Indeed the hour is coming, yes, has now come, that you will be scattered, each to his own, and will leave Me alone. And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me

 So often in film noir one finds themes of the lone man (or lone individual) who faces a very dirty, tricky, dark world and makes his way through that world to discover the truth about something.  Often that truth is a hidden act such as a crime, often involving murder.  The protagonist (or detective) goes through all the tricks of the evil person or persons in the story, is sabotaged or fooled, faces many deceptions and dangers. Often this involves self-sacrificial behavior on the part of the hard-boiled detective.  He has a code, after all, even if he's the only one left in the world who follows that code.  

Jesus tells His disciples, "Indeed the hour is coming, yes, has now come, that you will be scattered, each to his own, and will leave Me alone. And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me" (John 16:32).  He'll be the one to walk the straight path, the true path, the one of duty and courage, even when the rest are scattered.  He will pay the price.  He'll be deserted by friends and disciples, but not by His code nor His Father in heaven, the One whom He serves.  He's loyal to the end, and has the courage and integrity to be that person even if he has to do it alone, on His own.  Even when friends desert Him.  This is the startling light in the darkness, the existential reality of the divine who has come into the world as one of us, and faces the grim "facts" of this world on our behalf, to transfigure what looks true but is just an illusion, to expose the lies of death and evil.

Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it

"Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it" (Matthew 7:13; Sermon on the Mount).

In film noir, the way of destruction is always broad, it is everywhere.  It is often literally on whatever Broadway there is in a city, big or small.  There are pitfalls everywhere, especially for the unwise and uninitiated, those who sleepwalk through life without awareness.  When Christ comes into the world, He is wise beyond the world, and He is especially wise to the ways of the evil one, the accuser, the devil.  He knows how the demonic oppresses human beings, and tempts with its distorted values -- and especially with its full emphasis only on the material, the life of mammon and the temptations therein to declare that one is perfectly satisfied, all desires fulfilled.  Christ is wise to the ways of destruction, and the tricks meant to seduce us into it, precisely because He comes from outside the world. He's the opposite of naive; He's the One who can see what's what, when we are all too often so used to the mud in which we live, the darkness with which we're surrounded, we can't tell the difference.  Or we're too blind to see it because we don't know anything else.

And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it

 Many people attempt to write about the Gospels, and about the story of Christ.  But to see things as they are, one must understand both darkness and light -- and especially in the terms of Christ's language of illumination and darkness.  

To enter into the Gospels is to encounter the light shining in the darkness; the darkness that is the world that doesn't know the light, and the light that is Christ coming into the world.  The date of the celebration of the birth of Christ reflects that light coming into the world; it coincides with the solstice, when the light begins to grow and the days lengthen.

Christ taught that one must take very careful measure of the light that we allow to illumine our "eye" -- meaning our mind, that through which we apprehend life and the world.  "The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light.  But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!" (Matthew 6:22-23; in the Sermon on the Mount).  If we choose to "see" by the darkness, our whole lives, our way of life, our apprehension about how to walk in the world is dark indeed.