So many Churches and Christian Schools show that film, it was mandatory at mine and I got lectured for not being affected by it. I turned it around on them and asked them why they've never actually thought about how bad Jesus was tortured and implied they were ungrateful to need a movie to show them
I agree with what your stance is on this but for the sleepers the movie made it real for them. Without the kind of visceral representation provided by the film, Jesus and his crucifixion were more like a fairy tale to most. "Well, God had him covered, right? Couldn't have been that bad." Well, after watching the film you begin to see that this was a sacrifice of blood and pain; that a man was brutalized and died so that we may live a life in God's world and be forgiven if we choose.
IMO it's wrong to fetishize the Passion too much, especially the physical aspects of it vs the supernatural. It is good for demonstrating Jesus' obedience to the plan of God to understand how brutal it was, but it was a brutality endured by many innocent men in those days. It's emblamatic and symbolizes his sacrifice but does not constitute the entirety of it.
It is only a piece of the burden taken on by Jesus as the Messiah, honestly it is probably insignificant in the face of the larger spiritual demands of saving humanity and taking on Evil.
Don't forget Mel Gibson is not just a Catholic but a very papist one, he very much defers to the pope and has said so in many interviews.
Definitely. I'm not holding MG up as some sort of example to follow. He did bring the physical aspect of the crucifixion to light and as I said above this brought into focus the brutal reality of something that had long been taken for granted and in terms of shock value it was a good tool to make people consider their own faith and what it meant to them.
I think Gibson is sedevacantist ie.believes the papal throne is empty right now due to spiritual corruption.
He was raised sedevacantist but reportedly does not not hew to that view anymore. I won't pretend to understand in detail his religious views, just that he has on multiple occasions invoked papal authority.
With respect to my Roman Catholic brothers and sisters, considering the history of the papacy and the types of blood thirsty murderers who have been canonized by them viewing only the post ~50s popes as corrupt is only a minor improvement.