What cannot be photographed

Very many people have seen Mel Gibson’s film on the Passion of Christ. Reactions to it have varied. Some have liked it and even have been moved to tears. Others disliked it and found fault with it. But perhaps everyone will agree that it was a vivid picture of what Jesus had to suffer: the scourging, the crowning with thorns, the nailing of hands and feet to the wood of the cross.

But that film, with all its great merits, had one serious limitation — the limitation inherent in the very medium of photography. You can photograph only what can be seen from the outside. You cannot take a picture of what goes on inside a person, except perhaps hint at it.

How, for instance, can any photograph show what Jesus was really suffering when he said, "I thirst." Tourists to Jerusalem and the other places in Palestine are advised always to carry about a bottle of water, because the dry heat can result in dehydration. In the case of Jesus, the dehydration must have been total. Apart from the dry heat, there was the loss of blood with the nailing of his hands and feet. Loss of blood induces thirst. Also he had previously been scourged. And he had had nothing to drink since the Last Supper the night before. When he said "I thirst" it was a gigantic understatement. What unbearable thirst it must have been.

Or take the agony in the garden of Gethsemani. A photograph can only show a person kneeling or prostrate on the ground. But Jesus had said, "My soul is sorrowful even unto death." He felt a sorrow so overwhelming that it could kill him.

It was not just sorrow. It was fear. He was afraid. He foresaw what would be done to him and he shrank from it. Medals are pinned on the breast of persons who are fearless. But the real heroes are those who are mortally afraid and yet do what has to be done despite their fear. Jesus was afraid. He asked to be spared from the suffering: "Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me." It took him an hour of agony to be able to say, "But if I must drink it, your will, not mine, be done!"

Or what camera can photograph the desolation that must have prompted Jesus to say, quoting the Psalm, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me"?

Holy week has become for many merely a time of vacation, a period of relaxation and enjoyment. It should be a time for remembering. Jesus suffered and died for us. The least we can do is, once a year to remember what he did and suffered for us.