Richard Ho Lung - DIARY OF A GHETTO PRIEST THE MOST difficult act is that of forgiveness. As we observe Lent, we are being blessed by a stupendous movie, 'The Passion of the Christ'. In it we see the terrible cost of sin and the consequences it has on Jesus. As Jesus asks, "Which is easier to say, 'Your sins are forgiven', or to say, 'Rise and walk'"? He implies that the performance of a miracle is nowhere as difficult as the forgiveness of sins. In fact, it is the Lord's greatest act greater than any miracle, or all of them put together when He dies upon the cross racked and torn, scorned and whipped, and cries out even as hatred is mounted against Him by His enemies, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do."
His ability to love His enemies, to bless those who persecute Him, and to pray for those who hate Him, shows that Jesus is truly God. The result is the redemption of mankind from sin. Rather than being condemned for our rejection of Christ crucified, He forgives and opens doors so that all of us sinners can win salvation.
VIOLENCE IN 'THE PASSION'
The violence of 'The Passion of the Christ' is 'as it was' as John Paul II our Pope has said. The terrible hatred and envy and resentment led to men inflicting wounds on our Saviour despite His innocence. Whenever I sin, I wound Christ the bloodiest way. Yet He forgives me and calls me back to repentance and to service of His kingdom, unworthy as I am. The hatred and violence caused by sin is my guilt, my wickedness, yet Christ continues to love and to forgive. 'Seventy times seven' is Christ's mandate to the disciples: forgive, forgive, forgive. It is painful; it is difficult. But all of us sinners, despite our evil, are forgiven over and over again by the Lord. We are also called to forgive one another.
Mel Gibson states that "My new hope is that 'The Passion of the Christ' will help many more people recognise the power of His love and let Him help them to save their own lives." He also adds, "I wanted the effort to be a testament to the infinite love of Jesus the Christ, which has saved, and continues to save, many the world over."
Divisions, war, and alienation result in the inability to love, to share, to dialogue, and to forgive. A cold war gets us nowhere. The only option we have is to love one another. Divorce, separation, and cruel feelings toward one another break up the family of God and the world community. It begins on a micro level, as happens between husband and wife, children and parents or friends. Compassion for one another, in recognition of the fact that all of us are sinners, all of us hurt one another, all of us are insensitive and selfish, makes us understand that indeed without forgiveness the human family cannot be, and the children of God cannot become one body through reconciliation and understanding.
Who is right and who is wrong? Who started the problem? Who created the misunderstanding? Who should speak to whom first? Both were wrong but how wrong was each? The alienation and separation can create such feelings of animosity, suspicion, bad talk, that two good people will never have any friendship again. The good that could be done in partnership is nullified. "The house divided cannot stand," says Christ. Often small matters become major matters, which is certainly the work of the devil.
RESULTS OF PEACEFUL RESISTANCE
What is the result of this peaceful resistance? Bloodshed and torture. The realism of Mel Gibson's film is often despised by modern art, which would prefer to evade the horror of sin, cruelty, suffering and death. They would prefer to get lost in abstraction, surrealism, mythology and symbolism. Some Christians would prefer to remove the cross from churches, and the humiliation of His death from the reality of Christ and our way of life as Christians. Yet He told us, "Unless you take up the cross daily and follow me, you cannot be my disciple." Suffering, intense suffering, which is done out of love, is what often brings about a resolution to so many conflicts.
The movie, I believe, is beautiful in a savage way. It is real and frightening but it brings home the horrendous result of sin which cannot be resolved except by sacrifice. Insofar as a Greek or Shake-spearean tragedy can be called beautiful, likewise the disclosure of Christ's Passion in its truth may be said to be beautiful. In his passage on the Man of Sorrows Isaiah says, "He had no form or comeliness that we should look at Him, and no beauty that we should desire Him. He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces He was despised, and we esteemed Him not."
Certainly, 'The Passion of the Christ' has provoked great debate as being too violent and even anti-Semitic. Definitely, it has brought tears to the eyes of many. And it has confounded the Hollywood crowd who have lost out on $250 million profit the film is expected to gross.
Truth is what the film is all about. Reality is what it is all about. And, there is a greater reality that God's death on the cross on behalf of sinful humanity, gained eternal life for us who faithfully follow Him.
Father Ho Lung is Founder and leader of the Missionaries of the Poor.
