It is Accomplished

My wife and I watched the Passion this past weekend, which we had not watched since we saw it in the theaters two years ago.

When I was a kid, the Easter movie of choice was, of course, Cecille Be DeMille’s The Ten Commandments. In those pre-tivo, cable-less, sans-vcr days that meant staying up past our bed-times watching network television. The ensuing Easter-weekend festivities meant waking up the next morning to small collections of candies at our places at the breakfast table, the donning of crisp, new spring-time church attire/accouterments, and later, the obligatory trip to auntie’s house, or grandma’s, where invariably, hard-boiled eggs would be consumed. As a kid growing up in church, I knew what the story of Easter was… But not really.

Back to 2006. The Passion is not one of those movies you can say you really liked, as its very difficult to watch. As graphic as that movie is, I’d wager it still to be a pale reflection of reality. I can appreciate the masterful work of all involved in this cinematic endeavor, but it’s not the kettle-corn-eating, soda-sipping, peanut-butter-m&m-chomping kind of affair. For me, its an incredibly resonating visual communication… A vivid reminder that serves to jolt me out of the inertia of my too-comfortable every-day life and a moving picture of true sacrifice. Of this, I know I need constantly to be reminded.