Dr Strange

Strange – portrayed by Benedict Cumberbatch – is a great character: powerful but flawed; compassionate but prideful. When he features in a movie that bears his name, you can be sure that it's not only his magical powers that will be tested. The good doctor ...

– I invite you to consider what path you have set down: the one of pride, or the one of humility. We see it, too, in ourselves, in the mirror, in our own prayer and discernment. Are we seeking solely after riches, honors and pride, and in so doing demanding that the world look at us, look at me? We see it on the big screen in fictionalized sorcerers; we see it in our daily lives in neighbors and colleagues. And yet, we can’t help ourselves from wandering down this path – even with the best of intentions. For I do not do what I want, but I do what I hate. St. Ignatius of Loyola, in the Spiritual Exercises, gives us two standards with which to interrogate our impulses. … For I do not do the good I want, but I do the evil I do not want. He’s a hero in the eyes of many. In one such podcast, in preparation for the recently released “Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,” the hosts were discussing how Dr. Stephen Strange – the surgeon-turned-sorcerer – is really too powerful. We, too, are faced with the question – Are you happy? They literally need to put Dr. Strange in a different dimension so that Spiderman can be the protagonist of his own movie.