A View From the Pew

Do you want to know a secret?

Do you promise not to tell? wooooooooo...closer....

For baby-boomers those words are instantly recognizable as the lyrics of a Beatle song. I think they also explain some aspects of the "Da Vinci phenomenon". Like fear of the dark the lure of secrets seems instinctual.  We have all heard the saying that "knowledge is power"... and it is true. Way back when as mankind struggled through the centuries knowledge of one's environment was essential for life. Everything from fire starting and tool making---- to which plants were helpful and which were dangerous--- needed to be passed on from one generation to the next. Understanding signs in the skies and the earth was often essential to survival. Back then as well as now knowledge can literally mean the difference between life and death.

It doesn't take too big of a stretch of the imagination then to see the implied advantage to those possessing "secret" knowledge. Knowing things that others do not puts one ahead of the pack---and above all others. It instantly makes you special and more important then those who don’t have the hidden information. This is why secret knowledge is so enticing and why we are all so ready to listen to it with "itching ears".

The popularity today of the Da Vinci Code, The Gospel of Judas and the many other Gnostic writings as well as the persistence of “secret societies” down through the ages attests to not only our fears but also our pride. Gnostics, as the Catholic Encyclopedia states, “were ‘people who knew’, and their knowledge at once constituted them as a superior class of beings, whose present and future status was essentially different from that of those who, for whatever reason, did not know.”

When Christ came he made it clear that salvation comes from God and that God desired that all people be saved through faith in Him. This was Jesus’ mission to show every human being the face of God---so that all people could see Him and through seeing Him know God. He tells his disciples in Matthew Chapt 10:26-27

"….Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed, nor secret that will not be known. What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light; what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.”

In other words--- there is no hidden knowledge or any secret handshake one must learn to attain salvation--- it is simply believing in Christ and then living in the truth He revealed to all people. In John’s Gospel chapter 14:4-7 he tells Thomas and the others:

“Where (I) am going you know the way." Thomas said to him, "Master, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?"

Jesus said to him, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, then you will also know my Father.”

While coming to know Christ seems exceedingly simple and in some ways it is, living out that faith isn’t. It entails sacrifice, suffering and self denial. As John the Baptist explained we must decrease so that He can increase. It is not an easy thing to persevere in faith with all the trials and tribulations of this material world. Judaism and Christianity, and in fact most religious “systems”, hold that the soul attains salvation by obedience of mind and will to God, in other words, by faith and works. In Gnosticism the salvation of the soul rests merely in the possession of a quasi-intuitive knowledge of the mysteries of the universe and the magic formula signifying that knowledge. Its goal is to shed the physical world which is seen as an unnatural and an inferior state of being for a supposed non-physical “higher” state of being. Shedding one’s body through attaining higher levels of consciousness is the goal of Gnosticism.

Whether it is mind altering substances, tantric sex, astral projection, awakening one’s Chakras or simply denying the whole Christ for a stripped down more comfortable and easily accepted version—this knowledge offers a way to avoid the reality of sin as well as the personal sacrifice and suffering redemption entails. It is human nature to want to have what others can’t have--- it is human nature to want to find a short cut--- to discover the easy way out--- and this is precisely the lure of “gnosis”.

The Cross is a sign of contradiction. One of my favorite scenes from the “Passion of the Christ” was where Jesus embraces the cross and He is called a fool for doing so. The Cross reveals the depravity of human beings while at the same time revealing their true dignity and goodness. Only through the dying and rising of Christ can we come to true knowledge of ourselves and of God and this good news is not hidden, it has been offered out in the open and through the ages unto the ends of the earth.

Hard to speak....

