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02/26/2004 Archived Entry: "Passion response TC"

Posted by clbloomer @ 01:53 PM EST [Link]

THE PASSION

I am providing here the reaction of a dear friend who saw "The Passion" yesterday. We had asked her to let us know what she thought. She is a devout Catholic, a nurse, intelligent, caring, and one of the sweetest people I have ever met. (I did some minor editing to remove names and personal items.)

"I'm left just staring at the keyboard..........can I put together any of these letters to form my response to the movie. It's beyond words. The tears poured down my face like an opened dam, one after the other as I watched Mary's pain in seeing her Son suffer. The scourging at the pillar was horrific and yet you couldn't look away; shame, devotion, a deep love for Christ keeps your eyes riveted to the screen. My diaphragm convulsed as I tried as hard as I could to stifle my growing need to sob.

I didn't want to get out of my seat at the end. I just needed silence, no words, no motion, because somehow every muscle in my body was devoid of movement. It was profound; a visual of everything you imagined it must have been like.

I felt like a woman in shock, my face expressing no emotion, my eyes slightly widened as people stared. I thought I had my cover intact until I took one look at myself in the mirror. Whoa.........no dam opens that much without reddened eyes and a Rudolph nose.

My opinion on the fear of the Jews seeing this as a threat of hate crimes to come...............get over yourself, this isn't about you. As the crowds are yelling to have him crucified you aren't thinking about the ethnic significance. It's so far beyond that, if you're really a Christian that's not what the focus is for you. I would be shocked to learn that anyone comes away from this film hating Jews.

I hate to think of you missing out on such an experience. Some would say it was too graphic, too violent, but somehow to do less than what it was would have been a great disservice to the true sufferings Christ went through for us. I can't stand to watch violent films, but this was different for me. Maybe because of the personal nature of it all, knowing he could withstand that kind of brutality out of love for each one of us. I know I'm not doing a good job of expressing this, like I said, these letters on the keyboard just can't do it. I never once covered my eyes to shield myself from the horror on the screen. My need to protect myself was far outweighed by the gravity of what was happening before me, my needs just didn't matter. I felt very small in the face of His love.

I want everyone to see this film, there's no way it can't change the life of anyone seeing it."

Not much I can add to that.

cb