Enter the Matrix

“But how would you know the difference between the dream world and the real world?” (Morpheus from “The Matrix”). The song of Mary invites us to escape a world of illusion and see the truth clearly, for the very first time.

In the early 21^st century, a war broke out between humans and intelligent machines. After human beings prevented the machines from getting access to solar energy, the machines responded by capturing humans and using their bodies to provide bioelectric power. The machines didn’t kill the humans, but they pacified them — creating a simulated reality called The Matrix.

“The Matrix is the world that has been pulled over your eyes,” says a character named Morpheus, “to blind you from the truth.”

The human battle with the Matrix has played out over the course of three movies, the first released in 1999 and the second and third in 2003. Now, a fourth Matrix movie is scheduled to open in theaters on December 22, 2021, with simultaneous release on HBO Max. The film industry is hoping for a Christmas blockbuster.

The Matrix is a land of illusion, as well as a place of really cool, slow-motion, science-fiction shoot-outs. “Wake up, Neo,” says...