Yesterday we went to see "The Passion of the Christ". It was an experience unlike any I have ever had at a movie theater. I imagine that it will be unique to every individual who goes. Believers definitely will respond differently then those who are not believers. I saw it with my husband, and son who are, like myself devout Christians---and my husband's brother who is an unchurched and secular kind of guy. There was absolute silence for the first five minutes after the movie and no one moved. My BIL didn't say too much although it seemed he was quite stunned, especially after my husband told him, in response to a comment about the violence, that it was true, that it portrayed Roman torture and crucifixion accurately. It will be interesting to see if there are any fruits in my BIL's life from this--- maybe a seed was planted---who knows...

As for me---- immediately after the movie I couldn't even speak about it--- the enormity of it left me speechless.Was it anti-Semitic? Absolutely not! Did I feel some resentment for the high priests that collaborated with the Romans--- I sure did--- did I despise the Roman soldiers for their cruelty-- yup--- I did--- but after a few moments I realized how self serving those feelings were because while those people were the instruments of God's plan for our salvation---- it was me and my sins that were the REASON for His death. This movie is not about blaming anyone--- it is about the enormity of God's love for the human race---- a love that is so big that He chose to become one of us, to suffer and die with us so that then we could be with Him forever.

Before seeing the movie I was pretty ticked off with all the detractors--- now I sincerely feel sorry for them--- and my prayer for this season of Lent is for this movie to turn hearts of stone into hearts of flesh--- starting with my very own--- I pray for rivers of grace to pour forth from this beautifully profound movie...

What will he say next???

Read this this morning--- there must be steam coming out of Abe's ears.

Jewish leader rebuffed over Gibson's 'Passion'

Foxman met Feb. 16 with U.S. Archbishop John P. Foley, president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications.

Archbishop Foley told CNS he explained to Foxman, "I saw no anti-Semitism in the film."

"Mr. Foxman said he saw it with different eyes," the archbishop said.

Watching the film, Archbishop Foley said, "I found myself meditating deeply on the sinfulness of each one of us."

"I would hope people would accept the film as a meditation on our own culpability for Christ's suffering," the archbishop said.

He also said he hoped people would be aware of the strong teaching of the Catholic Church that anti-Semitism is a sin and that not all the Jews of Christ's time, nor all Jews of all time were responsible for his death.

Seems Abe is the one who needs to be educated--- not Roman Catholics. He claims the Church teaches something different then Mel's movie portrays. Here is a portion of the document Abe keeps referring to---it is the Vatican II document Nostra Aetate and below is the section that applies to the Jews: NOSTRA AETATE
DECLARATION ON THE RELATION OF THE CHURCH TO NON-CHRISTIAN RELIGIONS

"As Holy Scripture testifies, Jerusalem did not recognize the time of her visitation,(9) nor did the Jews in large number, accept the Gospel; indeed not a few opposed its spreading.(10) Nevertheless, God holds the Jews most dear for the sake of their Fathers; He does not repent of the gifts He makes or of the calls He issues-such is the witness of the Apostle.(11) In company with the Prophets and the same Apostle, the Church awaits that day, known to God alone, on which all peoples will address the Lord in a single voice and "serve him shoulder to shoulder" (Soph. 3:9).(12)

Since the spiritual patrimony common to Christians and Jews is thus so great, this sacred synod wants to foster and recommend that mutual understanding and respect which is the fruit, above all, of biblical and theological studies as well as of fraternal dialogues.

True, the Jewish authorities and those who followed their lead pressed for the death of Christ;(13) still, what happened in His passion cannot be charged against all the Jews, without distinction, then alive, nor against the Jews of today. Although the Church is the new people of God, the Jews should not be presented as rejected or accursed by God, as if this followed from the Holy Scriptures. All should see to it, then, that in catechetical work or in the preaching of the word of God they do not teach anything that does not conform to the truth of the Gospel and the spirit of Christ."

