A week ago I was on a business trip in the south California valleys. When you are in the valleys, in every direction you look are mountains. They are majestic and beautiful so you pull out your camera to capture that sense of awe. I tried to capture the beauty so I could show it to my kids. After looking at the pictures, I knew that they would not do the landscape justice. Still, I did the best I could to convey it to them when I returned home. That is how speaking of this book is. There is a beauty that cannot be captured by explaining the book, you have to read it yourself.
Synopsis
The book starts at the celebration of the Passover among Jesus and His apostles. It explains Christ commanding His apostles to prepare for the Passover meal It gives the events of the Passover and the secret movements of Judas. After completing the Passover, Jesus and His 11 apostles leave for the Mount of Olives. Christ then goes through His agony and you get a glimpse of the temptations and assaults He withstood. Afterward, it explains the betrayal of Judas, the rough handling of our Lord by His persecutors, and the trials before Annas and Caiaphas. Christ goes before Pilate and Herod, is scourged, and then condemned to death. It describes Him carrying His cross and the reaction of the crowd. Finally, He is crucified and dies. Then it tells of His descent into hell, the rescue of the holy souls, and resurrection on the third day.
My Thoughts
I want to say that I listened to this as an audiobook on Audible. This is the audiobook I used. The narrator was fantastic and enhanced the experience. My wife read it and had a good experience as well. I like that in the audiobook, I was not concerned with pronunciations distracting me from the essential elements of the story.
I also want to point out, to those who don't know, that The Passion of Christ movie is based on this book. I have seen that movie but I have not watched it in recent years due to how graphic it is. I enjoy the book because it is as graphic as your imagination makes it. This aspect of the book makes it more palatable to me. You can call me soft for that but I think it can open up the passion to a wider audience than solely having the movie would.
I also like the book because of all the thoughts that cannot be presented in the movie. One key aspect is when Christ is facing the agony in the garden. That section gave me a deeper understanding of what temptations and anxieties He faced. It speaks of how the angels watch Him and aid Him at the proper times. It also talks of all the suffering He will face and how we will be ungrateful for His sacrifice. Finally, toward the end, He is shown all the saints that will be in Heaven with Him, and that is what sets His human will in stone to offer Himself for us. The agony was one of the most difficult parts for me to listen to the first time.
The life-changing aspect for me was seeing how much Jesus loves us. While listening, I heard over and over again the horrible treatment of Christ. His response every time was pure charity toward the individual. He constantly asks His Father for their forgiveness. He suffers excruciating pain, but still only thinks of others and what He is accomplishing.
His touching love for Mary often brought me to tears. His sweet mother often faints from the suffering that her precious Son endures. Long ago, I consecrated myself to Jesus through Mary using the method St. Louis De Montfort set forth. She has played a major role in my life. I saw how my sins hurt not just my Savior and King, but also this sweet mother that had often cared for me. The love of Jesus has no comparison, and being able to witness it towards His mother had a profound impact on me.
People talk about how we can choose not to sin out of fear of hell or a love of God. Those two choices seem to be at either end of a spectrum. Hell is so terrifying that it would be difficult to completely eradicate that fear when choosing not to sin. In my heart, I knew that my confessions were normally about fear of Hell. After reading this book, I saw the man that Christ is and the love that He has for us. I began to choose virtue because I didn't want to hurt Him. I wanted to love Him. At the end of my life, I wanted to be there with Him to witness that love and give what little I could back to Him. This book has that kind of power.
I highly recommend this book. The book makes sure to state that this does not interfere with what is written in the gospels and is simply to help us better understand what our Lord went through. With this in mind, it can enhance those gospel passages and deeply impact you every time you pray to sorrowful mysteries. I think this is a book that can be useful for teenagers to read and discuss with a parent. Also, pace yourself and take breaks. This book has the potential to break your heart. Your heart will begin to break with what breaks the Sacred Heart of our Lord and rejoice in that which He rejoices in.
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