Reflection Time Once Again

I remember sharing my views about "The Passion of the Christ" when it got out last year...or was that two years ago?

Anyway, I got to watch it again during the Holy Week in Star Movies and eventhough they heavily edited the parts where it was too gorry to look at, I still couldn't help but cry throughout the whole movie like that first time I've watched it in the big screen (cried also the second time and the third time when I borrowed it on DVD and still cried some more...needless to say this movie really makes me cry all the time). I cried because of a lot of reasons: I feel sorry for him, I feel sorry for myself, I can't believe that I was the reason he was suffering so much, I can't believe the sacrifices he made just to save our sorry asses, and so much more. All in all, it's just mainly trying to understand how a man like Jesus could take in so much pain and suffering just to save a bunch of people who apparently doesn't want to be saved. But he did it anyway, because he Loves us so much.

Looking back at everything that I was taught as a child about my religion, it really just sums up to one thing, Christ died for our sins and we should be thankful that we are still in God's good graces. But is it really that simple?

All throughout my life, I have been tested and still being tested with my faith. Questions arise about my religion when books such as "The Da Vinci Code" emerges and questions Christ Godliness. Some even go into such extreme that because of these books, movies and what-nots, they cease to believe. I honestly wonder why? They brag about how great their religion is and how strong their faith is to God but when they are already being tested with their faith, they come out short and stopped believing entirely.

Honestly, I don't see the point of losing faith about something you have believed in all your life just because a great fiction writer gave you something to think about. I think I've already posted something about this before in one of my previous entries about "The Da Vinci Code". A lot of the old people who have so much faith in the Catholic Religion doesn't believe in any of what Dan Brown written in the story. Even condemning it as Satan's books to try to veer us of our faith. I actually wonder why? It honestly did the opposite for me. Reading these kinds of books and actually accepting the fact that Jesus and Mary may indeed have gotten married and had sired a child, didn't change how I believe in God but it actually strenghten it. I mean, here is a God who took his time to understand what His people are going through in their everyday lives. Here is a God who learned from us and who we learned from in return. Here is a God who did his best to try to be a part of humanity that he even went as far as marrying a mere human to see what it would be like. Here is a God who understands human frailty because he lived it himself all 33 years of his life here on earth. Here is a God who by all means showed us the kind of God he was, at the same time showed us the kind of human that we must become. He is the embodiment of both God and Man. The kind of being that we need to aspire to. So why is it that they condemn a book that shows us how great a God we have? Why hate the things that are written in a book that shows us the human side of a God we have worshipped for so long? At least we know that he knows what we're feeling. He knows the kind of suffering we have everyday. He knows the reason we smile, we cry, we get angry, we get frustrated and so on. He knows how it feels like to fall in love and he knows the pain of losing the one you love when you are going to die. I mean, if the Church wants us to emulate Jesus and everything that he has done here on earth, isn't it just right that we also see him as Human as well as a God? So that we can relate to him more?

Besides, I'd rather believe that Jesus got married than Jesus being gay.

As I watched "The Passion" (and continued to cry all throughout the movie), I remember Mel Gibson when I got to catch the making. He said something like (and this isn't in verbatim), "We had a hand in nailing this great man on the cross. We can't blame just one person or race for Jesus' suffering, all of us had a hand in that." And it's very true. Jesus suffered and died on the cross because he wants to save us. He was beaten up badly. He was scourged not just at his back like all the other movies that I had watched but they tipped him over and whipped him at the front just so that the Romans could hear him scream. He had endured so much pain and suffering on his way up to Golgotha that when he was already going to be nailed in the cross, he was literally crawling to his death. All because he wants us to be saved. All because he wants us to join him in heaven. All because he doesn't want us to suffer the same way he suffered.

During Holy Week, people go to beaches or out of the country. I honestly wonder why. Is it because it's the only week that a family can actually be together because parents have no work and kids have no school? And instead of spending it to reflect and repent, they spend it at the beach getting a tan? They forget the "holy" part of Holy Week.

Now I wonder. Was it worth it? Was it worth Christ dying on the cross to save us when at present, people tend to forget who suffered and died so that they can be free? Was it really worth all the pain and suffering so that we could just forget the things that he has sacrificed for us? Was it really necessary that Christ was nailed on the cross when the fact is people at present (well majority of the people at present) don't really care what happened in the past?

One man carried the full burden of sin so that humanity can be saved. One man suffered and died because he wanted his people saved from everlasting torment and suffering. Satan never believed that he could do it but Jesus did and succeeded. He didn't pass the cup to someone else eventhough he was thinking about it. He suffered and died so that we will not be damned.

But was it worth it? Do people really know the extent that Jesus had done to save us? Do people really see the truth of Christ suffering? Do people still believe in it?

People these days claim that they have great faith but doubt themselves when the time trully came for them to be tested. I hear people quoting passages from the Bible but when asked what it meant, they couldn't give you a straight answer. I see people reciting the rosary, praying the novena and all the prayers devoted to different saints and angels but when ask why they pray them it's only because they need something from God and when their prayer is granted they stop until the next time they would ask God for help. Is that really faith? Is that what we have become? Is that what Christ wanted us to do after he has saved us from eternal damnation?

God's creation with the gift to choose and we chose foolishly. God's favorite but we squander what was given to us. All we have to do is say sorry and God will forgive us. No wonder the angels despise us. We don't see how blessed we are. Instead we tend to see what else is missing. What's not there. What can we still gain.

Hmm...I wonder if Jesus actually think that he did the right thing in saving us? Is he shaking his head whenever he looks down on us and wondered what went wrong? Or forgiving as he is, he just waits for us to knock some senses into our heads and realize what he has done for us?

How long do you think he'll wait?