Mel's passion.

The advent of Jesus Christ has been a contentious issue for two thousand years. Fully God and fully man, he is neither a metaphor nor a myth but reality itself. The Messiah. Despite the best efforts of mankind to deny this fact, it remains immutable and eternal.

So, please don't anyone tell me they are surprised by the attacks being hurled at Mel Gibson's film about the final hours in the earthly life of Jesus. A world as fallen as this one certainly doesn't want its waywardness pointed out, or its somnambulance pierced by any public reminders of the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Nor does the enemy want a single inch of ground or a single soul gained in the last forty-odd years taken back.

Lord knows the multifaceted campaign to eradicate Christ from the hearts and minds of man has been hugely successful since the epic battle currently under way was launched circa 1960.

Since then, every institution ordained by God, from Holy Matrimony to Holy Orders, has been under the most diabolical assault in human history. Central to the global attack has been the distortion, suppression and obliteration of the Gospel--all in the name of freedom! As the devil himself knows, once heard, the voice of Jesus is so irresistible it etches itself onto every human heart that hears it. Which is why, in a world wallowing in a putrid sea of sin and error, any attempt to witness the Truth will be stridently resisted.

Thus Mel Gibson and his film are under fire. Because, for many, the truth is threatening. The film's detractors know instinctively that any confrontation with Christ means making a choice.

The choice is stark. There is no middle ground. To choose Christ means changing your life, turning away from sin, turning away from whatever comforting vice or vices are your habit.

Or not.

Ironically, it's the latter that causes all the trouble. To reject Christ is hard work. It means battling your conscience for the rest of your natural life.

I haven't seen Mel's film but I've read enough to be convinced it may be the most important film ever made. Why? Because the world--now as ignorant, confused, violent, frightened, faithless, and depraved as it was in the days of the Roman Empire--needs it so desperately.

Gibson says he was inspired to make The Passion, which will open on Ash Wednesday next year. Given the facts so far, who can doubt it? Filmed on the outskirts of Rome in the legendary Cinecitta studio, Gibson gathered talent from Romania, Algeria, Tunisia, Bulgaria, Israel, Italy, and the U.S.

"We have Muslims, Jews, Christians, Buddhists, even agnostics," Gibson said during filming earlier this year. "And all are working together on this thing in perfect harmony. And they're all getting something out of it--people have been touched. There is an interesting power in the script. And a lot of unusual things have been happening--good things, like people being healed. A guy who was struck by lightning while we were filming the crucifixion scene just got up and walked away."

There have also been conversions.

Jim Caviezel, the 33-year-old devout Catholic who portrays Jesus, has felt equally inspired. "Truthfully, it was never up to me," he says. "I'm interested in letting God work through me to play this role. I believe the Holy Spirit has been leading me in the right direction and to get away from my own physical flesh and allow the character of Jesus to be played out the way God wants it."

For Caviezel, this meant enduring freezing winds, being scourged, spit on, carrying a cross for days on end, and then hanging on it for another two weeks.

"I know Jim suffered," says Gibson. "But he cares about making it look true to the text. By the time (the audiences) get to the crucifixion scene, I believe there will be many who can't take it and will have to walk out--I guarantee it. And I believe there will be many who will stay and be drawn to the truth."

The Truth. Actual. Unsanitised. Life-altering.

As for charges of anti-Semitism, these are to be expected, and to be seen for what they are: subterfuge, noisy attempts to deny the Truth which is this: that God so loved the world, He gave His only begotten Son. So that we, His creatures--Gentile, Jew, man, woman, Mel, me, you--might be saved from our sins and five with Him forever.

Or not. As we are free to choose.

Alternately, we can choose to be seduced into bondage to the world, the flesh, and the devil, bowing down to him and, ultimately, abiding with him in hell forever, a fate that Lucifer, his minions, and the enslaved world have been working furiously to deny, distort, dilute, and suppress since Calvary.

Our call.

God bless Mel Gibson. May the Lord continue to fill him with the grace and courage he is going to need.

Editor: See also News in Brief, under United States.

Paula Adamick is the publisher of the monthly paper Canada Post out of London, England. Her column appears every other month.