Today is Ash Wednesday - and the start of Lent. We started it of right last night by watching thee Passion of the Christ. I saw it last year three times in the theater - so last night was the fourth time. I never get past the unbelievable amount of pain - all the blood - and the number of times Jesus looks like he is ready to give up- then he makes eye contact with his mother, with Peter, with Simon - and he stands up and takes some more. Last night, though, I felt differently watching the movie - I seemed to be really focusing on how painful this all was for Mary - to watch, knowing the whole backstory about Jesus, as people taunted him and hit him mercilessly. If some kid mouths off to my sons on the bus I am ready to rush to their defense - cannot even fathom being the mother in her place.
Food for thought here - one thing that Mel Gibson said in his interviews last year was that he has gotten his life and priorities straightened out by meditating on the "Dolorous Passion of the Christ" - a visionaries account of the final hours of Jesus. This account is very similar to Valtorte, whom I mentioned in an earlier post. If you are a seeker - or if you are not sure what to believe - these are deep, moving, and present Jesus in a way that even the Bible cannot match. After spending two hours thinking about how difficult this was for His Mother, I have gained a new respect for her.
So off we go into another season of Lent - of self-reflection, of trying to be more Christlike - of self-sacrifice in the hope that we will grow in spiritual depth.
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