So you see Mel Gibson's movie DOES NOT go against Church teaching nor the Gospels. Mel does not imply through his movie that ALL Jews are responsible then or now for the death of Jesus. His movie portrays what the Gospels and the Church teaches---"the Jewish authorities and those who followed their lead pressed for the death of Christ." Mr Foxman wants that erased. He will not be satisfied until the Christian Scriptures are changed to reflect his personal view of those events. He will not be happy unless the full culpability is placed on the Romans alone and every Jew is portrayed as good and holy. Reality is that no group, whether they be Jews, Christians, Muslims etc is made up only of good and holy people---every group has some members who are evil and corrupt and while a reality it does not mean that somehow EVERY person is that group is evil and corrupt--- Abe needs to get a grip and deal with the facts and stop trying to push his version of the Christian Gospel.

An Art Historian's View

An Art Historian's View of "The Passion"

I found this interesting. While the JDL continues to hyperventilate about the wave of anti-semitism this movie will undoubtly inspire (according to them---those who haven't seen it yet) Review after review written by Christians who HAVE seen it are proving them wrong--- I think this Christian, university professor's analysis pretty much sums up the feelings of all who have seen it so far---

In the case of "The Passion," every scene, every frame, is richly crafted to draw the viewer deeper and deeper into the story. A masterpiece of religious art -- of the most powerful sort -- "The Passion" involves the viewer to the point that he or she becomes part of the story.

Gibson's filming stands in the High Renaissance tradition. The figures fill the screen, they loom over us, threatening to enter our space. When Christ falls for the last time on the road to Calvary, he turns towards us, the viewers, and slowly tumbles, arms outstretched, right over us.

The flashback to Christ and Peter produces a similar effect. The camera is placed to capture the face of Christ in profile, while Peter faces us full on. We are seated to the right of Christ, witnessing Peter's solemn promises to follow Jesus even to death. Then the camera pans around so that Christ looks straight at us as he tells Peter that before the night is over he will have denied him three times. From bystander to protagonist in the blink of an eye.

The most compelling interplay between viewer and film occurs, however, during Gibson's representation of Michelangelo's Pietà.

Mary holds her Son in the exact same manner, one hand cradling his body and the other hand open toward the viewer. The variation comes in that while Michelangelo's Mary gazes solemnly down at her Son, Gibson's Mary looks straight out at us. The movie draws to a close provoking a full and conscious acknowledgment of whom this suffering has been for.

Now it is one thing to fashion a work of art, and another thing altogether to get people to look at it. Every semester I host a crop of visiting college students, here to get a dusting in art history, eager to view the beauties of Rome. Yet on entering the Sistine Chapel they typically look up for just a moment or two and then turn to me for an explanation.

Contemporary society is not used to having to look at something long enough to let it sink in. Mel Gibson gets around this in part through the use of Aramaic and Latin in the film. He offers some subtitles, but not many, and the viewer finds himself searching the faces on the screen for responses, for personal interaction to try to understand visually what he cannot grasp otherwise.

The Caravaggesque play of light and dark across Pilate's tortured face as he struggles to understand "what is Truth," reveals more than the dialogue itself. In some cases, translation proves unnecessary. The scoffing and jeering of the brutal soldiers becomes feral barking, underscoring the meaninglessness of the violence it accompanies.....
.....Another classically heroic Gibson moment finds Christ on his knees, crippled under the weight of the cross. His mother runs to comfort him, whereupon he smiles bravely and promises, "See Mother, I make all things new." The camera follows him up as he again shoulders the cross and struggles forward with renewed vigor.

Spurious charges of anti-Semitism have upstaged more important debate regarding the religious and artistic value of this film. The intensity with which Gibson forces us to think about Christ's passion highlights the power of cinema as an art medium, as well as a tool for evangelization.

Review after review are similar to this---here is an excerpt from another interview with Dominican Father Augustine Di Noia, undersecretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith:Interview Fr. De Noia

Q: Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" has been a newsmaker for months -- well before its scheduled release. As one of the handful of people who have actually seen it, what is your overall impression of the film?

Father Di Noia: Seeing this film will be an intensely religious experience for many people. It was for me.

