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 , March 2004
Let
me say right up front that I haven’t seen, nor am I planning
to see, The Passion of the Christ, the Mel Gibson film that
found itself the center of political and religious debate
even before its release on Ash Wednesday.
I can
hardly sit through an episode of "CSI" without placing
a pillow in front of my face or leaving the room during particularly
gruesome depictions of forensic science. I don’t think
that it would be a responsible use of my resources to pay
to see a movie only to keep my eyes closed during most of
the film—which, because of the subtitles, would render
me both blind and deaf.
So with
that said, let me clarify that while I haven’t seen The
Passion of the Christ and don’t plan to in the future,
I, like you, have certainly seen and will continue to see
well into the future, the ongoing passion of Christ in our
world today.
As Catholic
Christians, we are a people whose lives are intimately and
ultimately entwined with one another and to the world in a
particularly incarnational and sacramental way. Our baptism
united us to the Christ and to one another. Our participation
in the Eucharist identifies and sustains us as the Body of
Christ.
In an
Easter homily that dates back to the 4th century, Augustine
preached to new Christians about the power, the price and
the call of the Eucharist: "See what you are and become
what you receive," he told them and continues to remind
us today.
Look around.
The suffering of the Body of Christ is unmistakable. The passion
is everywhere.
Bombs
ripping through morning trains in Madrid; soldiers, young
boys and girls really, continue dying in Iraq and around the
world; in our country, the richest in the world, children
are malnourished and starving, and our senior citizens often
have to choose between prescription medications and things
like milk and eggs. Our prisons are filled to overflowing
by many people who are detained by our penal system because
we can’t provide adequate mental health care facilities
for them. Our politicians and religious leaders continue to
lose credibility because they fail to apply their standards
of justice and compassion to themselves and their own institutions.
Earth is reminding us over and over again that she can no
longer sustain the devastation visited upon her by the human
community.
There
are gaping wounds on the Body of Christ. The scourging continues
even unto today.
I’ve
been intrigued by all the press that Gibson’s film has
garnered, and how it has reopened what in this day and age
seems a senseless debate about who was responsible for the
death of Jesus, as though our experience of the Risen Christ
in our lives rested on that knowledge. I’m even more
intrigued by the whopping $250 M the film has grossed so far.
I hope to be intrigued by the fruit of the experience in the
lives of the millions of people who have been able to watch
the film.
If, in
the lives of Catholic Christians who see the film, it aids
in their experience of the Risen Christ in their lives and
their call to help bring about the reign of God in the world
today, then the film might be able to call itself successful
from a faith perspective. If, on the other hand, the film
results in rancor, hatred or judgment toward those other than
Christians, or launches its viewers into guilt-induced piety
or worse yet a relationship with Jesus that does not embrace
with it the whole world, then the film will not only have
failed from a faith perspective, but it will have also failed
from a human perspective as well.
The suffering
that the person of Jesus endured is indisputable. It was only
after witnessing that suffering and his death and then experiencing
him alive again that Jesus’ followers came to recognize
him as the Christ—The Anointed One—of God.
Two thousand years later Jesus’ followers are still trying
to make sense of the suffering of the Body of Christ and how
to live to spend our lives re-living it.
— Sister
Mary Pellegrino
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