“Red Pill” (noun): Information, an event, or some other action that causes a fundamental change in a person’s worldview and allows him to see the world for what it really is.
In The Matrix, when Neo is offered the choice between the red pill (which will break him out of the Matrix) and the blue pill (which will provide him with blissful ignorance), he does not know exactly what will happen. He does know, however, that he wants to know. In fact, once he discovers the truth of his old life, he never wants to return to that life. After taking the red pill, he sees the Matrix for what it is—false happiness in a deceptive world.
In the Acts of the Apostles we read something that sounds a bit like what happens in The Matrix. After Saint Paul was blinded on the road to Damascus, he lay in bed fasting until Ananias came, laid hands on him, took the scales from his eyes, and baptized him. At that moment, Paul did not know what would ultimately happen to him; he did, however, know Someone new. When the scales fell from Paul’s eyes, it was not just his physical sight that was restored—he also received spiritual sight. He saw the law of sin and death for what it was—false happiness in a fallen world. For Neo, the red pill opened his eyes. For Paul, Jesus Christ was the red pill.
When Paul was reflecting on his own zeal for Judaism and its traditions, he noted that the goods of those observances pale in comparison to Jesus Christ. “[But] whatever gains I had, these I have come to consider a loss because of Christ. More than that, I even consider everything as a loss because of the supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (Phil 3:7–8). Coming to know Jesus Christ changes the way we see the world. When the world is seen in the light shining from the face of Jesus Christ, all other things are blanched.
We do not live in a fake computer program, but we do live in a world in which our own sin and self-deception need to be corrected. We need a red-pill to see the world, and ourselves, truly.
When Domingo Báñez, a Dominican of the 16th century, was reflecting upon the fact that the truths of the faith shape us, he provided a comparison that fits into this consideration of both St. Paul and The Matrix. He compared the sight of faith to St. Paul’s experience. During our reflection on the things of God, Báñez says that we are “taken into an invisible world” and we become “like a second Paul who saw the Kingdom of God when the scales fell from his eyes.” Saint Paul saw the Kingdom of God because of his experience of Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus. The light of Christ blinded St. Paul, and thereby gave him sight. When we see by this light, when our perspective is based in the Kingdom of God, everything else is relativized.
So what will you choose? The red pill or the blue? Jesus Christ or death? There is no third option.
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Photo by W. Carter (CC BY-SA 4.0)
