Expert: Fr. Michael - 3/8/2004

Question
Hello:

I am a 34 year old Catholic who over the past 10 years or so have had a so called "faith crisis". It is not so much that I do not believe in God anymore more than it is all the questions I have that can't be answered.  When these questions can't be answered I am told "you must have faith" or "that is where your faith comes in". That seems like a very easy way "out".  It seems like a way out when there is no real answer.  Some days I feel "empty" like this is all there is.  We are born, we live and then die.  Other days I feel like there must be more to this "life" than meets the eye.  There are so many questions that can be so easily explained by science that denying them would seem stupid.  Anyway....before this turns into a 10 page e-mail let me get to my main question / point.  Yesterday I saw "The Passion of the Christ".  I don't know if you saw the movie or not.  Anyway, I cried most of the movie. To see, what only up until yesterday has been a reading out of the Bible, played out on screen was unreal.  That is where my problem comes in.  This movie was supposedly taken from the Bible itself (for the most part). If Jeses was truly "human" while on earth, how could it be possible that he, as a man, survived his Passion before being nailed to the cross.  If the scourging was as bad as portrayed in the movie, Jesus would never have been able to walk, let alone carry a cross.  I said this to my mother last night and she said "he was able to do it because he was God's son".  I then said "Yes, but supposedly while on earth he was 100% human".  She didn't have an answer to that.  I am in the medical field and I have seen great amounts of human suffering...burn victims that suffer endlessly for weeks at a time.  What makes their suffering any less than Jesus'?  I just can't see how he could have survived the beating he took before being nailed to the cross. I am not saying that it is 100% impossible but again, this is one of the issues I am having.  I often wish that I had the faith of my Grandparents who to this day, if told there was no God, with 100% certainty, they still wouldn't believe it. Well, I have gone off on a tangent here so I will end this e-mail now.  Thank you for listening.

Paul

Answer
The sacrifice of Christ was elevated because at the same time He took on humanity throught the Incarnation, He was God as well.  Only in this way could Original Sin be expiated.  I think that this is best explained by St. Paul in his Epistle to the Hebrews.  You might want to reread and reflect on that.

As to "The Passion of the Christ," it had its good points and its bad points.  Personally, I think that the film went beyond the biblical and historical evidence, so that there was some question about believability.  For a Commentary on the cinematic aspects, see www.traditio.com/comment/com0403.htm under date of March 1.