Director Mel Gibson, for example, uses actors, such as the above-mentioned Jim Caviezel, who portrays Jesus, and Maia Morgenstern, who plays the Blessed Virgin Mary. Here’s another similarity between cinema and celebration: both convey the passion of Christ using a tapestry of outward signs and symbols. Both movie and Mass share the same subject matter, Jesus’ passion. (As an aside, The Passion of the Christ and its sequel could, together, give a clearer picture of the Paschal Mystery-the suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension-that is the content of every liturgical celebration.) In a recent catechesis on the Mass-part of his regular Wednesday audiences in 2018-Pope Francis said, “This is the Mass: to enter this passion, death, resurrection, ascension of Jesus when we go to Mass it is as if we’re going to Calvary itself” (see full text of the Holy Father’s audience, below). Both have as their content, the passion of Christ, the high point of Jesus’ saving work. I’ve found the 2004 epic a truly useful tool for understanding, and helping others to understand, the liturgy itself.Ĭonsider the similarities between the Mel Gibson movie and the Mass. Ever since that first viewing in 2004, I’ve tried to watch The Passion at some point every Lent.īut there is still another reason for being thankful for The Passion of the Christ and, I hope, its sequel (tentatively called, according to reports, “The Resurrection”). Since then, the film’s images, portraying history’s most central event, have stuck with me. On February 25, 2004-Ash Wednesday-a group of coworkers and I took the afternoon off and went to The Passion’s opening. My first reaction to this news, I admit, was a mix of skepticism and interest: assuming it follows the scriptural “script,” I know already how the movie ends, but I would be sure to see the movie on the big screen. Jim Cavielzel, the actor who portrayed Jesus in the 2004 film, The Passion of the Christ, confirmed recently that a sequel focusing on the resurrection of Jesus was in the works. The Mass is the true medium of the Passion of the Christ in today’s world.
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