I had the pleasure of meeting Sr. Nancy Usselmann this summer. She was visiting as part of a media group that was in town for the filming of I Still Believe (go see it in March when it’s out!). She dropped by the house with her posse for mojitos, and we had a lively visit.
We talked about movies, books, and superheroes and discovered a common love of seeking the seeds of the Gospel in popular culture.
Her book, A Sacred Look: Becoming Cultural Mystics, explores movies, music, television shows, and the current phenomenon with heroes and superheroes through a Catholic lens. She develops an approach to experiencing this entertainment that includes developing relationships. When we seek what is good, beautiful, and true, we want to share it, and share the experience.
We can carry these messages from the fictional plane into our lives because we “hunger ever more for communion, connection, and intimacy with other people….This physical existence is never enough. We long for communion with a Being beyond our comprehension” ( pp 127-128).
Becoming cultural mystics helps us spread the Good News of God’s love and our salvation through Jesus Christ by being in tune with the those seeds in the culture, and interpreting them for others. It’s not just an enriching way to respond to the entertainment we consume, but a way of living the New Evangelization.