Marvel’s imaginary land of Wakanda is much like ancient Egypt in a way. Its people live in simplicity, yet magnificent technology is displayed in their civilization that remains unknown to the rest of the world. The people of ancient Egypt were primarily fed by a single supreme staple: bread. This unassuming product carried the nation from day to day, providing a common item which was entirely necessary for sustenance.
It was this same product which would miraculously feed the Israelites in their flight from Egypt. And, most importantly of all, it was bread which Jesus Christ used to transform into the substance of His body, blood, soul, and divinity. He used bread, one of the simplest yet most frequently consumed foods, to become our spiritual food. He veiled His whole being under the appearance of simple bread. This is the sacrament of the Eucharist. In it, Christ gives Himself to each of us individually and personally. He comes to us, as He did at Bethlehem, in simplicity and humility. He has become small for us so that He can make us great.
The seemingly miraculous heart-shaped herb possesses several marks of similarity to the Most Blessed Sacrament. Vibranium may be taken as a symbolic representation of Christ. Just as the unearthly vibranium blessed the African country of Wakanda, providing it with all its fantastic technological advancements and superior energy, so the Son of God smashed into the dimension of time and came to Earth, fully taking on human form in order to offer humanity His strength and graces. How would Christ do this? By giving utterly of Himself.
In the centuries following Christ’s Ascension into heaven, Christianity spread and grew. The truth that it revealed to the human race was accepted so widely that it nearly single-handedly founded the basis of Western civilization and culture. Similarly, once vibranium was introduced in Wakanda, the substance became the foundation for the entire country’s civilization and resources. As crucial as Christ is to Western civilization, so vibranium is to the people of Wakanda.
If the coming of vibranium then can be distinguished, for our purposes, as a fictitious archetype to our Lord’s Incarnation, it would follow that the heart-shaped herb is a loose symbol for the Holy Eucharist. The chief difference should be made in the changes which both Christ and vibranium bring to their communities, respectively. Vibranium merely transforms the properties of a flower. The flower’s nature does not change. It is still a flower. However, Christ’s influence is much more spectacular (and real). He does not simply add something to the bread which He blesses at the Last Supper. He completely transforms the nature of its substance into His very body!
Apart from this difference, the heart-shaped herb maintains a number of similarities with the Eucharist. The young Black Panther, or King T’Challa as outsiders know him by, certainly has skills. He becomes good at building lasting cultural bridges, forming new ties, strengthening old alliances. And doubtlessly he can fight when he must. But even the king of the great Wakanda realizes that many of his powers, physical and intellectual, as the Black Panther are associated with drinking the pure liquid derived from the vibranium-infused heart-shaped herbs.
Like the consumption of the heart-shaped herb’s juice, the receiving of the precious body and blood of our Savior in the Holy Eucharist is meant to bestow strength upon us. This is a spiritual strength. It is the strength which is to help us get through the day-to-day struggles of this life. It is through this sacrament which the communicant receives God into his body and his own soul. And, similar to how T’Challa can speak with his father on the ancestral plain after drinking the juice of the unique flower, the communicant, after receiving Communion, is able to speak to God in the most intimate manner possible while on Earth. God becomes small in order to dwell within His creation, to share His love within the deepest depths of the human person.
The heart-shaped herb is seen as a rare gift, one guarded and treasured. In the early history of the Church, many governments sought the ruin of the Christian faith and cared less if they defiled the Eucharist in the process of destroying the Church. Saints, such as the youthful martyr Tarcisius, have offered their lives to the protection of our Lord in this sacrament. In the Eucharist, we Catholics have a treasure far beyond any comparison to the heart-shaped herb.
At a certain point in Black Panther, the hero T’Challa appears to be mortally wounded, having fallen from a terrific height. Unconscious, his life would be in jeopardy if his family try to move him. There is one hope for the youthful monarch: the powerful medicinal properties of the heart-shaped herb. Thankfully, a single flower had been salvaged amid Killmonger’s sacking and burning of the royal garden of the herbs in the Hall of Kings. It is on the Black Panther’s apparent deathbed that this sacred herb is employed once more.
This scene calls to mind the Eucharistic dimension of Last Rites, which entails not only Holy Communion but Reconciliation and the Anointing of the Sick as well. Last Rites are administered to someone at a time during which there is a strong possibility that the person is in danger of losing his life. The supernatural strength which Christ wishes to give to the receiver of the Holy Eucharist is akin to the uncanny (yet natural) strength instilled by the heart-shaped herb. In the case of the Black Panther, it is this receiving of “Last Rites” which brings about a miraculous recovery to physical health. Likewise, Holy Communion and the other sacraments employed in Last Rites are meant to cause a spiritual recovery, a healing of the soul from sin.
Just as bread was literally the “bread and butter” of much of the ancient world, so the heart-shaped herb is the crucial “bread and butter” of the Wakandan kingdom. The heart-shaped herb from its name alone may be symbolic of love, at the very least of the giving of life. Similarly, we see in the sacrifice of the Holy Eucharist a complete giving of life from Christ for our sake. He gifts His very heart to us in this Most Blessed Sacrament.
The vibranium-infused heart-shaped herb, which enhances a superhero’s capabilities, is a mere trinket in comparison to the awesome treasure we experience fully in the Holy Eucharist. The Word of God made flesh, Christ Who gives us Himself in the Eucharist, is the chief blessing of our earthly existence. Wisdom of Solomon 16:12 tells us, “For neither herb nor poultice cured them, but it was thy word, O Lord, which heals all men.”
John Tuttle
John Tuttle is a Catholic journalist, blogger, and photographer. He has written for Prehistoric Times, Culture Wars Magazine, Those Catholic Men, Catholic Insight, Inside Over, Ancient Origins, Love They Nerd, We Got This Covered, Cultured Vultures, and elsewhere. He can be reached at jptuttleb9@gmail.com.