 To accept this movie at face value is to accept that in God's Providence,
the Cross was the remedy best suited to destroy sin. We have become too
accustomed, might I even say inured, to sin to recognize the radical nature
of the remedy God willed for it. If sin is not as bad as "they" say, then
there is no need to overdramatize Jesus' sufferings. But if sin-every sin-is
as bad as has been revealed, then it is time for all of us to take our heads
out of the sand and repent! The evangelists and their contemporaries, and
Christians for many centuries had a healthy and holy appreciation of sin. It
is our generation that mistakenly believes itself to be innocent of most, if
not all, charges. Our generation wills to redefine human nature and human
living so that our disordered drives and desires are described as normative.
The Passion of the Christ reminds us that truth never changes. What was sin
then, remains sin now. We can twist it, we can distort it, but we cannot
successfully remake it into our own image.
Like an inspired homily, this movie can jar us out of complacency to a
renewed commitment to discipleship. The movie alone won't convert us. It is
not a conduit of grace strictly speaking. But as the Liturgy of the Word
spurs us, by announcing the "faith [that] comes from hearing"(Rom. 10:17),
to fully encounter the Lord in the sacramental life of the Church, this film
has the capacity to fill the hearts and minds of the faithful with noble and
salutary sentiments that can give new life and meaning to the mysteries we
celebrate in the Church every day. It is already doing that. An experience I
had the other day is evidence of this. I was in the airport and overheard a
conversation between another traveler and a cashier at a coffee shop. They
were enthusiastically talking about the movie and the profound impact it had
on them. It struck me that Mel Gibson has done what most bishops, priests,
preachers and company haven't been able to do in a long time, namely to
inspire ordinary people in ordinary places, in everyday life to talk not
about scandals, but about Jesus and his immense love for us manifested by
his death on the cross. We owe Mr. Gibson and his film a great debt of
gratitude!
Article by Rev. John J. Raphael, SSJ
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