Except for those who couldn't handle the violence, people who came with traditional faith often were deeply moved, while those who favor something else in the religious line (I hesitate to give it a name) often were annoyed.
Some said it's wrong to make so much of the sufferings of Jesus, whose message was love and solidarity. And indeed love and solidarity are central to what He preached. Still, at the consecration of every Mass, repeating Jesus' words, the priest declares that the wine has become Christ's blood — “the blood of the new and everlasting covenant…shed for you and for all so that sins may be forgiven.” Or isn't that politically correct?
The anxiety of Jews was understandable. Although the film isn't anti-Semitic, I had no quarrel with observant Jews who worried that it might be. As a Jewish friend put it, “It isn't so long since the Holocaust, you know.”
But I felt little sympathy for patronizing, elitist warnings against anti-Semitism emanating from sources in the Christian community. The assumption appeared to be that the rest of us are rednecks who need watching by our betters. Not to put too fine a point on it, that's insulting.
The bitter nastiness expressed by some secularist critics deserves special mention for what it said about these custodians of the secular culture. What frequently came through wasn't just dislike of a particular movie, but hatred of Christianity itself. To the extent that the film brought this venom to the surface, it served an unintended but useful purpose by reminding complacent Christians that it's there.
The Passion also did something worthwhile by forcing people to think and moving them to enter into the discussion of questions that usually don't get discussed. Who was Jesus Christ? Why did He live and die? What difference do His life and death make to me or anyone else today? Who was responsible for His execution? How should Christians and Jews relate to one another?
The Jewish friend mentioned above told me that his synagogue had organized a discussion program on the meaning Jesus has for Jews. I don’t suggest that this makes these good people prospective Christian converts — almost certainly they aren't. But the fact that a movie led them to reflect on this question was a good thing in itself.
So were the countless discussions that took place in Christian congregations, periodicals, and schools. If not everything said was insightful and illuminating, on balance it was a healthy exercise.
Finally, a word about The Passion of the Christ:
Having missed a screening of the film last year, I caught up with it in early March at the Vatican, where a showing had been arranged for the Pontifical Council for Social Communications. A print was flown in from London (this was several weeks before the movie opened in Italy), and I watched The Passion with an audience of cardinals, bishops, and others.
When it was over, the archbishop who was our host suggested that we say the Our Father. It seemed the natural thing to do, so we rose and prayed. Then people filed out in silence.
“It's very powerful,” a cardinal murmured as he walked past me up the aisle. So it was. Just then, there wasn't much else to say.
Russell Shaw is a freelance writer from Washington, D.C. You can email him at RShaw10290@aol.com.
To purchase Shaw's most popular books attractively priced in the Catholic Exchange store, click here.
