The Passion

I was just flipping through channels and I landed on Biography. The episode was on Mel Gibson and it just happened to be at the point in his life when the Passion of the Christ was coming out. The controversy over the movie was briefly talked about. Jeffrey Lyons (I guess he was a movie critic or something of the sort) spoke about the violence of Christ's death that is portrayed in the movie, how it was unnecessary, how people who believe in and worship Christ do so because of the good he did in his life, not because of how he died. I almost yelled at the television. Obviously this man does not understand or made any attempt to understand Gibson's Catholic faith. Yes, Gibson is lost, but he had it right with that movie. Yes, Christ did great things in his life, he literally performed miracles, he's the Son of God. But I think just about any Catholic would say that we worship him because he died for us. The bloody, violent way that Christ died is a beautiful gift. It is our salvation. His death was the way it was because of us, the entire weight of all of humanities' sins from all time weighed upon his shoulders. That is what Gibson portrayed in the Passion. Yeah it's violent, it's gory, but it was necessary for our salvation which is what Christ desired, us to be in full union with him. The violence in the movie is necessary and it is beautiful.