Mel Gibson’s powerful troubling movie has revived one of the most explosive questions ever. What history tells us about Jesus’ last hours, his world, anti-Semitism, Scripture and the nature of faith itself. After the world has faced this controversy, Mauritius is now getting the fever of the passion. Unfortunately Mauritius has been and will always be passive to world issues. Even before the movie was released, specially in USA and Europe, there was a pitching battle between those who think the film unfairly blames the Jews for Jesus’ death and those who focus on Gibson’s emotional depiction of Jesus’ torment. The permission of aged Pope John Paul II and his cardinals had to be sought for the film’s release.

Ideas, aspirations, memories, debates and... passion dart like shooting stars on a clear night. Christians and non-Christians came to know better someone they had forgotten, someone at the heart of human history who came with a message. The film brought so much passion to believers that their faith, dimmed by material lure, was revived.

In Mauritius the film has been screened for several weeks and, apart from a few press articles, nothing concrete has cropped up. With such a hot issue, debates and ideas would have been most welcomed. We are living in a world of competition where ideas and suggestions are at the heart of our thinking skills. Our youth need this important skill. Let us ignite the fire that would burn, consume and give birth again to our intellectual abilities.

We are in the last hours of the life of Jesus of Nazareth, in Year 30 at the time of the Jewish Passover. The country, Judea, is part of the Roman Empire. Pontius Pilate is Caesar’s representative and the high priest, Caiaphas, dispatches a party to arrest Jesus. They are the three main characters of the film and all the controversies twist and turn around them.

Thus begins the final chapter of the most influential story in Western history. For Christians, Passion means “having suffered”. Over the ages, Christian narratives have been contorted to lay the responsibility of Jesus’ execution on the Jews. This has long fueled anti-Semitism. For 2,000 years Christians have persecuted the Jews for that reason. Then reforms came, especially the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), which repudiated the idea that the Jewish people were guilty. The Church wanted to soothe this tension between two great religions as the world was undergoing great changes – economic, political, social, scientific and technological.

Then, into this explosive debate, comes the controversial movie directed by Mel Gibson, The Passion of the Christ, a powerful and troubling work about Jesus. The $25m film is focused on Jesus’ final 12 hrs. The characters speak Aramaic and Latin, with subtitles. The arrest of the prophet, his scourging and crucifixion are depicted in harsh, explicit detail. The violence is at first shocking, then numbing. The movie may give a misleading picture of what probably happened. The Jewish priests and their followers are the villains, demanding the death of Jesus again and again. On the other hand, Pilate is a malleable governor forced into giving the death sentence.

<B>A blend of the four Gospels</B>

Much of the movie is a literal-minded rendering of the most dramatic passages of the four Gospels. The message and scenes that Gibson portrays are different from what the Church and the second Vatican Council – using the same four Gospels - claim. The paradox is that both use the same references and yet the essence of their messages are completely opposed. The question ‘why’ is rustled again and again.

To tell his story, Gibson has blended the four Gospel accounts and was reportedly inspired by the visions of Agreda (1602-1665) of Spain and Anne Catherine Emmerich (1774-1824) of France; Emmerich experienced the stigmata on her head, hands, feet and chest – imitating Jesus. The two nuns were creatures of their time, offering mystical testimony that included the alleged blood guilt of the Jewish people. At the same time, Gibson is a traditionalist who does not acknowledge many of the Second Vatican Council reforms.

A second reason for this controversy is that the Bible can be a problematic source. Though countless believers take it as the immutable word of God, Scripture is not always a faithful record of historical events; the Bible is a product of human authors who wrote at specific times and places with particular points to make and visions to advance. It did not descend from heaven fully formed. The writers of Mathew, Mark, Luke and John shaped their narratives decades after Jesus’ death to atrract converts and make their young religion attractive to a broad audience. The advocates of Christianity - a new, struggling faith - understably chose to placate the powerful Romans.

Now let us leave theology and move to historical facts. In fact, in the age of domination, only Rome crucified, a political weapon used to send a message to those still living to beware of revolution or riot, or Rome will do this to you, too. The two earliest and most reliable extra-Biblical references to Jesus - historians Josephus and Tacitus - say Jesus was executed by Pilate. According to Philo of Alexandria, the prefect was “inflexible, stubborn and cruel”, executing troublemakers without trial. Pilate was not the humane figure Gibson depicts.

The movie has revived an ancient, divisive argument: who killed Jesus ? This question and interpreted answers have haunted humanity for millenniums. So many Jews have died. The First Crusade in the 11th century and Hitler’s final solution are good examples. The Roman Church has since long started its campaign against anti-Semitic upheaval, shaping the church theology and reassessing its relationship with the Jews.

As a matter of history, the Romans killed Jesus. As a matter of Gibson, the Jews were responsible. As a matter of theology, the sins of the world drove Jesus to the cross, and the Catholic Church holds that Christians themselves bear «the gravest responsibility» for the torments inflicted upon Jesus. Let us end where we and Gibson’s movie be gan in the garden, but not in darkness. Let us find that light – searched and controversed since times immemorial and get the essence of the message for which Jesus came: a message of love, peace and forgiveness - a powerful example for all of us, whatever our faith may be.

<B>Soorab boodhoo</B>