FINALLY, MY TAKE ON 'PASSION'... NOT THAT ANYBODY ASKED
Belle's site is the milieu in which this entry was created.
I don't know if I should even join this discussion. First, I refrain from giving reviews about films I see and books I read because I don't feel it's my turf. I take pleasure in what I enjoy and that's it for me. Second, although I've been brought up a Catholic and have been schooled in a Catholic school all my life, as of now I'm not even a Church goer, and please don't make the mistake of thinking that there is even an iota of pride in my saying that.
I've shunned the Church because of the inconsistencies I see in the people who serve there, including priests, which has only served to confuse me about my faith. I remember what Jobert said to me, that he has never allowed the Church to get in the way of his religion, but that is neither here nor there I guess. In the past, I have been in an on and off relationship with God, something which I suppose a lot of believers, if they would be honest, would be able to own up to as well.
For a year now though, I have been... well, not really studying, but reading the Bible with more depth and self-emptying than I ever did before, in the hope that it would fill me up. I prayed... searched my soul for what I could honestly accept and believe apart from what has been shoved down my throat so far. I listened... not to what scholars and theologists and whoever else has to say but to what I was reading in the Bible in the context of my life's course, in the limited realm of what I could understand, and when I think about it and the events that have happened in my life in the recent past, I could say with more conviction and honesty that I have come to know my God again, really know Him, with a knowledge that is more personal and more real than what I needed before to pass my religion and theology subjects. This God I've known all my life is now a God I love.
Funny though, I honestly never had the interest to watch this film. The story has been handed down to us for generation after generation... it's a story as old as time itself. Whether it's the new truth or not, whether it goes against anything that has been taught to me, most of which I've chosen to forget, whether it goes against anything that I've come to believe thus far, is immaterial. I have struggled with whatever little faith I had at the start to grow into a whole new spirituality... and this is such a young sapling as yet and I refuse to subject it to something as remote to me as Mel Gibson doing his job.
Because for me, that's simply what it is. I have as much respect for Mel Gibson to favor him with some trust on his better judgment. I'm sure that even if he's in it for the money, he did it with some conviction that he was doing something he believed in. Now what did he believe in? I don't know, and I don't care.
It's a film and we know that films are a product of a culture... culture being a group of beliefs and values that influences an individual's choice, actions and behavior. Case in point, the operative word here is 'individual.'
If we all had the money, and the talent, and the right strings to pull... and we all had a chance to make a film such as this, how many interpretations would there be, if you'd care to figure out?
It is for this reason that I will not watch the film, that I will not read any reviews about it. I am over-protective of whatever faith I have grown into, yes, that is true. It's valuable to me because I did not stumble upon it unscathed. It's valuable to me because after all these years, here is something that finally makes sense to me and that I have managed to cling on to inspite of what seems to be a progressively difficult chain of lessons taught and lessons learned, of tests surpassed and failed. It's all I have.
It is not my place to put it to a test another man has created. What I believe in is simply and unpretentiously between me and my God.
Belle's site is the milieu in which this entry was created.
I don't know if I should even join this discussion. First, I refrain from giving reviews about films I see and books I read because I don't feel it's my turf. I take pleasure in what I enjoy and that's it for me. Second, although I've been brought up a Catholic and have been schooled in a Catholic school all my life, as of now I'm not even a Church goer, and please don't make the mistake of thinking that there is even an iota of pride in my saying that.
I've shunned the Church because of the inconsistencies I see in the people who serve there, including priests, which has only served to confuse me about my faith. I remember what Jobert said to me, that he has never allowed the Church to get in the way of his religion, but that is neither here nor there I guess. In the past, I have been in an on and off relationship with God, something which I suppose a lot of believers, if they would be honest, would be able to own up to as well.
For a year now though, I have been... well, not really studying, but reading the Bible with more depth and self-emptying than I ever did before, in the hope that it would fill me up. I prayed... searched my soul for what I could honestly accept and believe apart from what has been shoved down my throat so far. I listened... not to what scholars and theologists and whoever else has to say but to what I was reading in the Bible in the context of my life's course, in the limited realm of what I could understand, and when I think about it and the events that have happened in my life in the recent past, I could say with more conviction and honesty that I have come to know my God again, really know Him, with a knowledge that is more personal and more real than what I needed before to pass my religion and theology subjects. This God I've known all my life is now a God I love.
Funny though, I honestly never had the interest to watch this film. The story has been handed down to us for generation after generation... it's a story as old as time itself. Whether it's the new truth or not, whether it goes against anything that has been taught to me, most of which I've chosen to forget, whether it goes against anything that I've come to believe thus far, is immaterial. I have struggled with whatever little faith I had at the start to grow into a whole new spirituality... and this is such a young sapling as yet and I refuse to subject it to something as remote to me as Mel Gibson doing his job.
Because for me, that's simply what it is. I have as much respect for Mel Gibson to favor him with some trust on his better judgment. I'm sure that even if he's in it for the money, he did it with some conviction that he was doing something he believed in. Now what did he believe in? I don't know, and I don't care.
It's a film and we know that films are a product of a culture... culture being a group of beliefs and values that influences an individual's choice, actions and behavior. Case in point, the operative word here is 'individual.'
If we all had the money, and the talent, and the right strings to pull... and we all had a chance to make a film such as this, how many interpretations would there be, if you'd care to figure out?
It is for this reason that I will not watch the film, that I will not read any reviews about it. I am over-protective of whatever faith I have grown into, yes, that is true. It's valuable to me because I did not stumble upon it unscathed. It's valuable to me because after all these years, here is something that finally makes sense to me and that I have managed to cling on to inspite of what seems to be a progressively difficult chain of lessons taught and lessons learned, of tests surpassed and failed. It's all I have.
It is not my place to put it to a test another man has created. What I believe in is simply and unpretentiously between me and my God.
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