A Passion of Violence and Love
- ZENIT
On the set much more happened than what is known; much will remain in the secret of consciences: conversions, apparitions of mysterious personages, extraordinary explosions of energy, enigmatic figures who knelt down as the extraordinary Caviezel-Jesus passed by, even two flashes of lightning, one of which struck the cross, but did not hurt anyone.
ROME,
FEB. 18, 2004 (Zenit.org).- Vittorio Messori is the first journalist in history
to publish a book-length interview with a pope, the multimillion-selling Crossing
the Threshold of Hope (1994), as well as numerous other works such as The
Ratzinger Report (1987) and his best-selling Ipotesi su Gesù (The
Jesus Hypothesis, 1976).
After seeing Mel Gibson's The Passion
of the Christ, he wrote the following article for the Italian daily Corriere
della Sera and offered the piece to ZENIT for publication in other languages.
After
two hours and six minutes, the lights flick on again in the little soundproof
room. There are only about a dozen of us (I the sole journalist), and we are aware
of a privilege. By invitation of Mel Gibson and producer Steve McEveety of Icon
Films, we are the first in Europe to see the final copy of this film which just
arrived from Los Angeles. The same version that next Wednesday will be in 2,000
American cinemas, 500 English ones, and as many Australian, the version whose
expectation has caused a short circuit on Internet sites and which in the first
week will recover (the bookmakers say it is certain) the $30 million of production
costs.
The Pope himself has only seen a provisional version, lacking
among other things the final soundtrack. But, if this evening we are the first,
the Italians will have to wait until the 7th of April, the French and the Spanish
until June.
When the long list of credits ends, where American names
alternate with Italian, where recognition of the municipality of Matera is side
by side with that of theologians and experts in ancient languages, where Rosalinda,
the daughter of Celentano (the devil) is next to a Romanian Jew, Maia Morgenstern
(the Virgin Mary), and the technician presses the light switch, silence continues
in the little room.
Two women weep quietly, without sobbing; the monsignor
in clergyman's dress who is next to me is very pale, his eyes closed; the young
ecclesiastical secretary nervously fingers a rosary; a tentative, solitary start
of applause quickly dies out in embarrassment.
For many, very long minutes,
no one stands up, no one moves, no one speaks. So, what we were being told was
true: The Passion of The Christ has struck us, it has worked in us, the
first guinea pigs, the effect that Gibson wanted.
For what it's worth,
I myself was disconcerted and speechless: For years I have examined one by one
the Greek words with which the Evangelists recount those events; not one historical
minutia of those 12 hours in Jerusalem is unknown to me. I have addressed it in
a 400-page book that Gibson himself has taken into account. I know everything,
or rather, I now discover that I thought I knew: everything changes if those words
are translated into images of such power to transform in flesh and blood, striking
signs of love and hatred.
The Gamble
Mel has said it with pride tempered by humility, with pragmatism kneaded with
mysticism which becomes in him a singular mixture: "If this work was to fail,
for 50 years there will be no future for religious films. We threw the best in
here: as much money as we wished, prestige, time, rigor, the charism of great
actors, the science of the learned, inspirations of the mystics, experience, advanced
technology. Above all, we threw in our conviction that it was worthwhile, that
what takes place in those hours concerns every man. Our eternity is bound up forever
with this Jew. If we don't point this out, who will be able to do so? But we will
point it out, I am sure of it: Our work was accompanied by too many signs that
confirm it."
In fact, on the set much more happened than what is known;
much will remain in the secret of consciences: conversions, release from drugs,
reconciliation between enemies, giving up of adulterous ties, apparitions of mysterious
personages, extraordinary explosions of energy, enigmatic figures who knelt down
as the extraordinary Caviezel-Jesus passed by, even two flashes of lightning,
one of which struck the cross, but did not hurt anyone. And, then, coincidences
read like signs: the Madonna with the face of the Jewish actress with the name
Morgenstern which, it was only noticed later, is, in German, the "Morning Star"
of the litanies of the rosary.
Gibson remembered Blessed Angelico's warning:
"To depict Christ, it is necessary to live with Christ." The atmosphere, between
the Sassi di Matera and the Cinecittà Studios seems to have been that of the sacred
medieval representations, of processions of scourged pilgrims before the relics
of martyrs. A 14th-century Thespis' cart, with which every evening, a priest in
black cassock, of the type with the long line of buttons, celebrated an open-air
Mass, in Latin, according to the rite of St. Pius V. Precisely here, in fact,
is the real reason for the decision to make the Jews speak in their popular language,
Aramaic, and the Romans in a low Latin, of the military, which wounds our schoolboy
ears, used to Ciceronian refinements.
Gibson, a Catholic who loves the
Tradition, is a strong champion of the doctrine confirmed by the Council of Trent:
the Mass is "also" a fraternal meal but it is "above all" Jesus' sacrifice, the
bloodless renewal of the passion. This is what matters, not the "understanding
of the words," as the new liturgists wish, whose superficiality Mel mocks as it
seems like blasphemy to him. The redemptive value of the actions and gestures
that have their culmination on Calvary has no need of expressions that anyone
can understand.
