Don’t discount how much those of us truly strong women are turned off by the effeminate and emasculated liturgies and priests we have encountered in the post Vat II parishes. They remade Christ in their image and neither a manly man nor strong woman would want to follow the lisping, limp wristed Breck girl Jesus they fashioned.
A commenter over at Father Z’s blog
Every era attempts to remake Jesus in its own image. What has been done to the image of Christ since 1965, with a few honorable exceptions like the video clip above from Jesus of Nazareth (1977), says ghastly things about us. Forgive us Lord!
Jim Caviezel made a fairly manly Jesus. He actually looked like he could have been a first century Jewish carpenter.
Yep, The Passion of the Christ is an honorable exception.
Willem Dafoe’s depiction of Jesus in The Last Temptation of Christ was not very effeminate although he was a bit depressing. I know this movie is controversial but I think it has a powerful message.
The most tempting thing the devil used against Jesus was the fantasy of being a normal man with a family and a job and not having the salvation of the world on his shoulders. More tempting that all the power in the world and more tempting than bread to a starving man.
I don’t care for the eye make-up the actor Jesus in the video. Yes, every era and culture tries to make Jesus and some of the saints in their own image. The Cusco Peruvian paintings of St. Michael the Archangel in pantaloons and lace make me laugh. That is not the depiction of a warrior angel I have in mind. The Mandarin Chinese Holy Family at St. Mary’s Church in San Francisco and the bronze budha-like Holy Family at St. Francis Xavier
Church, whose facade resemples a Japanese temple, are lovely and appropriate. The parishes were founded by immigrants and still today have bi-lingual services.
I have a problem with what may be an accurate portrayal of Jesus as a Jewish man in 30 AD. It reminds me of the male hippies, who were druggies and unclean with unkept long hair and beards, that descended on campus the last two years of my university days and disrupted classes, usually on a sunny spring day during exams. Oddly enough there were no bomb threats on days with cold winter rains. I’m not looking either for a Jesus wearing an Oxford cloth shirt, nice sweater, pressed slacks and tassled Weejuns.
Jesus is truly God, truly man. Powerful.
George, the Last Temptation may have overemphasized His humanity at the expense of His divinity. That seems to be the same thing that has happened in many of these “horizontal” liturgies–more about the humanity than the divinity.
Although the film itself was highly flawed in many ways, Max Von Sydow’s visual film presence as Christ was for me compelling in “The Greatest Story Ever Told.” Of course he also brought to the part the surreal metaphysical presence of the knight playing chess with Death on the beach, from a previous film, Ingmar Bergen’s The Seventh Seal (1957).
Jesus of Nazareth is my favorite movie about Christ. Not knowing much about the bible when I became a Christian, I watched the movie over and over to learn quickly. After studying for years I have found nothing in the movie that was inaccurate and the movie is full of teaching moments.
For some reason this makes me want to break into a rousing version of some praise and worship song about me…maybe “On Eagle’s Wings”…
Grammy, thanks for the smile. The subject of post Vatican II hymns came up at a small study group recently. Lyrics by Catholics which when closely looked at are actually heretical and/or full of the I pronoun. Can’t blame the Prostestants for these.
Yep, Von Sydow was not a pretty boy and was a powerful performer. Despite the Nordic looks he made a very credible Jesus. The Seventh Seal did make lasting impressions.
c matt: “Jim Caviezel made a fairly manly Jesus. He actually looked like he could have been a first century Jewish carpenter.”
.
Jesus was a young man of thirty years who was full of grace. It is this grace not shinning through Robert Powell’s face that gives the lie to his performance. I am slightly embarrassed for him.
James Caviezel actually had the Holy Eucharist present when he portrayed Christ at the Last Supper.
.
BTW: Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code was his opinion of Da Vinci’s opinion of the Last Supper. While it is pretty secondhand, I’m still playing the Beatles records backwards to find the real meaning.