To the editor:
A Protestant response
I agree that Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ was obscene, but it was realistic to the times of the Gospel.
A scripture states that the cross is foolishness to the unbelievers (1 Cor 1:17), but it is the power of God. Why, you may ask?
Refer to John 3:16 -- For God so loved the world (you and I and all) he gave his only begotten son so we (humanity and I as an individual) can have external life.
Major flaws seem to be, but we must realize God is a holy God and He can not bear the sin of darkness of the world. Light and dark can not share the same view.
Then Jesus took on all the sin of the word -- all, and that includes Hitler, Kruschev, all the evil that caused millions to starve in Africa, and the evil that occurs in Laredo every day.
Blood, torture, pain, and death there is and has been since Cain killed Abel. It takes one quart of oil or less to pollute Casa Blanca Lake . I, myself, have sinned that much within the last one hour.
Percy, you got it right about Jesus' ransom and forgiveness of our sins, and because of that all have a chance for eternal life.
The name of the movie was The Passion, the struggle.
It is very easy to believe in God, but very hard for God to pay that price. All good parents suffer for their children. But to show his love for His father, Jesus gave His all. Yes, Tomás, it was a chamber of horrors.
It was twisted, Percy, but in your review Satan was not mentioned. Yet he is dominant as he stirred the crowds to go beyond that self-control, all evil down through the ages comes from that Accuser, Father of Lies.
The gospels may not say anything about nails, but history and specifically the history of Rome is well documented. And where does the doubting Thomas story come from? Is it the Gospel or Acts when the ressurrected Jesus asked him to put his finger into the nail print and his hand where the spear went in.
I believe Thomas' great response was, "My Lord and my God."
Yes, it seems to us like sadistic frenzy and it was. Remember these battle-hardened soldiers did not fight their world-conquering battles by pushing the button for cruise missles and clean "black boxes."
Yes, Percy, there was serious slaughter and yes, Tomás, double standards do exist. But a pastor told us one time that if it was necessary just to save you or me or some stranger, He would have endured it. That's pretty personal, but Hell's everlasting will be so much worse.
Be it Aramic or Latin or Hebrew, the movie spoke all languages. Carnography, yes, but it was really like that. Truth, Saddam's torture camps are not clean.
Mankind and the animal unleashed within us makes us all have to apologize to the animals. Satan knows which buttons to push in all of us.
Yes, Jesus did appease himself, but it is not make-believe. We are bound for heaven. Only believe and ask God through Jesus to help you believe even more.
This 70-90-100 years of life is not for zero, it is from the cocoon to the butterfly.
Mel's movie has flaws, but at least it gets us to thinking, and we don't do that enough. Jesus' sacrifice is once for all.
Thanks for the review and thanks for printing my response.
ELH
Laredo , TX
Meg,
I read with interest the review of the Mel Gibson-directed movie, The Passion of the Christ. I came away from the movie with a different take than your reviewers. It was a very stylistic movie, had some scenes of pure beauty, and some scenes of brutal horror. It was the story of the passion of Christ, with a few artistic/stylistic alterations. Overall the story of betrayal, suffering, death, and rising from death is told in an excellent and accurate manner.
I didn't take way from it that the Jews killed Christ; my feeling is that we all betrayed him and we all called for his death.
Yes, the film was graphic; it did contain a lot of violence. But people tend to forget that our forefathers 2,000 years ago were barbaric. Those who are offended are the folks that want the crucifixes in their homes and places of worship to have a nice, neat, clean corpus on them. Jesus' suffered before he died. This movie makes that point very very clear. It certainly made me think and reminded me of the infinite love God has for us. The ultimate sign of love is truly laying down ones life for a friend.
If you believe, this movie will make you think. It was very interesting that the entire theater was silent from the time the movie started to the final credits. There was not a noise. And just like anything else that involves our faith, it will bring forth strong responses from individuals. Those whose faith is integral in their existence will respond with all their hearts behind them. It's okay to disagree. If this movie makes you think about the Christ and how he gave up his life for us, then it accomplishes the same thing that I try to do when playing music in the Liturgy on Sunday. If I can touch one heart, make one person feel closer to God, open their heart, eyes, minds, and hearts to the message of salvation in the Gospel, then I have done what God has called me to do. We convert hearts to the Lord one heart at a time.
Joe M. Coleman,
Associate Director,
Office of Worship
Diocese of Fort Worth
