Monday, November 21, 2011

Harry Potter and the Unified Purpose

Oh man! I just keep going! Now we're on to book number 4! Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, a pretty pivotal book in the series. Why? Well, let me tell ya:
Harry gets to spend an actual magic summer, spending time with Weasleys and going to the Quidditch World Cup. While there, some Death Eaters (Voldemort's supporters) make a stand, marching around and tormenting some muggles. This is quickly put to rest by someone sending the Dark Mark (Voldemort's sign) into the air. They find the wand that did it, and it seems like a house elf named Winky did it. But, evidence says there's more to it than that. Things get even more exciting upon Harry, Ron, and Hermione's return to Hogwarts. The announcement of the Tri Wizard Tournament puts all of Hogwarts in an uproar. The Triwizard Tournament is an even that tests young witch and wizard's skill and magical prowess, and takes place between Europe's 3 major Wizarding schools: Hogwarts of England, Beauxbatons of France, and Durmstrang of Scandinavia. The catch is, however, you can only enter if you're 17 or older. Well, somehow, when the champions are being chosen, Harry is one of them. This is strange because, not only is he only 14, but Hogwarts already had a champion selected, Cedric Diggory. Now Harry has to participate. He's getting some help from friends, and the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, Professor "Mad Eye" Moody (named for his strange, magical glass eye). Some crazy stuff goes down, and suddenly, when in a labyrinth for the final event of the tournament, Harry and Cedric come upon the trophy, which turns out to be a portkey (an object able to magically transport you anywhere). They wind up in a graveyard, where Cedric is killed and Harry is bound, and his blood is taken and used to bring Voldemort back to full strength. Thanks to another magical occurrence (Priori Incantatem), Harry is able to get back to the portkey and bring Cedric's body with him. Now, Voldemort's back, and the wizarding world is in an uproar. Well, sort of...
I've left out the part about Mad Eye actually being a prominent Death Eater posing as him, but that's not pertinent to the current blog post. What I'm choosing to focus on is the unity that is displayed, and will continue to be displayed in the series, between the three opposing schools. This was the main point of why they started the Triwizard Tournament ca 1294. Dumbledore knew something was up, and that something bad was soon to come to fruition. He urges all three schools, upon their arrival, to remember the importance of unity, and that all the wizarding world needed to be united to fight against evil. This must exist amongst us, as well. I've written about this subject a couple times (here and here). But if something is repeated, you know it must be important.
We as members of the Church have a common goal and dream. We know where we want to go, and we know what we want our world to be like. And, there's only one way we can accomplish that, and that is through Unity. We can unite ourselves with others by forming friendships, and this can be done through service. But what's important is to remember that we are all children of God, and thus we are all brothers and sisters. This idea must unite us, and our desire to make this world better must unite us as well. Why quarrel and squabble over such minute details as to where we're from, what we like, where we stand on certain issues, or what our race is? These things are only temporal, and don't matter at all in the grand scheme of things. We must put behind our differences and be one in purpose and unity to help the Gospel reach all the inhabitants of the world. When our hearts are knit together in love, we can do anything, and bring all of our Heavenly Father's children to a knowledge of Him.

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