[xzins]

Andrew Greeley is a liberal sociologist in priest's clothing.

1. He's absolutely wrong about Gibson's movie "weakly" portraying the resurrection. In fact, it was the single best enacted resurrection scene that I have ever witnessed. It caused the hair on the back of my neck to stand on end, and I audibly exhaled, it struck me so poignantly.

2. He's also wrong about the early church "suppressing" the suffering of the cross. In fact, as they themselves went to their martyrs deaths, they glorified the cross. Any cursory reading of Polycarp and the early fathers will tell you the same.

Greeley has engaged in a "hit" piece. For the life of me, I cannot understand why anyone would have THIS MUCH problem with "The Passion." I might imagine little things here and there, but this is over the top.

[dangus]

Actually, Xzins is quite right, and there is also a grain of truth in what Fr. Greeley said; just enough to make the lie that much worse.

What the Catholic church* had to suppress was an OVERfascination with the physical suffering and death of Christ. Far too many people were willing to become martyrs, reasoning that a martyr's death would purify their souls and guarantee that they died in a state of grace. The Church had to assert that life was both a gift and a duty and that we should accept suffering and death when God wills to work through them, but that our primary calling is live for Christ.

(*And, yes, I do say "Catholic" even in these early days, for it was a discipline imposed on the Church by the bishops agianst heterodoxy.)