The Shack

It was a few years ago. Was one of the first Sunday Masses at St. Bonaventure's in Detroit. The feast of the Holy Trinity. I began the homily with a reference to the depictions of an old white man with a long white beard and a young man with a shorter red beard, and a white dove between or below them in the western churches. After the Mass Suzie Gavin approached, pushing her young, handsome son Jimmy in a wheelchair. She shared her appreciation about the homily. She asked if I had watched 'The Shack.' I hadn't. The following Sunday, Suzie brought me the DVD of The Shack.

About eight years ago when I watched it, I who was raised in moving about in boxed thinking, didn't quite like the whole thing, I must say, but some of the elements of the fantasy drama - 'The Shack' got stuck in my mind, along with its bold treatment.

Mack was terribly abused by his own alcoholic father as a child. His mother was the one who was abused the most by his father. When he could not take it anymore, he poured some amount of pesticide in the liquor bottles. That's how he escaped the torture!

Mack was living happily with his beloved wife Nan and three children Josh, Kate, and Missy. We see Mack glancing at the depictions of the Holy Trinity with suspicion as the congregation sings the Holy, Holy, Holy at his church. On a weekend, while on a camping trip with his three kids, the older children were rowing a canoe, accidentally it capsized. Mack jumped into the river to save his drowning son, but meanwhile his five-year-old Missy, who was on the shore, got disappeared. After a massive police search, the body of the murdered Missy was recovered. Mack, who becomes depressed and hates God, one day finds a mysterious unstamped letter in his mail box. "Mackenzie, It’s been a while. I’ve missed you. I’ll be at the shack next weekend if you want to get together. –Papa". (Papa was the name his wife Nan used to call God when she prayed. He and his children used to pray that way too!)

After sending his wife and children home, Mack borrows his neighbor and friend Willie's pickup truck and goes to the woods. As a precaution Willie had placed his gun in it. On the way, Mack narrowly escapes a major collision with a truck. He stops near the shack and enters the old shack with the gun. He seems to be expecting his daughter's killer. However, the shack is empty. When he goes out probing, he comes across a young West Asian man with a bundle of firewood, who invites Mack to his house. As he follows him, suddenly the snowy winter landscape changes into lush and green spring landscape.

What he sees is a beautiful house in a beautiful woods. Even when he enters the house, Mac is looking for his daughter's murderer. However, to his amazement who welcomes him was the African-American house help who used to comfort and strengthen him during ordeal at his father's hand in his childhood. At the same time, she introduces herself as 'Papa'. She then introduces the West Asian young man who invited him to their house as her son Jesus. She also introduces the young lady with an East Asian features as her daughter Sarayu. (Conservatives cannot take to perceive the Holy Trinity in this fashion).

They lead Mac to himself. His concept of God; His loneliness; his hatred; his prejudices; his fear; his grief. So, they help him bury his beautiful child, Missy, who was killed. Sarayu helps him to make a beautiful garden out of his messiness. For a while Papa transforms from a motherly African-American woman into a compassionate Native American father. For a while Sarayu becomes Sophia, helping him to judge God and himself. Mack would get to see his Missy. He would see how joyful she is now. Then he would receive a baptism. Then he would be made to encounter his Dad. The dad would apologize to his son saying, "I was blind." The son who killed his father would in turn become remorseful and apologize to his Dad saying, "I was scared."

Mack becomes a new man.

We now realize that he had been in a coma for four or five days, and that he had been going through a near-death experience (NDE).

This movie uses film as a medium to explore contemporary Christian theology. And that's what most fantacy dramas do, at least in a weaker way!

Why we shouldn't judge others; why we should forgive our enemies; why the Triune God is a Good God; why God always suffers: are questions that the movie discusses!