Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ
©Lucio Mascarenhas. April 25th., 2004.
For long years since I gave up the foolish fashion of atheism, and returned to Christ, I have wondered about His Passion.
I wondered: Why should the passion of Christ be sufficient to effect the redemption of all men?
I asked: Can we certify that Christ physically suffered more than any other individual man ever in the history of mankind? I doubt it.
There is nothing in the Scriptures or in the Teaching of the Church to indicate any such idea of the Christ's Passion being of the Supreme Quantity.
This problem is attenuated by the attitude of the Hindus amongst whom I live. The ideological, believing and apologetic Hindus are, in my considered opinion, the greatest hypocrites in all the history of mankind - greater even than the Pharisees.
The Hindus like to pretend that some of their heroes - actually purely mythical - suffered enormously.
There is the Hindu movie 1942—A Love Story. The story is a romantic myth of Hindu "Freedom Fighters" against the English and of the love story one of them had. In the movie, there is shown the torture of one of these "freedom fighters"—being tied with barbed wire to a tree—and the melodrama is meant to show that he outdid the suffering of Christ Jesus.
As a matter of fact, however, from my personal experience, the Hindus are largely a bunch of cowards, who will attack only if they have the numbers, but will squeal and compromise if they are isolated, outnumbered and overcome.
Coming back to track: I deduced that the Passion of Christ was not so much about Quantity as about Quality. Christ Jesus was and is the Spotless Son of God, God himself become Incarnate. He was certainly treated brutally, but I do not believe that he was treated the most brutally of all human beings that ever lived on earth - and I do not see that my Faith requires me to believe this.
I consider that many persons have been even more brutally tortured than Christ Jesus. I consider that a great many have been even sexually abused, thus worsening the dehumanisation.
On the contrary, with the Messias and his Passion, it was because of his innocence and majesty as God, that his passion was sufficient to effect the redemption of all mankind. Such at least is my belief, and I am willing to yield in the face of contrary teaching from the Church - if any.
This has been my greatest problem with Mel Gibson's movie, ever since the news of its making has begun to circulate.
But there are other serious difficulties.
As the Catholic Resistance, our present duty is to bring souls to the Truth, to Christ. Gibson's effort, in my considered opinion, sidetracks this mission.
Certainly, it is not acceptable that the movie has strengthened Protestants and other heretics and shismatics in their sects. It is unacceptable that the movie can be used by these people, that it does not contradict them.
Am I the only one — or part of a small minority even of a minority movement, the Catholic Resistance or "Catholic Traditionalism" — to feel this way?
Lucio Mascarenhas
©Lucio Mascarenhas. April 25th., 2004.