Breath of the Wild & The Sacraments of Initiation

(Image by YataMirror: https://www.deviantart.com/yatamirror/art/Zelda-Breath-of-the-Wild-Wallpaper-669081621)

This past week I decided to replay The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. I had played this game for hours on end when it was first released and thought I'd give it another go from the very beginning. I was so excited to start up a new adventure as Hyrule's silent hero, Link. But then I began playing the game. Zelda games are notorious for excruciatingly long introductions and Breath of the Wild is far from the exception.

The player first finds the hero Link waking up after a 100 year slumber, preserved through the waters of the Shrine of Resurrection, to find that the land of Hyrule has been consumed by the evil Calamity Ganon. He then meets a mysterious Old Man who tells him he has been chosen by the Goddess Hylia to liberate Hyrule from Ganon's oppression but before he can venture off the Great Plateau Link must find the Sheikah Slate, an ancient artifact with the power to manipulate objects, and use it to reactive the other four shrines on the plateau. Each shrine provides Link with a tutorial for each of the functions of the Sheikah Slate. Only when these tasks are completed can the player advance into the vast land of Hyrule through the acquisition of the Paraglider.

But these tasks aren't as easy as they sound. They are complex and time consuming, especially for first time players. It took me over an hour just to receive the Paraglider from the Old Man and escape from the Great Plateau to finally begin the actual game. Keep in mind, this was my second play through. It took me this long knowing what to do and where to go from the very beginning. When I first played the game it took me nearly 3 hours just to finish the introduction!

But then I started thinking about it. This long introduction to the game is absolutely necessary. Breath of the Wild is a vast departure from the previous entries in the Zelda franchise. Instead of spending the majority of the game in dungeon mazes filled with hours of puzzles, the player is now able to experience the mystical land of Hyrule like never before. Exploring every inch of the vast landscape looking for hidden items and solving riddles provides the player with a breathtaking experience filled with hours of game time. Breath of the Wild didn't just rewrite the formula for Zelda games, it completely revolutionized it.

While the game did keep many of the familiar mechanics from previous games such as the enemy lock-on feature and basic sword attacks, the game introduced so many other mechanics like stamina, cooking, weapon durability, and environmental elements. I soon realized the complexity of the introduction and the amount of time learning these new mechanics is essential for the player to fully understand the game. Throughout the introduction I learned roughly how long I could climb a mountain before my stamina expired and fell back down to the ground; I learned how Link would react to the changes in the surrounding environment; I learned that items like swords, shields, and bows break after a certain period of use; I learned cooking different combinations of items produces a vast array of food with different power ups; I learned how to use the Sheikah Slate; and most importantly I learned to avoid Guardians at all costs! I hate those things. The ominous danger music doesn't help either.

Without mastering these basic mechanics the game would have proved very difficult for me. I probably would have rage quit and given up on the completing the game. Suddenly, spending 3 hours or so learning the basics didn't seem like such a bad trade off for 100+ hours of game play.

The Sacraments of Initiation

The same can be said for our faith. For every Catholic, there is a foundation of basic believes and practices that must be learned before we can join in the apostolic mission to evangelize. The Catechism of the Catholic Church recognizes laying of this foundation in the three sacraments of initiation - Baptism, First Communion, and Confirmation. "By means of these sacraments of Christian initiation, [the faithful] thus receive in increasing measure the treasures of the divine life and advance toward the perfection of charity" (CCC 1212). In other words, these sacraments provide the introduction to our faith and without them we would not get very far in becoming holy. In these sacraments we are taught many essential truths. We are taught that God is Love and we are his adopted children through the sacrificial love of Jesus Christ his only begotten son; we are taught how to have a relationship with God through prayer; we are taught that the Eucharist is the source and summit of our faith; and we are taught that we are called to share our faith with others through evangelization.

Just as the introduction of Breath of the Wild adequately equips the player with the skills to solve complex puzzles, fight ferocious enemies, and ultimately complete the game, the Sacraments of Initiation adequately equip us with the knowledge and discipline to live out the apostolic mission.

Baptism

Several things happen at baptism: we are cleansed of Original Sin, we are imprinted by the Holy Spirit through an indelible mark on our souls that can never be erased, we are welcomed into the Church as adopted children of God, and we lay the first brick in the foundation of our faith. Baptism is the gateway to the all the graces God provides for us. Just as Link is reawakened after 100 years in the waters in the Shrine of Resurrection, we are reborn through the waters of Baptism. Likewise, while Link begins with absolutely nothing at the beginning of the game - he's literally wearing nothing but long boxer briefs when we first see him - and has to gather the necessary tools he needs to begin his first task, in Baptism we come before God with nothing but the desire to belong to Him. Through Baptism we are bestowed the graces we need to begin to accept in faith the Truth of His Church.

