I have followed with great interest the many print and electronic media comments dealing with Mel Gibson’s recently released film, “The Passion of The Christ.” While I am not a traditional believer, I do spend a fair amount of time thinking about spiritual matters.

Those thoughts have taken me into the realm of various beliefs, each of which offers some kernel of hope wrapped within the embrace of its philosophy.

While I find much of the commentary regarding “The Passion” to be very heartfelt, I remain disturbed by the amount of attention given to a film that focuses with such single-mindedness upon the horrific carnage of Christ’s death rather than upon his life’s message of love, compassion and redemption.

Is it wise to spend so much emotional energy and resources on a commercial reenactment of one man’s tortuous death? Does such a fixation with the gory details of life’s trauma really lift up the spirits of others?

Can we build bridges of compassion through a presentation that forces us to avert our eyes from the horrors inflicted upon an innocent being? I do not know the answers to these questions, but I do appreciate the thoughtfulness of the vast majority of critics and adherents of this film. I offer you the following simplistic verse as a statement of self-inquiry spawned by Mr. Gibson’s film and the attention it has received.

“The Daily Passion”

Does the torturer toss and turn at night?

Must he look away when he catches his image in the mirror?

Is there a moment’s hesitation before the hammer is brought down upon a nail?

Can the whip hand strike without a second thought?

How do you mindlessly place a crown of thorns?

The spirit of the Roman legionnaire hides away in all too many of us.

Crucifixions take many forms.

The cutting blade of unkindness slices like a knife.

Ignorance and want left unattended are acts of murder.

Neglected children cry out to us from murky corners of the mind.

We nail ourselves, and those we hate, to crosses, side by side.

Does the torturer toss and turn at night?

Consider that question the next time you lie sleepless on a bed of doubt.

Greg Romaneck

NIU alumnus