DID YOU SEE THE MOVIE?

Did you see the movie? No, but I read the book.

In the past I have referred to movies that I have seen. It was not to recommend them as much as to draw some lesson from them. Actually, there was a time when I went to the movies on a regular basis. Now, I may see one or two movies a year.

A couple of years ago, Mel Gibson made a movie, The Passion of the Christ. Maybe you saw the movie. It got a lot of publicity. It was a great financial success, costing about 30 million dollars to produce and grosses more that 370 million dollars.

I was frequently asked if I saw the movie and what I thought about it. My answer was that I did not see the movie but I did read the book. Actually, I was not interested in seeing the movie because I had heard that it was very graphic in depicting the horror of the sufferings and death of Jesus on the cross. I know that, having not seen it, I should not be commenting on it. It has annoyed me when people are quick to condemn that which they have no personal knowledge of. But, I will make an exception in this case based on what others have said.

One critic said that it was brutal beyond description and that if the movie was powerful, it was only through the bludgeoning forensic intensity with which the film dwelt on Christ’s sufferings. The critic also points out the movie seems to be more obsessed with capturing every drop of martyr’s blood and sacred gobbet of flesh than with any message of Christian love. Yet, another critic said “more gore than gospel.””

It was for these reasons that I chose not to see it. I had seen another movie by Gibson that was excessive in the violence it portrayed. I had no stomach for that again, especially when it involved the Son of God. And, I have often preached that the Passion of Jesus is not so much about his sufferings than about his love.

As we celebrate Palm Sunday, we will begin Holy Week with the reading of the Passion according to St. Matthew. It will not give us any graphic details. Its purpose is not to frighten us, or to repulse us. It is to remind us of the extent to which our God is willing to go to show that He loves us. “There is no greater love than this than a person lay down his life for a friend.”

In fact, the entire week of Holy Week is a remembrance of that love, a journey of faith, remembering the events which are at the heart of our Christian faith.

And, in remembering, we hope to make present to us, here and now, that love which is God’s wonderful gift to us.