The Passion of The Christ (again)


On Tuesday night I attended a night of recollection that included a lecture on the biblical themes in the movie. It was given by Fr. Edward Seagriff, a great speaker and real hero in this diocese. The crowd of 80 was maximum capacity and the talk was excellent. Fr. Seagriff was funny and inspiring enough to remind me of Fr. Benedict Groeschel. The people there were regular Church goers who usually attend lectures such as these and I think they were impressed by this priest.

Tonight, I went to my parish where there must have been 200 people in the Church meeting room to hear a talk by another priest on the spirituality of The Passion of The Christ. The sliding wall partition had to be opened and another rack of chairs had to be brought out so everyone could be seated. The movie has generated great interest and it is sad to see how some of that interest is wasted. Tonight's talk was done by a priest, dressed in civies, who teaches at a nominally Catholic college. He could barely disguise his disgust at the movie and Mel Gibson's failure to "study the Bible not just read it". Many of the people at the talk were parents who I think are required to attend a couple of talks a year in order for their children to be confirmed, or to attend the school or something. Basically there might have been many semi-Churched people who just might have been reached had the talk been evangelical. The priest's point seemed to be that each Gospel writer had a different point to make and the movie could not show all of them. He made it clear that the Gospels are not to be read to provide historical facts and that it would be a mistake to try to investigate what historians of the time said about the Gospel events. Also, he said that there are many pious legends surrounding Christianity and that Jesus did not get as severe a beating as the movie depicted. I just think that this attitude of cynicism and academic pooh-poohing of "pious legends" is not exactly going to influence people who may or may not go to Church to deepen their faith. This is where the Church loses people.