Indiana Jones: Relics, Real Presence and the Last Crusade

Later this month Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny will be showing in theaters. If you’re like me you would have advised Speilberg and Lucas to stop with The Last Crusade. It is the best in the Indiana Jones series. Let’s face it Temple of Doom was weird and the Crystal Skull was even worse. They seem to have been going downhill since.

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is the best IJ film to me as a Catholic because of its focus on the Cup of Christ, the Holy Grail. While they got the Catholic theology of the Eucharist wrong, Hollywood always does, the writers did tap into partial truths about holy relics and the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. They really are ‘powers which we cannot possibly comprehend’.

At the outset of the film the young Dr. Jones tells us  “Archaeology is the search for facts... not truth. If it's truth you're looking for, Dr. Tyree's philosophy class is right down the hall.” 

This separation of facts and truth is a theme threaded throughout the film. The quest for the Grail is sacred and supernatural.It has more than an academic or historical value. As Prof. Henry Jones says,  “The quest for the grail is not archeology, it's a race against evil. If it is captured by the Nazis the armies of darkness will march all over the face of the earth. Do you understand me?” Here we see that the Grail has moral implications and epic or eternal consequences. Later Marcus Brody sums it up when he says, “The search for the Grail is the search for the divine in all of us.” 

These are Catholic questions being posed here. Is the Holy Grail, the actual cup that Christ used at the Last Supper, a mere artifact with historical significance or sentimental value or is it more? What's the difference between an historical artifact and a religious relic or a sacramental?

We know that artifacts are things made by human hands: They have historical and cultural value. Oftentimes they also convey symbolic value such as the Liberty Bell which symbolizes the American founders’ primary concern. Artifacts are used to study history and cultures. They are about facts. On the other hand, relics are material things that have spiritual significance, they are oriented to faith and may convey God’s grace- His help, favor and life. They are not symbols of theological ideas, rather they are signs of the sacred. They are used to build a relationship with God. They are about ultimate Truth. 

Indy was in a race to get a hold of the Grail before the Nazis could locate it. Hitler believed in the occultic powers and he would have used the Grail for evil. This is a twisted and demonic idea that one could use a holy object for the sake of evil. When it comes to relics, God is the source of its supernatural power. Our sacramental theology tells us that God can use material things to transmit power and grace,  God is the actor or agent of change not the instrument or thing itself.

For a sacrament or a  sacramental or a relic to be efficacious (to work - Ex opere operato) there needs to be cooperation and faith, a disposition of openness to God’s action (Ex opere operantis). Grace can never cooperate with evil. Good displaces evil just as light dispels the dark. So Hitler was wrong and the film is wrong to make it seem like Hitler was right. 

God’s power is always under control by God. The film engages in  superstitious and magical thinking with regard to relics. It seems like there is confusion over the meaning of magic and the meaning of supernatural, efficacious grace. For Hollywood the Holy Grail is a magic cup that acts as a fountain of youth.Those who drink (anything) from it will live forever. This must be traced back to an incorrect interpretation of the Gospel of John chapter six. “Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day’.” (Jn 6:53-58). 

A couple things here. For Catholics, it’s not the Cup but rather the contents in that holy cup at the Last Supper that gives eternal life.It is not about a fountain of youth that condemns one to being stuck in the fallen world forever. No one should want that. Rather, it is about

‘Divine Life’ that we partake in when we consume the Real Presence of Christ, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. For us sanctifying grace is a foretaste of our participation in heaven, eternal life. The chalice at Mass contains the same contents as the actual grail contained in the upper room thousands of years ago and with the same spiritual effect. When we put it this way, Marcus Grody was almost right…A search for the Eucharist is a search for the divine in all of us. 

The best scene, in my opinion, is when Indy makes it into the room with all the chalices guarded by the knight. He has to choose, but ‘choose wisely’ as the knight says. There are alot of counterfeit eucharists out there.Our Protestant brothers and sisters believe in a symbolic presence or a partial presence or a spiritual presence. It is only the Catholic Church which gives us the Real Presence. So choose wisely!