My review of the Passion of the Christ

It's without dialog, is it?

 

It is without reverence, accuracy, decency. For starters. Also it's without Resurrection, Ascension, Holy Spirit on Pentecost, which 3 things complete the whole, saving gospel.

"No words" may mean the fact that audiences are stunned into silence by the sheer force of 2 hours of unrelenting gore, brutality, and savagery against the One we say we adore.

The visual assault will be great for those who love on screen violence.

 

It ends with the resurrection.

 

Kind of tough to include the Ascension and Pentecost if it ends with the resurrection, eh?

 

Its focus wasn't Ascension and Pentecost - or do you think the Gospels are guilty of a similar blunder?

 

I certainly saw the Holy Spirit (represented) and the promise of the Advocate in the film.

I agree with Brother Adam. I don't think I can review this.

 

I tried reviewing it, but I just couldn't do it. Maybe tonight I can now that I've had 24 hours to reflect on it. Powerful stuff.

 

I'm going again Thursday night.

This was a powerful film.

Diane

 

I would still not see it if it was made by a Baptist. It's my personal preference to not want to see a re-enactment of the one who loves me best whipped and hung on a cross.
What if this movie was your son, your daughter, your dad, your mom, being tortured for you and a movie was made depicting it in graphic detail?
Sorry, I just don't get the logic that would make one even think about being able to stomach it!
Gina

 

Hi Gina,

You wrote, "It's my personal preference to not want to see a re-enactment of the one who loves me best whipped and hung on a cross."

Your reaction is one that accompanies a faulty view of the crucifixion.

Everything that Jesus underwent in his Passion was a teaching. It was a free act of love. Jesus was not punished. Jesus freely underwent sufferings in order to pay the price for our sins by satisfying for those sins through an infinite act of pure love upon the Cross. All is love.

Once you forget that the Cross was God manifesting his love publicly as an act of divine revelation to teach each of us how to love and accept the faulty notion that God poured forth his vengeance upon Jesus on the Cross, then you have missed the whole message, sister!

We aren't to feel sorry for poor Jesus who is undergoing God's wrath. We are to experience the profound love manifested in the God who suffers out of a selfless manifestation of Trinitarian life, a love which we are to live out - as we live out the Paschal Mystery in our own lives - by carrying our own cross.

This is why the Crucifix is so central to Catholic worship and not an empty cross. The Dolorous Passion of Jesus Christ is an incarnation of the infinite love the Trinity has for each one of us, personally, and that is represented by depictions of what otherwise would be merely a Roman execution.

 

Yes the cross was pure love on the part of Jesus, but we can't deny that it was pure hatred on the part of man. A violent clashing of the two strongest emotions that exist.
I am reminded of hatred on a daily basis, in many forms, not the least of which is knowing that human hatred killed our Savior, and divine love allowed it to happen.
It's over. It doesn't need to be seen again, it simply needs to be told about and remembered, and the type of love shown something that affects us and manifests itself in our lives.
I can only think that if I walked out of this movie I'd walk out with an intense hatred and fear of the human capability to hate, including myself. I don't want that. Hatred is easy, love is tough.
I understand that the cross was love, but I do not think I have the ability to physically see the crucifixion and focus on Christ and love when I see him being whipped and beaten by us. I would focus on hatred and self-loathing for having done that, and to me that wouldn't be something desirable or needed. Been there, done that, and no longer need to feel that way because it is OVER and I am forgiven!
I wonder sometimes how God feels about those who keep going back, feeling guilty and repenting for the same things all over again after they already did and he already said "You are forgiven". If our kids did that with us we'd certainly start to think something was really wrong with them, perhaps even get angry and wonder why they can't accept that it is over and they have been forgiven for the initial act.
Gina

 

How can we truly appreciate Christ's sacrifice if we haven't really seen what He went through to save us? There's a difference between hearing and experiencing. To experience something will give you so much more of a gratefulness for what was done than if you just hear about it.

 

Personally, I would not miss this movie.

My husband and I have made it possible for a family of three, which would not have been able to go, to go with us Friday evening.

I'm in hopes that the response from these people will cause them to start their walk with God. They visit our church, but are not consistent with their attendance.

Yes, I want this for them, but I also look at it as winning them for Him.

MEE

 

You haven't seen it, and are hence unqualified to give a review on it.

 

In the same way I would appreciate a stranger donating a kidney for me without having ever seen him go through the operation or ever having met him in person, though I'd long to. The effects on me would be life-giving and life-long, and every day I was alive would be enough of a reminder to make me appreciate it.
Gina