Stunning cinematography and consistently brilliant acting, combined with the director's profound spiritual insight into the theological meaning of the passion and death of Christ -- all contribute to a production of exquisite artistic and religious sensitivity.

Anyone seeing this film -- believer and unbeliever alike -- will be forced to confront the central mystery of Christ's passion, indeed of Christianity itself: If this is the remedy, what must the harm have been?

The Curé of Ars says somewhere that no one could have an idea or explain what Our Lord has suffered for us; to grasp this, we would have to know all the harm sin has caused him, and we won't know this until the hour of our death.

In a way that only great art can do, Mel Gibson's film helps us grasp something almost beyond our comprehension. At the outset, in the Garden of Gethsemane, the devil tempts Christ with the unavoidable question: How can anyone bear the sins of the whole world? It's too much. Christ nearly shrinks at the prospect, but then convincingly proceeds to do just that -- to take on, according to his Father's will, the sins of the whole world. It's astonishing really.

There is a powerful sense, sustained throughout the film, of the cosmic drama of which we are all a part. There is no possibility of neutrality here, and no one can remain simply an onlooker in these events. The stakes are very high indeed -- something that, apart from Christ himself, is most clearly intuited only by his mother Mary and by the ever-present devil.

Gradually the viewer joins the characters in a dawning realization about this as the action moves inexorably from the Mount of Olives to the Mount of Calvary

So far it seems person after person has described their response to the film as a profound personal experience of the price that was paid by Christ for *their* sins--- which is EXACTLY the message of the movie--- it is the central mystery of the Christian faith--- sounds more and more with each review that Gibson has successfully portrayed this with stunning artistic and dramatic detail.

Isaiah 52:13-53:12

so marred was his look beyond that of man,
and his appearance beyond that of mortals--
So shall he startle many nations,
because of him kings shall stand speechless;
For those who have not been told shall see,
those who have not heard shall ponder it….

…Who would believe what we have heard?
To whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
He grew up like a sapling before him,
like a shoot from the parched earth;
There was in him no stately
bearing to make us look at him,
nor appearance that would attract us to him.
He was spurned and avoided by men,
a man of suffering, accustomed to infirmity,

One of those from whom men hide their faces,
spurned, and we held him in no esteem.
Yet it was our infirmities that he bore,
our sufferings that he endured,
While we thought of him as stricken,
as one smitten by God and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our offenses,
crushed for our sins,
Upon him was the chastisement
that makes us whole,
by his stripes we were healed.
We had all gone astray like sheep,
each following his own way;
But the LORD laid upon him the guilt of us all.
Though he was harshly treated, he submitted
and opened not his mouth;
Like a lamb led to the slaughter
or a sheep before the shearers,
he was silent and opened not his mouth.
Oppressed and condemned, he was taken away,
and who would have thought any more of his destiny?
When he was cut off from the land of the living,
and smitten for the sin of his people,

A grave was assigned him among the wicked
and a burial place with evildoers,
Though he had done no wrong
nor spoken any falsehood.
(But the LORD was pleased
to crush him in infirmity.)
If he gives his life as an offering for sin,
he shall see his descendants in a long life,
and the will of the LORD shall
be accomplished through him.
Because of his affliction he
shall see the light in fullness of days;

Through his suffering, my servant
shall justify many,
and their guilt he shall bear.

Thoughts on Mel's Passion

Billy Graham screens 'The Passion of the Christ'

Evangelist calls Mel Gibson film ' faithful to the Bible's teaching'

Posted: November 26, 2003
1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2003 WorldNetDaily.com
Renowned evangelist Billy Graham has screened Mel Gibson's new film "The Passion of the Christ" and says the movie moved him "to tears."

