By Fr. Parker Love
The Last of Us and Love in the Domestic Church
If you had only one television channel over the last two decades, you might be able to forgiven if that channel was HBO. I mean, I would forgive you no matter what; that’s kind of my job. Others in your life as invested in pop culture as I am, though, might not revolt immediately at finding out you only have one tv channel or on-demand streaming service, if they found out first that it was access to HBO programming that you had access to exclusively. Since the 1990s, HBO has been producing extremely high quality original programming, and its newest series, The Last of Us is no exception.
The Last of Us just finished its first nine-episode season. Based on a video game of the same title, the show might initially turn viewers off who already feel inundated by the post-apocalyptic-zombie genre. Like the video game the show is based on, however, The Last of Us is more about the relationships between the characters than any of its action. Indeed, the relationship between the two protagonists, Joel and Ellie, gets far more attention than the hordes of fungi-infected Cordyceps who hunt down their victims much like traditional zombies do.
Joel is the grim and bitter survivor; a relatively old man at the beginning of the zombie-creating pandemic that begins the show, Joel loses his daughter during the initial chaos of the first days of this world shattering event, and along with the death of his daughter, any sense of optimism or hope is also killed. Ellie is a teenage girl; born after the pandemic began, Ellie has only known a world of chaos filled with literal monsters and gangs of humans who will do anything it takes to protect themselves and the things important to them
Along with the background of an ongoing zombie apocalypse, Joel and Ellie also face the consequences of the seething underbelly of political revolutionaries who seek to overthrow the fascist leaders who have taken control of the last surviving quarantine zones, but even deeper than these common fodder of political action thrillers, the focus of The Last of Us remains on the characters of Joel and Ellie. When the show begins, Joel only wants to survive long enough to die on his own terms, but Ellie’s youthful optimism begins to convert him, and when she is put in danger, Joel’s long-dormant paternal instincts take over and, along with a bunch of necessary suspenseful action set pieces, his care for Ellie grows to be like the care he showed for his now-deceased daughter.
Understanding the love between parents and children is crucial to understanding the love of God. The Domestic Church, the biological family of believers, is the first Church that children experience. Wrapped in their mother’s arms and soothed by their father’s finger on their small cheek, children first experience love by the warm embrace of their family. The Domestic Church is the first teacher of the faith, and the importance of this teacher cannot be understated.
Joel and Ellie are not biological family, but their close ties reinforce the idea that family can never abandon family, chosen or biological. The lesson which Joel and Ellie teach is especially relevant because besides facing down zombies and fascists, Ellie faces one more challenge, which Joel can only help with by his own example and love. Ellie is a homosexual. Indeed, a whole episode of this season is devoted to revealing the background of Ellie’s first love and how that love is challenged by more than the characters’ extraordinary consequences.
Throughout the season, it would be easier and safer for to Joel to abandon Ellie, but his love for her causes him to go to extreme lengths to do what needs to be done to protect her. Not all of these lengths are recommended, but in my desire to not spoil anything, it’s still safe for me to say that staying close to your loved ones is always recommended; holding them closely and supporting them in the most important things in their life, especially the things which they embrace with warmth and love, is what it means to be a Christian parent. Joel might not agree with Ellie on everything, and Ellie might not agree with Joel on everything, but they stay together out of love. I definitely don’t agree with everything the protagonists do in the show, but I admire and learn from the unconditional love that they show for each other.
In 2018, Pope Francis emphasized that all children, no matter what differences they have, whether they are LGBTQ+ or living through a zombie apocalypse, “have a right to a family” and should not “be thrown out [of their family] or made miserable because” of the choices that they have made. Catholics have to listen to and carefully discern the words of Pope Francis, and ultimately, they have to embrace the love of their family and the love of the Domestic Church, otherwise the Love of God, the Love that is God, will remain absent from them.
In conclusion, The Last of Us provides a powerful example of the importance of family, love, and support, as well as the role of parents in nurturing and guiding their children. While the show may not align perfectly with Catholic teaching, it offers valuable insights into the human experience and the power of love.
Fr Parker Love is a Priest for the Archdiocese of Regina. Ordained in the summer of 2019, Fr Parker serves as Pastor at St Augustine Parish in Wilcox, Saskatchewan and as the Archdiocese’s Vocation Director. Somehow, in the midst of this, he still finds too much time to consume media in the form of books, tv shows, and movies. To justify that over indulgence, he also (occasionally) hosts a podcast called Cold Drinks, Questions, and Christ, which can be found here, or anywhere you get podcasts.