This film, for its author, is a Mass: Let it be, then,
in an obscure language, as it was for so many centuries. If the mind does not
understand, so much the better. What matters is that the heart understands that
all that happened redeems us from sin and opens to us the doors of salvation.
Precisely as the prophecy of Isaiah reminds us on the "Servant of Yahweh" which,
taking up the whole screen, is the prologue of the entire film. The wonder, however,
seems to me to be verified: After a while, one stops reading the subtitles to
enter, without distractions, in the terrible and marvelous scenes that
are sufficient in themselves.
The Quality
On the technical plane, the work is of a very high quality, so much so that
previous films on Jesus might seem reduced to poor and archaic relatives: in Gibson,
strategic lighting, skillful photography, extraordinary costumes, rugged and sometimes
sumptuous set designs, incredibly convincing makeup, recitations of great professionals
supervised by a director who is also one of their illustrious colleagues. Above
all, such amazing special effects which, as Enzo Sisti, the executive producer,
said to us, will remain secret, to confirm the enigma of the work, where the technique
is intended to be at the service of faith. A faith in the most Catholic version
no accident that it was pleasing to the Pope and to so many cardinals,
not excluding Ratzinger, for whom The Passion is a manifesto that abounds
in symbols that only a competent eye can fully discern. There will be a book (two,
in fact, are in preparation) to help the spectator understand.
Very briefly,
the radical "Catholicity" of the film lies first of all in the refusal of every
demythicization, in taking the Gospels as precise chronicles: The things, we are
told, happened like this, precisely as the Scriptures describe it. Catholicism
is present, then, in the recognition of the divinity of Jesus which exists together
with his full humanity. A divinity that bursts forth, dramatically, in the superhuman
capacity of that body to suffer a level of pain as no one before or after ever
has, in expiation of all the sin of the world.
But the radical "Catholicity"
is also in the Eucharistic aspect, reaffirmed in its materiality: The blood of
the Passion is continuously intermingled with the wine of the Mass, the tortured
flesh of the corpus Christi with the consecrated bread. It is, also, in
the strongly Marian tone: the Mother and the devil (who is feminine or, perhaps,
androgynous) are omnipresent, the one with her silent pain, the other with his/her
malicious satisfaction.
From Anne Catherine Emmerich, the stigmatized
visionary, Gibson has taken extraordinary intuitions: Claudia Procula, Pilate's
wife, who offers, weeping, to Mary the cloths to soak up the blood of the Son
is among the scenes of greatest delicacy in a film that, more than violent, is
brutal. Brutal as, in fact, the Passion was. The desperate Peter after the denial,
falls at the feet of the Blessed Virgin to obtain pardon. I believe, however,
that the theological importance attributed to the Madonna, as well as to the Eucharist
an importance not spiritualized, not reduced to a "memorial" but seen in
the most material, and therefore Catholic, way (the Transubstantiation)
will create some uneasiness in American Protestant churches which, without having
seen the film, have already organized themselves to support its distribution.
If two hours are dedicated to the martyrdom, two minutes suffice to recall
that that was not the last word. From Good Friday to Easter Sunday, to the Resurrection,
which Gibson has resolved by making a particular reading of John's words: an "emptying"
of the funeral shroud, leaving a sufficient sign to "see and believe" that the
tortured one has triumphed over death.
Anti-Semitism or, at least, anti-Judaism?
Let's not play around with words that are much too serious. From my viewing, I
agree with the many and authoritative American Jews who admonish their co-religionists
not to condemn before seeing. It comes across very clearly in the film that what
weighs Christ down and reduces him to that state is not this one's or that one's
fault, but rather the sin of all men, no one excluded.
To Caiaphas' obstinacy
in calling for the crucifixion (that collaborator Sadducee who did not in fact
represent the Jewish people, but, rather was detested by them; the Talmud reserves
terrible words for him and for his father-in-law Annas), more than abundant counterbalance
is made by the unheard-of sadism of the Roman executioners. The political cowardice
of Pilate that leads him to violate his conscience stands counter to the courage
of the member of the Sanhedrin an episode added by the director
who confronts the High Priest crying out that that trial is illegal. And is it
not John, a Jew, who supports the Mother? Is not the pious Veronica a Jew? Is
not the impetuous Simon of Cyrene a Jew? Are not the women of Jerusalem, crying
out in despair, all Jews? And is it not Peter a Jew who, when forgiven,
will die for the Master?
At the beginning of the film, before the drama
is unleashed, an anguished Magdalene asks the Virgin: "Why is this night so different
from any other?" "Because," Mary answers, "we were all slaves and now we will
no longer be so." All, but absolutely all: whether they are "Jews or Gentiles."
This work, Mel Gibson says, saddened by aggressions to prevent it, intends to
propose again the message of a God who is Love. And what Love would it be if he
excluded any one?
This is J. Fraser Field, Founder of CERC. I hope you appreciated this piece. We curate these articles especially for believers like you.
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Acknowledgement
ZENIT is an International News Agency based in Rome whose mission is to provide objective and professional coverage of events, documents and issues emanating from or concerning the Catholic Church for a worldwide audience, especially the media.
Reprinted with permission from Zenit - News from Rome. All rights reserved.