The Passion of the Christ

 

KNXT PASTORAL MESSAGE    

April 2004

Bishop John T. Steinbock

Diocese of Fresno

 

Never in my life have I experienced so powerful a movie as the The Passion of the Christ.  After viewing the movie, the same scene was repeated in movie house after movie house: people leaving their seats and filing out of the movie house without so much as a word.  People are left speechless.

It is not the violence, as there are plenty movies even more violent than this one.  It is the message of Jesus, a message of love that many in this world reject and do not want to hear, which leads so many of the elite to condemn and criticize this movie.

No one can stay indifferent to the message of Jesus.  He claimed to be God and one must either accept it or reject it.  Jesus was the center of controversy when he came into this world, and he remains the center of controversy through every succeeding generation.

One of our priests, Fr. Gregory Beaumont, who is at St. Peter’s in Lemoore, wrote an article on The Passion of the Christ for the local newspaper.  (See page 1)  I think it is so well written I would simply like to quote some of his words concerning this movie.

“The question is not why did Mel Gibson make a movie about Christ that is so violent and bloody.  The real question is why did Jesus Christ choose to accept such a violent and bloody death?  I think it is because he wanted to show us the seriousness of sin, and that he was accepting in his own body the deadly wages of the sin of all of humanity, past, present and future.  Even more importantly he wanted us, in spite of our sins, to dare to hope and believe in his mercy, and so even in his excruciating agony and pain he prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”  Furthermore, Jesus wanted us to realize how important and valuable we are to him, that he would be willing to go to such an extent to save us and to pay such a price for the gift of our salvation.  Finally, for the times that we suffer and are in pain, we can never say “God doesn’t understand or care,” on the contrary his suffering gives hope and meaning to all human suffering, uniting it with his perfect mediation and sacrifice.”

These are powerful thoughts as we celebrate the death and resurrection of our Lord and Savior.

Happy Easter to all and may you be open to God’s many blessings.