A NEO-NAZI confessed to two decades of bombings in Norway. A man from Arizona walked up to the police and pleaded guilty of six burglaries, while a fugitive in a bank robbery in Florida turned himself to police authorities. In Texas, a murderer admitted to his crime which investigators ruled out as a case of suicide, while in Metro Manila, priests were surprised by the number of penitents going to the confessional. All of these, reports say, happened after watching Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ.
The movie The Passion narrates the last 12 hours of Christ’s passion and death, and ends with a scene of his resurrection. For added realism, the languages used during the time of Christ, Aramaic and Latin, were used with English subtitles.
Two weeks after its release, it already topbilled the gross market of the Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. From Ash Wednesday to Holy Week, theaters worldwide went full-house to accommodate eager movie-goers.
The Passion’s passion
Perhaps most if not all of us have already seen The Passion, and made his own reflection and reaction on the film. One asks if the movie indeed is anti-Semitic or overly gory as critics say it is, or just presents the truth of what really happened.
“It is as it was,” says the Pope after watching the movie in December, his close aides said. Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls, after a request from the chief rabbi of Rome for the Church to condemn the show, said that nothing is anti-Jew about the film, otherwise it would have been criticized by the Pope or the Catholic hierarchy.
Gibson, a devout Catholic, met with top theologians and Church officials at the Vatican even before embarking on the project, and consulted thousands of biblical scholars in the last 12 years he was planning the movie. He blamed the March 9, 2003 New York Times Magazine article of Christopher Noxon as behind the media blitz charged against him and the movie, even before its final production and release.
According to Gibson, Noxon portrayed Gibson’s father, Hutton Gibson, as an anti-Semite traditionalist Catholic espousing wild conspiracy theories. Gibson said Noxon quoted his father out of context, and the actor objects that he or the film is “guilty by association”. Accordingly, Noxon’s father is part of the homeowner’s association that tried to block the Gibsons from building a church in Agoura, and so the New York Times article had been tailored to serve personal interests.
“The film is a cinema-tographic transcription of the Gospels. If such a story were anti-Semitic, it would pose a problem for the Judeo-Christian dialogue, because it be would like saying that the Gospels are not historical. One must realize the seriousness of these affirmations,” Valls said.
Fr. Regino Cortes, UST College of Fine Arts and Design Regent, and biblical scholar of the Pontifical Biblical Commission in Rome and the Ecole Biblique et Archeologique Francaise in Jerusalem agrees.
“Besides its effective flashbacks, symbolisms used, and some scenes like the wiping of Jesus’ face by Veronica which was based on a Church tradition, the movie is a faithful presentation of the Gospels,” he said.
According to Cortes, the movie comprehensively derived its themes from the three Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke), and particularly from John.
“We can find in John the severe flagellation of Jesus by order of Pilate, that the Jews may take pity on him and be saved from crucifixion,” he said.
Cortes added that the movie is not anti-Jew since Gibson in fact omitted the words of Caiaphas to Pilate, “Let his blood be upon us and our children” (Mt. 27:25), and of Jesus to the women of Jerusalem, “Do not weep for me but for yourselves and your children” (Lk. 23:28), that some say may incite anti-Jewish sentiments.
As to anyone who understands the film, Christian or non-Christian, the movie hardly shows any sign of anti-Semitism, especially with its theme of loving one’s neighbor.
The protagonists in the story, Jesus and the disciples, were all Jews and many Jews including those in the Council of the Sanhedrin are portrayed sympathetic to Christ.
“Where are the other members of the Council? A Travesty!” says a Pharisee in the trial of Jesus before Caiaphas. Maia Morgenstern, who plays Mary the mother of Jesus, is a Yiddish Romanian, and many of the film’s cast and crew are also Jews.
Even if one does not believe in the Gospel accounts, non-Christian references on the events surrounding Jesus confirm the accuracy of The Passion, specifically the scenes where Pilate is henpecked by a Jewish mob (which do not necessarily represent Jewish sentiment), to crucify Jesus, and likewise the Roman acts of torture.
In the texts of the The Antiquities of the Jews by Jewish Pharisee and 1st century imperial historian Josephus Flavius, it is said, “Jesus, a wise man who drew to himself many Jews and Greeks,” was condemned by Pilate, “at the denunciation of those that are foremost among us.” The bronze coin issued by Pontius Pilate in 30-31 AD, which has no imperial portrait minted on it to avoid offending the Jews, similarly indicates Pilate’s vulnerability to political pressures, analysts say. The Roman Law that time indicts 40 or more counts of flagellation to a criminal by various whips and rods, and so the presentation of the scourging of Jesus could be accurate as well.
Meanwhile the cleansing of Jesus’ blood in the cobblestones by Mary and Magdalene reflects Jewish tradition.
No wonder, the movie lavished praises from both Jewish and secular circles, and there were Muslims, Jews, and agnostics who were not only moved by the film, but converted to Christianity after watching it. Contrary to what was expected, no pogrom was incited against the Jews by the viewing public, not even in anti-Israeli Islamic states where the movie was allowed to be shown.
In the end, despite all the controversies hurled against the motion picture, The Passion proved itself worthy of its message. The movie, after all, like Christ and the rest of us, has a cross and a victory to take. With reports from osvnews.com, EWTN, and The Philippine Daily Inquirer
