Passionate

[erikred]

In case you've been hiding under a rock for the past few months, Mel Gibson has directed a movie called "The Passion of the Christ" in which he seeks to graphically illustrate the final hours of Jesus Christ. Controversy has ensued as to whether this movie will stir up anti-Jewish sentiment. On the one hand, some people are arguing that since the movie seems to focus on the role Jews played in the crucifixion of Jesus, the anti-Jewish bent is all to apparent. On the other hand, some people are arguing that there is no anti-Jewish bent here, merely a retelling of the story as accurately as possible. (On the third hand, some are arguing that whoever Mel hired as publicist for the movie deserves an award for starting all of this controversy in the first place.)

The thing is, as a recovering Catholic, I remember seeing this movie every year since I was old enough to understand Easter. Sure, that version was played out in my mind, but the themes were there. In the Stations of the Cross, in the Passion Play, in the reading of the Scripture during Holy Week, through Maundy Thursday and Good Friday to Easter Sunday, we good Catholics were reminded of what Jesus suffered for our sakes. Sure, we didn't get to see the nails pounded into his palms/wrists, and no, we didn't watch him get scourged by the whip, but we heard all about it, every single ounce of pain. I remember feeling so sorry for Jesus as he was hauled up on that cross, his shoulders dislocated, his brow bleeding, his side pierced with the spear. The Passion, the priests reminded us, was supposed to inspire our own compassion, and it did. We came out the other side of Easter knowing that Jesus had wiped away the stain of Original Sin, and that the dead could now go to heaven to live with God forever.

What we never learned during that time was to hate Jews. There was no emphasis on the Jews choosing to free Barabbas over Jesus, or the evil nature of the pharisees in having Jesus arrested in the first place. The emphasis was on the implementation of God's will: Jesus knew the guards were coming for him; he knew he could easily have placated Pilate by pretending to recant; and he knew that the only way he could guarantee himself a painful death on the cross was to tweak the noses of the politically powerful. The Jews of Jerusalem, Jesus' compatriots, were tools used by Jesus and God to orchestrate the greatest sacrifice; Jesus himself, hanging there on the cross, admonished God, "Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do." Who were we, the congregation, to turn that on its head? How could we dare to hate when the man who was sacrificing himself for us continued to preach love?

I am no longer Catholic, and I look at these things through different lenses now. I see now in the death of Jesus the forging of a new covenant in the Judeo-Christian mythology, a covenant wherein God forgives the sons and daughters of Eve and Adam their progenitors' Original Sin. I understand the archetypal power of a sacrifice of oneself to oneself (i.e., one part of the Trinity to another part of the Trinity). I can appreciate the rich tapestry of compassion woven into the story of a man who died to prove that love is most important of all.

I fail to see how any of this can instigate hatred in the hearts of men... unless that hatred is already there. If it is, then we need to focus on the roots of that hatred and how it can be defused, not wail and moan and beat our breasts over a movie that happens to tell the very violent tale of the end of one man's life.

Comments

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Amen, dude.

[mumbojumble.livejournal.com]

I think (and I haven't been following this closely since the very beginning of the controversy, so forgive me if I'm wrong) the problem with this movie is that it references the tradition of the medieval passion play, which was part of a cycle of plays about the Bible that were performed in the streets of certain cities in Europe. One city in Germany, I believe it was, still performs such a cycle. The passion play tradition is notoriously anti-Semitic. Even if Gibson took out the "Jews are Christ-killers" parts, some very sore wounds may still be smarting.

Re: As you say

[erikred.livejournal.com]

I appreciate what you're saying, but those Passion Plays are very much echoed in the Easter celebrations of the modern Catholic Church. That said, I think Archbishop of San Francisco has expressed the argument against the Passion of Christ (the event, not necessarily the movie) being anti-semitic rather well.

Re: As you say

[mumbojumble.livejournal.com]

Actually, the rebirth of drama in the west after the dark ages was in church: it comes from certain performances in Easter liturgies, which then grew to be the cycle plays. So you're right. It is a very moving and dramatic story.

