We in the Church just cannot compete with Mel Gibson.You have just heard our reading of the Passion and no matter how well it is read we cannot measure up to the blockbuster version of it that is now showing in cinemas around the world.

Ours was more economic in that Mel Gibson's version cost $25,000,000, and ours cost well nothing, unless you count the cost of heat and electricity. Apart from that Mel's version pretty much has us beat. After all he had the best the film industry has to offer in terms of actors, screenwriters, and makeup artists to mention a few. I'm told the man playing Jesus had to spend seven hours in make-up getting ready for the later scenes.

I have read several reviews of the movie, and regardless of whether I'm talking to people here in Ireland, or when I was back in the States on holiday, Mel Gibson has seen to it that this Lent it seems that everyone is talking about Jesus and his passion. So we in the church at least need to thank him for that.

I saw the movie myself when I was staying with my parents in Florida, so I thought I would give you my impressions. Forst, I think the easiest way to understand the movie is to see it as being like a medieval passion play in movie form. For example all the Stations of the Cross are included in the film. The only new dimension is the use of Aramaic and Latin with subtitles.

This is perhaps the root of the charge of anti-semitism which has been made by some against the film. It is a sad part of our history that passion Plays often give rise to anti - Jewish sentiment, and of course violence against Jews did happen after performances of Passion Plays.

That was horribly wrong, but does not mean that Mel Gibson is out to provoke increased levels of anti semitism. If Jesus had been born in Ireland the Irish would have overseen his death; if in America the Americans would have done so.

One thing which I think is better about our Church's version of the passion is that when we shout out "Crucify Him" the point is made that humanity rejected Jews - all of humanity and we all share in the responsibility.

Second, the brutality in the movie is unrelenting and some have criticised the film as being gratuitously violent. For example the standard Roman flogging was 39 lashes, but in the movie the flogging goes on for 20 minutes, and Jesus is struck considerably more than 39 times; when the scene is over there is hardly an inch of flesh that is not bleeding.

I think it is fair to say that the movie is as violent as possible, while keeping within the parameters of the story, so much so that there is a danger that the violence becomes the story itself. I think this will have two effects:

First the movie delivers us from the sanitised version of what happened to Jesus so that we see clearly that this unjust execution was extremely brutal.

Second, this movie will provide the mental picture of Jesus' death for the millions of people who have seen it. It appears so realistic that I thought to myself that those of us who saw it feel as though we have experienced the whole scene more than those eleven disciples who ran for the hills. Only our Patron St John stayed until the end.

My final observation about the movie is that is theologically rather light. There is very little by way of explanation about why He was loved so much by those close to Him; why He was perceived as such a threat by those in power and most importantly what was the purpose and effect of His death. This is not really a movie for those who do not know what preceded or followed his death; it is presented out of context and assumes that the viewer knows the rest of the story.

When asked about this in an interview I'm told Mel Gibson responded by saying that he hoped that the Churches would pick it up from there - which I suppose is fair enough. So ....when we come to Good Friday I will talk about different beliefs about the Cross.

Whatever the shortcomings of the movie it was clearly made with passion and it shows us that there is still tremendous interest in Jesus. Mel Gibson has gotten people talking; now it falls to the Church to see if we can get people seeking and finding Jesus Christ - and what better time than Holy Week???

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