‘Passion of Christ’ changed the world

MEL GIBSON’S blockbuster film, The Passion of the Christ, has forever changed the way that Christians worldwide commemorate Good Friday by giving them a new insight into the evil of sin and the overwhelming power of God’s love for humanity. This was the declaration made by Roman Catholic Archbishop Edward Gilbert when he delivered the sermon at yesterday’s Good Friday Mass at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Port-of-Spain. Gilbert told the congregation that while he was in the United States recovering from cataract surgery, he was invited by some priests to see the movie. He said the film was only one-third through and people started to weep at the images on the screen. Gilbert added that it was Pope John Paul II who aptly described the movie when he said: “It is as it was.” 

The Archbishop recalled celebrating this liturgy many times during his 41 years in the clergy but because the film was so “historically accurate,” he would never be able to celebrate it in the same way again. “Our international culture takes the view that there is no sin and sin is not important. That view is not supported by our Father’s expectation of Jesus. Be very suspicious when you hear there is no sin and sin is not important. That is a pagan view and we are a believing community. Sin is destroying our world on many levels.  The evil of sin is exposed in this movie. The depth of God’s love and the love of Jesus for us is exposed in this movie, “he declared.

Gilbert observed that despite the amount of evil, hatred and sin in the world today, it was all too easy for people “to forget the tremendous love of God for us.” “God loves us and will help us to rise above our failures and begin again. Many people give up on themselves and that is not God’s will,” he stated. Archbishop Gilbert said the film also demonstrated the tremendous good of which the media is capable. “When you see a picture of the man suffering, you realise his tremendous faith. Jesus learned obedience from suffering.

He shows us how to overcome acts of suffering. God uses this to bring salvation,” Gilbert stated. The Archbishop then asked the congregation: “Have you accepted this tremendous act of God’s love or do you resist it?” Gilbert advised them to do accept God’s love and use it to change their lives and the lives of their fellow human beings for the better.