Christians or non-Christians, I'll touch quickly on the Catholicism teaching of Purgatory. The book of Revelation tells us that nothing unclean shall enter heaven (21:27). In 1 John 5:17, we see that there are different degrees of sin: "All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that is not deadly." The Greek word used for deadly, Thanatos (θάνατος), signifies spiritual death as a consequence of sin – what we would call eternal damnation. What would happen if we did not repent of a sin that was "not deadly" and we died? We are neither damned nor forgiven – yet we must be forgiven to enter heaven. Temporal punishment, which is one aspect of divine justice, is found in at least two places in the Old Testament. Once, when Moses and Aaron are not allowed to enter the Promised Land because of their sin, (Numbers 20:12) and again when David is found guilty of murder and adultery. Although they all repented and were forgiven, God still punished them (2 Samuel 12:13-14). Purgatory is a place where satisfaction is made for unrepented venial (not deadly) sins and for temporal punishment due for all past sins. Jesus speaks of purgatory in Matthew 18:23-35, a forgiveness after death. Paul also spoke of purgatory in 1 Corinthians 3:11-15.
So after watching the finale, many Catholic teachings seemed to pop up in the show for me. I'd love to hear other perspectives - as it's possible my interpretation of the show could be different then what the writers were thinking. But here are a few comments from the BBC News article that show the relations...
"It all began with Flocke (as in Fake Locke, or the Man In Black) having vowed to destroy the island with the help of Desmond, taking him to the island's life source."
"The Man In Black (he never even got a name) certainly got a bit of a raw deal when goody-two shoes Jacob threw him into the light source some two thousand years earlier, robbing him both of his body and his humanity." To me this relates to the battle of God versus the Devil.
"All of Lost's imagary pointed to good and bad co-existing, the black and white stones, the struggle between light and dark."
"In the struggle that preceeded the fatal shooting, Jack was mortally wounded and resolved to stay and repair the island. Hurley went with him and Jack made him his successor as island protector." To me this relates to the Apostolic Succession (Matthew 16:15-19). Just like Peter the first Pope was succeeded.
"The island was real and as Jack's dad Christian Shephard ( ... Kate was the one that spotted it. Really how did we all miss that one?) pointed out "everything that happened, happened"."
"Instead, we learned that rather than being some some kind of alternate-timeline, the flashes sideways were glimpes of a kind of limbo between life and death." To me this relates to Purgatory.
"In their deaths - some on the island, some much, much later - they were all pulled together to move on to the afterlife. The people that meant most to them during their lives would be there with them as they moved on to the next plain of existance."
"There were some genuinely moving touches, Ben remained outside the gathering, not quite ready to leave his own personal purgatory and forgive himself for his sins." This to me relates to the purification process of Purgatory.
"Yet Locke did offer him gratefully accepted forgiveness and Hurley, who invited Ben into the gathering said he was a "good number two", with Ben telling Hurley he was a "great number one"." This to me relates to Peter as the head with his Apostles.
So there you have it, my spin of the tv show L O S T. Would love to hear your take, please feel free to leave a comment!
"It all began with Flocke (as in Fake Locke, or the Man In Black) having vowed to destroy the island with the help of Desmond, taking him to the island's life source."
"The Man In Black (he never even got a name) certainly got a bit of a raw deal when goody-two shoes Jacob threw him into the light source some two thousand years earlier, robbing him both of his body and his humanity." To me this relates to the battle of God versus the Devil.
"All of Lost's imagary pointed to good and bad co-existing, the black and white stones, the struggle between light and dark."
"In the struggle that preceeded the fatal shooting, Jack was mortally wounded and resolved to stay and repair the island. Hurley went with him and Jack made him his successor as island protector." To me this relates to the Apostolic Succession (Matthew 16:15-19). Just like Peter the first Pope was succeeded.
"The island was real and as Jack's dad Christian Shephard ( ... Kate was the one that spotted it. Really how did we all miss that one?) pointed out "everything that happened, happened"."
"Instead, we learned that rather than being some some kind of alternate-timeline, the flashes sideways were glimpes of a kind of limbo between life and death." To me this relates to Purgatory.
"In their deaths - some on the island, some much, much later - they were all pulled together to move on to the afterlife. The people that meant most to them during their lives would be there with them as they moved on to the next plain of existance."
"There were some genuinely moving touches, Ben remained outside the gathering, not quite ready to leave his own personal purgatory and forgive himself for his sins." This to me relates to the purification process of Purgatory.
"Yet Locke did offer him gratefully accepted forgiveness and Hurley, who invited Ben into the gathering said he was a "good number two", with Ben telling Hurley he was a "great number one"." This to me relates to Peter as the head with his Apostles.
So there you have it, my spin of the tv show L O S T. Would love to hear your take, please feel free to leave a comment!
2 comments:
I was actually quite disappointed. I liked the afterlife portion, but if the island was real then I had so many unanswered questions . . .
Will we were a bit disappointed too, still lots of unanswered questions. But we prepared ourselves they were going to do that to us...kinda figured they would with the time frame they left themselves.
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