Good Friday Arrives on Ash Wednesday—Sin & Violence Fittingly Exposed in

Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ

By Fr. James DiLuzio, C.S.P.

Mel Gibson’s THE PASSION OF CHRIST is a striking, compelling film recreating in vibrant, iconic images the Passion of Jesus Christ.  It is a film for believers to contemplate in much the same way Catholicism offers Stations of the Cross during Lent and the Seven Last Words programs on Good Friday. Yes, it is violent film, but not gratuitously violent.  Yes, it is harsh but so was the Crucifixion. It is not difficult to imagine the kind of excessive brutality of the scourging at the pillar shown here.  Contemporary events are ripe with such dynamics. In watching the soldiers’ intense, inhumane but all too fallibly human pleasure at the scourging at the pillar, and in the horrors of the nailing of hands and feet, contemporary images of 9/11, the US bombing of Iraq and Afghanistan flashed into my mind.  Fittingly this retelling evokes a desire to recoil from violence in all its excess, indeed, in all of its forms. 

In his book Violence Unveiled (New York: Crossroads, 1995), Catholic philosopher and anthropologist Gil Bailie goes to great pains to explicate that the Crucifixion of Christ was meant to identify, overwhelm and ultimately redeem humanity’s primeval attraction to scapegoating and violence. By exposing the crux of this evil, the Cross throws the human appetite for hate and cruelty into confusion, thus compelling recourse to a higher power for deliverance. In emphasizing the violence of the Passion, Mr. Gibson, whether wittingly or unwittingly, provides opportunity for the same. One would be hard pressed to justify a death penalty in any context after seeing this film, and furthermore, one wouldn’t crave a good cops and robbers thriller either.

As a filmgoer, I would have liked more contrast in the film – more scenes of compassion juxtaposed with the violence on screen.  For example, I sorely missed Joseph of Arimathea in this retelling.  Nevertheless, the scenes with Simon of Cyrene, Veronica and her veil, Mary and the beloved disciple at the Cross (and a brief but remarkable Disposition Tableau) were truly beautifully filmed.  I greatly appreciated the flashback moments of Jesus’ ministry, preaching and interaction with the disciples and his mother.  More of these would have brought a greater evangelization dynamic to the movie, acquainting non-believers with a more vibrant picture of who Jesus was and is for his disciples.  All the same, I found myself moved to tears from the film’s effective and unsentimental presentations of the Agony in the Garden, Peter’s denial, Mary’s encounter with her son (Mary’s role, once again,  ensuring we understand Jesus’ humanity), the Seven Last Words and the Disposition. James Caviezel as Jesus and Maia Morgenstern as Mary, Mother of Jesus, gave outstanding, deeply human and profound performances supported by a marvelous ensemble of actors who never rang a false note.  Cinematography, Art Direction, Score and, yes, the directing, were first-rate. 

I think most theologians today will take umbrage with the fact that the film does apply and emphasize the “sacrificial” and “prophecy fulfilled” theology that the New Testament writers embraced. The same theology, incidentally, that the Catholic Good Friday Liturgy continues to promulgate (Isaiah 53).  But I do not think the movie manipulates viewers into that theology.  Rather, THE PASSION simply and openly presents it from that point of view.  Here we find an important opportunity for the secular culture to enter into the ongoing ecumenical dialogue on the traditional “sacrificial theologies” that Christians must continually question and re-evaluate.  For these reasons, and because I did not find the film anti-Semitic or offensively gruesome (I did not find the vulgarity of Braveheart here), I judge the film to have great value as an important contribution to the Christ story filmography and worthy of our attention. Yes, it may prove true that like choirs returning to the tune of the familiar preaching of the priest or minister on Sundays, more Christians than non-Christians will see THE PASSION OF CHRIST but the film will keep the Cross, its import AND violence, and inter-religious dialogue—and the feelings and questions these evoke-- more in the public arena than a multitude of homilies ever would, ever could. This has to be an occasion for Good News.

James M. DiLuzio C.S.P.

See also Franciscan Richard Rohr’s reflection on the film at

http://www.cacradicalgrace.org/getconnected/passion.html