The Passion of the Christ

Here is my stream of consciousness response to the movie:

• Bloody, brutal, sickening (the scourging);
  
• Dispassionate (both Jesus and Mary);
  
• Catholic (the nails in the traditional - but incorrect -- places);
  
• Betrayal;
  
• Inconguous (why use Latin instead of Greek?);
  
• Inevitable (it's not about "who killed Jesus");
  
• Compassion (Jesus, of course, and the woman with Simon);
  
• Creepy (that weird baby that Satan held);
  
• Disappointing (the resurrection was weak);
  
• Touching (the flashback of Mary running to her fallen child);
  
• Anticlimactic (I was relieved when Jesus died);
  
• OJ Simpson (when Barabas was released)
  
• Jewish (certainly a more authentic portrayal of Mary than we usually see);
  

I was truly puzzled that anyone could watch the movie and view it as anti-Semitic. Given that the events centered in a Jewish context, there was a full range of Jewish characters: heroic, good, weak, bystanders, and malicious. And even the role of villains (to use a move term) were split in a tie between the Romans and the Sanhedrin.

My theory is that there is something about this movie that causes us each to see what we are looking for (or what we are afraid of).

So I saw something different. I saw a world filled with weak people who made choices out of expediency. And I saw a few people whose faith shone through. But my final 'proof' for saying that the movie is like a mirror in which we see what we're looking for, is that there was a theme that seemed huge and blatant and obvious to me, that was mysteriously not noticed by any of the notable people who have publicly commented on the film. Are you ready for it?....

Did you notice how many of the people with faith (or at least an open mind, and compassion) were WOMEN? In addition to the obvious example of Mary the mother of Jesus, and the other Mary, you also have the wife of Pontius Pilate, the woman who exhorted Simon to 'help the holy man', and Veronica offering her head-covering to Jesus to wipe his face(extra-Biblical, but moving).

I was stirred to question myself and ask if I would have the courage to make the choice for faith and compassion in such a situation of danger. I don't know. But I want to be that kind of woman.