As our month of movies goes on, I would like to focus on the Bourne Legacy. This movie is unique in many ways because it is at once the fourth movie in a series and at the same time it is the first in what I hope will be a new series of action movies.

In the original three Bourne movies, Jason Bourne recovers from amnesia to discover that he was part of a super soldier program designed by the United States Government. A program that he has learned that while developed with good intentions has been hijacked by powerful political men who desire to use the soldiers for their own financial and political advantage. In this movie the creators of the Treadstone and Blackbriar programs (the super soldier making programs) have created a more advanced program called Operation Outcome. Because of the actions of Jason Bourne making their illegal actions known they decide to destroy all evidence of this program. Part of the evidence is a super soldier named Aaron Cross. Aaron is able to use his abilities to avoid being killed by a drone attack. In an effort to figure out what is going on Aaron Cross saves and kidnaps Dr. Marta Shearing. Dr. Marta Shearing explains that as a part of the program the super-soldiers were purposely addicted to drugs that they scientists called "chems". Aaron and Dr. Marta go to Manila in an attempt to get a hold of some of these drugs and to help Aaron go through a withdrawal process. In the mean time the bad guys release their last super soldier after the duo. Aaron is able to defeat the super-soldier and escape with the doctor on a fishing boat where they begin to think about the possibilities of a new life together.

The first spiritual insight from the movie is an obvious one that I think our society needs to hear over and over again. Once human beings begin to experiment on other human beings for whatever reason we lower the perceived dignity of the human person and it becomes easier to come to believe that it is alright to discard human life. The evil people had no problem in ordering the death of the super soldiers because in their minds they see them as no longer humans but rather as objects. In the same way our culture treats in embryonic stem cell research we treat live human beings not as persons but as material for medical experiments. How many human lives do we currently have locked up in freezers around the world because of our need to be in control of our futures instead of trusting God?

The second spiritual insight is that our actions affect other people. All the current events in Aaron Cross's life is taking place because of Jason Bourne who Aaron Cross has never met. Jason's decision to no longer work for the corrupt villains in returns allows Aaron a chance to make a decision for himself. Sometimes we like to pretend that our actions do not have consequences on other people but the truth of the matter is that our actions have far greater consequences than we will ever know. This is why getting "high" to escape the pain is much more horrible than facing the challenges that we want to run away from. We need to be the person we are called to be.

In St. Ignatius's fourteen rules of discernment, rule number thirteen points out that the devil acts like a licentious lover who desires to keep things secret. The devil knows that if his plans were brought to the light that the chance of him convincing you to do the evil greatly diminishes. We see in this movie how all the evil secret programs keep getting worse, we move from Treadstone to Blackbriar, to Operation Outcome and finally LARX, until Jason Bourne and Pamela Landing blow the whistle on the program. This is one of the many reasons why it is important for people to go to Confession. If I admit my temptations before I give into them, then I can find the strength I need to overcome them.
For example a person with an internet pornography addiction would do good to move his computer into a public space because being in public and not in secret will help him avoid that sin.