March 7, 2004
A sequel from Mel?
Discussing
the Passionb
If you’d like to discuss the passion of Jesus in light
of the movie, Father Ralph is leading two discussions on Tuesday, March
23rd at 10am and again at 7:30pm in the school. More information in
next week’s bulletin. Save the date.
Father
Augustine's Brother
Father Augustine just
e-mailed some sad news. His older brother, Anthony Savarimuthu, age
55 died of a heart attack. He is survived by his wife and three children.
He was the
backboone of Father Augustine’s family who took care of his elderly
parents for over 20 years. Father Augustine has left Rome to go to his
family in India for the funeral. He didn’t say when he’d be
able to next check his e-mail, but if you’d like to drop him a
line, his address is:
amuthu130@yahoo.com
Please pray for Father Augstine and his family and for the repose of
his brother, Anthony.
At College?
At St. Brigid’s we like to stay in touch through
e-mail “letters from home.”
Once a person has an e-mail address at school (or if he/she uses a personal
address), please let us know what it is so we can include them when
we write.
Here's a handy college link so you
can send this info online.
e-mail Father Ralph:
Past Columns:
Feb 29: Come to Life!
Feb 22:
An Adventure to Life
Feb15: A rose by another
name?
Feb 8: If at first...
Feb 1: Our Patron Saint
Jan 25:A View From Inside
Jan 18: Our School
Jan 11: Baptism with Fire
Dec28: Our Holy
Family
Other Colums from 2003
Columns from 2002
Our staff went to see The Passion of
the Christ this past week. It features a very unflinching look at
the passion of Jesus from the agony in the garden to the resurrection.
I’ll give you a few of my quick reactions to the movie...
Its style is very European. By that I mean
that the images of Christ and the others portrayed in the movie are very
much like European paintings of the Stations of the Cross over the past
few centuries. If you’re expecting to see a Middle Eastern portrayal,
you won’t.
While there are many historical inaccuracies and while the
movie necessarily leaves out aspects of some of the gospels (since the
gospels contradict one another in some places, one has to pick and choose
what to use if one is mixing the accounts together for a movie), the point
of the movie is not to show technically what happened, but to help the
viewer come face to face with the passion and suffering of Jesus. It works
therefore as work of art, not as a documentary. Like most art about the
death of Jesus, it shares the artist’s interpretation of the story.
For the most part, I was very moved by this art.
The movie is very violent only because the crucifixion is violent.
The violence portrayed is disturbing and if parents are thinking of bringing
their children, I suggest that the parents view the film first because
they know their children well enough to know how to prepare them to see
this film or whether their children are too young to see this. (The movie
is rated “R”.)
What I liked the best: in his passion Jesus gets strength from both his
Father and his mother.
What I liked the least: the characterization
of the Jewish leaders. Of course some Jewish leaders were active in the
passion of Jesus. But I felt that the movie pandered to stereotypes and
cast them in roles that go beyond what the scriptures tell us.
What I’d hope for: a sequel! The passion
and death of Jesus is only part of the story. Let’s have a movie
about the Resurrection and Pentecost!
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