Without the Sacrament of Baptism we are not able to begin our journey towards salvation. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, Baptism gives us the tools we need to venture away from sin and towards the everlasting love of God.

Confirmation

At the beginning of the game The Old Man bestows upon Link task of liberating Hyrule. It is a task that he did not seek out but one for which he has been chosen. However, Link must chose to answer this call and begin the perilous journey through the depths of Hyrule to save Princess Zelda and defeat Calamity Ganon. Without a clear mission the player would be confused on where to go and what to do.

In the same way, all Christians are called to the great task of apostolic witness and evangelization. We must all make a choice to commit ourselves completely to the teachings of Christ through the life of the Church. We make this commitment in the sacrament of Confirmation. In Confirmation we are sealed once again with the gifts and the fruits of the Holy Spirit; we again receive another indelible mark on our soul forever binding us to God; and we are sent out into the world through the Great Commission to "make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teach them to observe all that [Jesus] taught and commanded" remembering that Christ is "with us to the very end of the age" (Matthew 28:19-20)

However, Confirmation is not a one day commitment. It is a life long commitment to Christ that we must continue to make everyday. We don't simply get confirmed, we live confirmed! Not every player will have the patience and diligence to complete Breath of the Wild and not every Catholic, unfortunately, will have the courage to continue the journey of salvation. But those who are vigilant in the faith will grow in holiness and begin to become more and more like God with every passing day. One does not need to be a saint to receive the sacrament of Confirmation; it is through the grace of the sacrament of Confirmation that helps us to become a saint! Once we understand that we have been chosen by God to live out this apostolic mission in our own unique way we will be able to better live it out with confidence and clarity.

First Eucharist

The Sheikah Slate is absolutely essential to Link's journey and the fulcrum, in which the entire game mechanic is centered. Without it Link would not be able to access any of the 120 shrines spread throughout Hyrule, let alone solve the puzzles hidden inside. While the player has no need to return to the Shrine of Resurrection, the player must rely on the power of the Sheikah Slate to progress through the game. Simply put without the Sheikah Slate there would be no Breath of the Wild. Therefore, what the Sheikah Slate is to Breath of the Wild, the Eucharist is to Catholicism. Without the Eucharist there would be no Mass, without the Mass, Catholicism would not exist.

The Eucharist is the entire summation of the Catholic faith because it is Christ personified, body, blood, soul, and divinity. Christ brings life to our mortal bodies (Romans 6:10-11) so it makes sense that the Christ in the Eucharist would bring life to the body of the Church. First Eucharist completes our initiation into the Church. It is when we take the Paraglider and jump off the Great Plateau to explore the wonders of our faith solidified in the confidence of the foundation laid by Christ through the sacraments. And just as Link has to continually rely on the Sheikah Slate, we too must rely on the Eucharist to sustain us in our journey towards salvation.

Bonus: Confession

One of the things I appreciate most about Breath of the Wild is that the player is not given a number of lives before there is a Game Over. Instead the player has a health bar visible through heart containers. Over the course of the game the player can collect more containers to increase their health. When a player exhausts all their hearts the player is given a choice to continue. The game then resets to the last saved point as if nothing happened. The only difference is the player's heart count is filled to only three despite how many heart containers the player has collected, which can easily be refilled by eating the food in Link's pouch.

This is exactly like the Sacrament of Reconciliation. When we commit venial or lesser sins we chip away at our heart health count. Commit enough venial sins or commit a mortal (grave) sin and the heart count will be depleted. When this happens we cut ourselves off from God's friendship. But the good news is our God is so loving and so merciful that He gave us an entire sacrament to restore that friendship. Through the Sacrament of Confession we are absolved and wiped clean of all our sin! God forgets all about them and it's as if nothing ever happened. But just like in the game we are not completely back to full health. There is still a small scar that remains. To recover from this scar we are given a penance to help us avoid committing that same sin. Whenever I get killed by a Guardian - which happens frequently; have I mentioned how much I hate those things? - I reassess the situation and come up with a different strategy to either attack the Guardian in a different way or avoid it completely. Likewise, our penance helps us form a strategy to defend against the attacks of the devil.

Just like the introduction to Breath of the Wild the Sacraments of Initiation may take us a long time to receive. Our faith process may seem mundane and repetitive at times, especially when learning the basics, but it is through repetition that we continue to build upon the foundations of our faith. Creating good habits will aid us in becoming saints. We need to all make frequent visits to the sacrament of Reconciliation and polish off the rust we have allowed to build up on our relationship with God. Weekly reception of the Eucharist will strengthen us in tackling life's inevitable problems just as the Sheikah Slate aids Link in solving the riddles of Hyrule. Every choice we make either leads us away from God or closer to him. While we may not have to fight monsters and save an entire land from an evil warlord, we are called to a much greater task - to love God above all else and to love our neighbor as ourselves. The Sacraments of Initiation are the first steps in a much larger journey.