In an "MTV world," Mr. Gibson's movie fulfills a desire to have images attached to these narrations, said James Shapiro, an English professor at Columbia University and an expert on passion plays.

"Contemplation is a time-consuming and difficult business," he said. "The visuals are a shortcut, but remember, it's somebody else's visuals. It's very hard in a sense to remember what you are thinking when powerful images come to mind." In the long run, he suggested, the debate over whether Mr. Gibson's film could inspire anti-Semitism pales in comparison to its potential effect on "how people reflect on this central event in the Christian faith."

- April 9, 2004, "A Meeting of Movie and Ritual" - By Daniel J. Wakin, (c) NY Times

That's a thought I hadn't pondered yet in all the hype and hoopla surrounding THE PASSION. The debate over anti-Semitism may die down, but why is there no discussion on its impact to "how people reflect on this central event in the Christian faith"? I agree, to an extent, that my mind now has images of Jim Caviezel hanging on a cross, or eating the last supper, or healing a soldier's ear. Is that messing with my meditation on what Christ has done and is doing redemptively in this world? I don't know.
- posted by Rick @ 11:26