I don't think the argument is over whether we should have a movie about Christ's life, though. After all, we don't see any fuss raised about PBS specials on the life of Christ. I haven't seen the movie, obviously, but I do know a bit about the medieval passion play and the way it distorted some of the "facts" in the Bible. I think the problem is not in the telling of the passion of Christ, but in assigning blame in the play where in Scripture the blame is unclear. If you are drawing on a tradition that makes Caiaphas and Pontius Pilate evil stage villains, even if their motivations are not quite so clearcut in the Gospels, that could be seen as really anti-Semitic and misleading. That's the tradition, anyway. If I remember correctly, Gibson was being accused of taking similar liberties.

I don't think the majority of Christians are going around calling Jewish kids on the playground 'Christ-killers,' but some still do. That idea was popularized in the Middle Ages (and down through literature) by the cycle plays. The Catholic Church's late, late apology for anti-Semitic teachings at Vatican II was really not that long ago, and there are still very active tensions between the Catholic church and Jewish communities. This seems to be a part of that.

I grew up Catholic, too, but I never liked Easter. In fact, Easter was one of the reasons I decided not to be Catholic. I just couldn't buy the rebirth thing. It seemed like a ghost story to me -- fun to hear but absolutely not convincing. I do like the Transfiguration and the part when Jesus disguised himself and walked beside his followers on the way to Emmaus. I also didn't like jelly beans. But that's another story. I don't remember hearing anything anti-Semitic related to Easter when I was growing up, so I agree with you that there are ways to tell the story that focuses on parts that teach the good aspects of Christianity, I suppose.

Re: As you say

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Actually, not all those Passion Plays were echoed in the Easter celebration of modern Catholic churches.

In fact, Jewish history remembers that with the old Passion Plays, Good Friday was a very, very bad day as that was when the pogroms (in medieval times) would go into full effect. And Jews would be hunted down as Christ-killers. Because everyone would be forgiven on Easter Sunday.

Part of the controversy also stems from the fact the much of The Passion was lifted from the novel by an anti-semitic nun, which Gibson presents as if it were Gospel when it can't be found in any of the Gospels. Like the 'count' of the lashes, the torture by the guards, and the Jewiah crowd saying, "Let his death be on our heads and the heads of our children." None of that is actually in any of the four Gospels, but Mel presents it as if it were. Without taking into regard the fact that the tribe of Jews that did follow up on the persecution was a single, priviledged, political entity of Roman times and a very singular minority of the whole Jewish population...

Another part of the controversy and one of the reasons I'll probably never see the movie is that it *is* a very Catholic based view of the death of Christ. And seems, to me at least, to latch onto "He Died for our Sins" as the sole purpose of Jesus's life. For someone like me, that's repugnent. His life and teachings are very important to me. His death is also important, but not my sole reason for worshipping him or his God, or, honestly, even my prime reason. It doesn't help that historically, women's abuse was often explained as suffering for their sins as Christ-like, so they shouldn't complain...

Bleh. That's a bad off-shoot.

Kind of like mentioning that Mel's dad keeps yelling that the Holocaust never happened, that all those Jews disappeared just because they left the country...

A mild reason for distate for me, too, comes from Mel presenting the four Gospels as if they were one, consistent story, which they are not. The inconsitancies, the differences of viewpoint, and the different focusses of the four writers are completely lost and overriden by the story of a lady that wasn't even there or even connected directly to anyone that was there. That's what I really don't like about the movie.

None of which is to say that the movie, itself will cause violence. It's like saying 1st person shooter video games will cause violence. Both are stupid statements. So I think I'll agree with your main point, in that I don't see any reason this movie, itself, would cause any violence. The problem is that it does, in its very specific form, touch on a lot of old pain in the Jewish community.

Re: As you say

[erikred.livejournal.com]

Having finally gone and seen the film, I feel obliged to tell you that it is, as you point out, a very Catholic-based view of the death of Christ. If you don't find that version convincing now, you certainly won't feel convinced of its accuracy after watching the movie.

In addition, Mel Gibson is a shameless sentimentalist who learned heavy-handed emotion-tugging at the feet of Masters Spielberd and Howard; like his mentors, he is a compulsive manipulator. The Passion has moments that made me want to shake my fist at the screen and yell, you cheap bastard, how dare you! (But, of course, I didn't, seeing as how, well, I'm not a nut.)

In short, there's not a lot to recommend the Passion, apart from its use of Aramaic and Latin. If one needed this sort of thing, one would be much better served by attending Mass during Holy Week.

I, for one, can do without.