"I have often wondered what it must have been like to be a bystander during those last hours before Jesus' death," Graham said in a statement released from the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. "After watching 'The Passion of the Christ,' I feel as if I have actually been there. I was moved to tears. I doubt if there has ever been a more graphic and moving presentation of Jesus' death and resurrection – which Christians believe are the most important events in human history.
"The film is faithful to the Bible's teaching that we are all responsible for Jesus' death, because we have all sinned," Graham continued. "It is our sins that caused His death, not any particular group. No one who views this film's compelling imagery will ever be the same."
The comment about who is to blame for Jesus' death was a reference to some critics who claim the film is anti-Semitic because, they feel, it blames Jews for the execution.

My thoughts with regard to the charges of anti-Semitism---It is interesting how some things never change---even in two thousand years. Back in the early days of Christianity there were all kinds of rumors and innuendos about what the Christians did--- this is understandable because the followers of the rabbi Yeshua were a threat to the status quo of first century Judaism. I truly believe a lot of this has nothing to do with anti-semitism as much as it does the power of the story to convert people. That is the real threat. Anywhere the story has been told it has transformed people. Today, 2000 years later there are over two billion followers of Jesus. the prophet Isaiah said in chapter 55:

10 For just as from the heavens
the rain and snow come down
And do not return there
till they have watered the earth,
making it fertile and fruitful,

Giving seed to him who sows
and bread to him who eats,
11 So shall my word be
that goes forth from my mouth;
It shall not return to me void,
but shall do my will,
achieving the end for which I sent it.

This movie has the potential of vividly telling the story in a way that has the power to grahically visualize Christ's love and sacrifice--- there will be many, many conversions--- this I believe is the real and unacknowledged fear. It was not the Jews that killed Jesus--- that was a circumstance of history--- Jesus was a Jewish man--- living in first century Palestine--- so of course the people in that area were all players in what happened--- Any true Christian knows that it was the sins of all humanity that killed Christ. My sins nailed Christ to the cross just as surely as did the actions of any first century Jew or Roman soldier.

I am not insensitive to the concerns of some Jewish leaders--- I just think they are way overblown. To link today's Christians with the Passion Plays and actions of some of those in the middle ages, which is the basis for most complaints I've read, is ridiculous, and to me insulting. Not to mention it betrays a bigotry on their part towards Christians in general. It also displays a total ignorance of what Christianty is and what it teaches. What their protestations do is charge Christians in general with being anti-Semites.

From their actions you would think this is the first movie about Jesus ever made. There have been many,
Jesus of Nazareth (1977) Starring: Robert Powell, et al. Director: Franco Zeffirelli,
The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965) Starring: Max von Sydow, Charlton Heston,
King of Kings (1961)Starring: Jeffrey Hunter, Siobhan McKenna, are a few that come to mind. And what aboutTim Rice's and Andrew Lloyd Webber's Jesus Christ Superstar. None of these incited mass attacks on Jews by Christians. Why is this movie so different? In fact Jesus of Nazareth tells the same story. Why if these movies didn't incite waves of anti-Semitism are we to believe this movie will be any different--- especially in much more enlightened times.

I believe in reality the motivation of those protesting (without even seeing it) is not really fear of anti-semitism. I also believe that of those who claim that it is many may not even be fully aware of what is really troubling them. I think the troubling , probably unconscious thought is "what if--- what if this is true? What if Jesus was the messiah?" Jesus still is the most influencial person in human history--- his life and death are a challenge to every human being but maybe even moreso the Jews because he was one of theirs. His teachings were disturbing enough to SOME first century Pharisees that they felt he needed to be silenced--- the Babylonian Talmud even states that he was a "beguiler" who lead many Jews astray--- I think it is this that is at the very foundation of these hysterical protestations. I can understand this---- just as some Jews in first century Palestine felt Jesus was threat to them and their beliefs it is still the same 2000 years later--- not a threat in a physical sense but a challenge to their identity and beliefs.

I am not a casual observer in this whole thing. My kids are Jews, not by faith any longer but they are by blood, they have a recognizably Jewish last name--- I have Jewish family members who are very near and dear to me ---so I would have every reason to be concerned IF I believed there was a real threat---plain and simple --- there isn't.