“IT IS ACCOMPLISHED!”

THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST

by Ray Comeau

Part One        Part Two        Part Three        Part Four          
 

Part Three:

The camera also finds one other arresting image throughout the movie, a seductive, malevolent face, the face of Satan.  It is a visual symbol of separating, attacking, ego thoughts that keep us from experiencing the awareness of the truth of who we are.

We said before that the ego vacillates between suspiciousness and viciousness.  It remains suspicious as long as you despair of yourself.  It shifts to viciousness when you decide not to tolerate self-abasement and seek relief.  T-9.V111.2:7-9 

This image, literally, gives a face to evil.  The face of evil first appears in Gethsemane, where Jesus is being assailed with thoughts of doubt and fear.  Fear is seductive, tempting, it rushes in when we are vulnerable.  Satan even manifests a snake, reminding us of the temptation in the Garden of Eden, to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, this or that, either/or, choosing one conflicting thought over another.

Towards the end of the movie, just after Jesus exclaims, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit,” the shrieking face of evil dissolves, experiencing its worst fear, that it will be found out as being the nothingness that it is, disappearing before the majesty of the love of God.

Dear Reader, when you see Jesus, What sayest thou? Do you project the ego’s raucous shrieks and senseless ravings, crucifying yourself, and Jesus? (T-21.V.2:6)  Or do you stand still for a moment, ask the Holy Spirit for help, and remember that you are the Holy Son of God, and see your own reflection in the face of Jesus?  Can you go past all the raucous shrieks and sick imaginings of the ego? (W-49.4:3) 

Remembering requires great determination and perseverance.  Even Peter who was with Jesus for so long denied him thrice.  Judas was tempted for 30 pieces of silver.  Those in the throng demanding his crucifixion and lining the way to Golgotha had welcomed Jesus with Hosannas on Palm Sunday, only five days before.

And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest.

Matthew 21:9

It is your responsibility. 

What sayest thou?

Moviegoers and critics have recoiled against the unrelenting violence and brutality of the movie, relieved only by a handful of flashbacks­:  a young Jesus, playfully joking with his mother, the Sermon on the Mount, the Last Supper, saving Mary Magdalene from the mob, and, finally, the brief resurrection scene.    The focus is on the brutal thugs scourging Jesus.  Once again, the point is missed.  These thugs are easy targets—stout, beefy, brawny, beating Jesus with such zeal, and even laughter.  When we project our scorn on them, here is the reminder:  Let him who is not crucifying himself, cast the first stone, brandish the first whip.

It can be but myself I crucify.

Lesson 196

When this is firmly understood and kept

in full awareness, you will not attempt

to harm yourself, nor make your body slave

to vengeance. You will not attack yourself,

and you will realize that to attack

another is but to attack yourself.

You will be free of the insane belief

that to attack a brother saves yourself.

And you will understand his safety is

your own, and in his healing you are healed.

Thus do you also teach your mind that you

are not an ego. For the ways in which

the ego would distort the truth will not

deceive you longer. You will not believe

you are a body to be crucified.

And you will see within today's idea

the light of resurrection, looking past

all thoughts of crucifixion and of death,

to thoughts of liberation and of life.

W-p1.196.1, 3

We crucify ourselves by maintaining an awareness of ego conflict, thinking that only this or that is real, this pain, or that cessation of pain, forgetting that only the awareness of the peace of God is real.  By projecting our scorn onto the thugs, we forget that we are only crucifying ourselves.    In this respect, no one lining the road to Golgotha is innocent.  Even though they are not brandishing whips, they believe they are bodies, aware only of their separating thoughts, thus crucifying themselves.

In his total surrender, Jesus recognizes his accomplishment, and he experiences resurrected mind.  Then he says, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.”  The empty tomb simply represents resurrected mind.

  In the next moment, he swiftly stands up, his right hand completely healed with a clean hole running through it, and he strides through the bright opening of the tomb.

The empty tomb is the enduring symbol for the action of the mind, the shift from pain to forgiveness, from fear to love, from crucifixion to resurrection.

End of Part Three

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Raymond H. Comeau, Ph.D.

Teacher of God, Endeavor Academy

chris.ray@verizon.net

www.throughamirrorbrightly.com

(608)254-2320