Thursday, April 29, 2004
about: my life
wow, 2sg4 class outing in e library... wow how cool is tat... there's si wei, jason, peggy, rehan, piggo, mark, john... haha... hmm who's missing??? hmmm shao n wz... haha... all reading each other's blogs, tagging, playing a fool... haha... well, read mark n pc blog, how come both or them like directionless ah?? sch tat bad meh? life tat meaningless meh? so down like tat? no wat, i dun think so... life been not tat bad, sch been alright, there;s nth much tat i wld complain abt... so mc, pc, cheer up k... everything is in e mind... wahaha... "ALWAYS LOOK ON THE BRIGHT SIDE OF LIFE" yuppies!!! (,")
Monday, April 26, 2004
about: my life
its been a week since i entered here... life w/o a useable computer at home been different though... u guys must b really bored with my blog rite??? haha.. sorrie... oh ya, pple enough with tat city havest issue lar... its on both jason n wesley blog... ahhh... change it!!! it doesnt speak well of my reputation leh.. although i know i haf been ruining it lately... haha... pple change u know... and must b bcos e company i m mostly with tat influence me to become from a young innocent girl... haha...
ok, yesterday morning went for breakfast with dad at coffee bean... neh... no good...thumbs down ... my dad n i agreed macs breakfast will make a better choice... we discussed abt marketing, how a similar product can b sold differently with different responses from e consume, all these stuff lar... to think tat i get so happy having macs breakfast... haha...
sat, went to kallang support squash... notice i said support squash, not support Mark... haha... juz kidding... well, good match though, although pc keep saying tat i dun deserve e cip hours i getting.... stone all e way, nv support... haha.. but i concentrating on e game... haha... pc, u better b thankful got my company... haha
ok gtg liao... peggy done with her maths supplementary lessons liao... home sweet home...
Monday, April 19, 2004
about: my life
home computer down!!! :(
Friday, April 16, 2004
about: my life
today been quite good.. as in, i woke up feeling so high, happy, hyper today,(wow 3 "H").. haha... unlike e past few days, so sleepy, so "quiet".. must b bcos of last night Praise n Worship Night by ncc at indoor stadium.. wow, it was so cool man.. although i dunno how to sing half of e songs... i juz sat n listen, looking ard, enjoying his presense with e company of all his people and my wonderful friends... was so relieved when i got home.. mum did nag or even ask y i was home so late.. Thank God... oh ya, ate this mango cake from Four Leave.. its yum yum man... knowing tat i so critical abt food, this is a MUST try... Four Leave products r delicious man... i love pastries though.. hehe... had Tim Sum at bugis too, tat wan tat service on conveyor belt... nth great though....
Monday, April 12, 2004
about: my life
hey, must watch "Gospel of John" n "Passion of Christ"... 2 really cool movies... yup, well, i prefer Gospel to Passion though...
These notes are really helpful, especially before you watch the show. after also can.. cos while watching both e movies, i kept asking my sis n dad, "why like tat, why this, why that".... cross reference here n there, trying to piece all my bible sunday school knowlegde together... kept destructing them thr e movies i.e. my dad for passion, sis for gospel, but like always, they still as patient with me... hehe... but even if they irritated with me, wat can they do? they haf to tolerate my nonsense for life... haha... well, its really heart-warming to watch as a family... yuppies... :)
-----Original Message-----
From: Yap, Phyllis LN (MED, Medical Systems)
[mailto:Phyllis.Yap@geasn.ge.com]
NOTES ON THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST SYMBOLISM
These are my personal notes from a group discussion with a Priest called
Fr. Sean of the Legionaries of Christ. The discussion took place on
Friday, February 27, 2004 at the St. Joseph Center in Alhambra.
Fr.Sean said he has seen the movie 6 times and that his order had a
priest on the set every day that Mel Gibson was shooting the movie.
Because of this, he was privy to much information about the symbolism
throughout the picture. Please forgive me if the notes seem to ramble.
They are merely a guide to ideas brought up in discussion that night and
are by no means a comprehensive list.
1) What was the meaning of the evil baby that Satan was holding?
That image of Satan holding an ugly child is an anti-Madonna
image.
The child represents the future persecutions of the body of Christ,
the Church. The child is ugly
because evil is a deformation of good.
The child is stroking the face of Satan because evil perverts what is
good. The stroking
symbolizes the love of evil, much like a child would love its mother,
but in a perverted way.
Remember this image happens when Jesus is being scourged. His body is
being wounded. His body is
being persecuted. It is an image used by Mel Gibson to show Satan
flaunting his future plan of
persecution of the Church in the face of the sacrifice of the Lord.
2) Why is this movie so violent?
The violence you see Jim Caviezel endure as Jesus is really a
reflection of the violence that sin does to our souls. Violence is
the effect of sin on our
souls. It destroys and disfigures us. It maimes us. It makes us look
inhuman, ugly and hideous
before the Father. The violence also represents the price of our
redemption. Since Jesus took on
our sin, He was made sin for us according to St. Paul, He took on the
punishment of that sin.
[â?*For our sake he made him to be sin who did not know sin, so that
we might become the
righteousness of God in him.â?* 2 Corinthians 5:21] This is the
purpose of the violence in
the film, to get people to realize the price that is paid by the
body of Christ when people
commit sin and the price paid by the Savior to set us free.
3) There was a discussion about the Agony in the Garden scene.
Fr. Sean brought up the idea that the reason Jesus suffered in the
Garden was because that is
the moment He took on sin for us. St. Paul says that God the Father
made Jesus â?*to be sin.â?*
This is the moment when it happens in the Garden. Since Jesus is the
Son of God and God is pure
love, taking on the sin of the world, yours and mine, the sin of a
Hitler, a Stalin, a Genghis
Kahn, etc., was an excruciating experience for Him. At that moment,
pure Love was forced to
coexist with the evil effect of sin in the agony Jesus experienced in
the Garden of Gethsemane.
4) In the Garden of Gethsemane, what is the snake a reference to?
Genesis 3:15 And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and
between your offspring
and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.
Notice that Jesus suffers
immensely while Satan adds to His burden but then Jesus makes a
decision to do the Father's will and with that resolve he stomps on the
snake to kill it.
5) There are plenty of Mass references in this picture. When Jesus is
being stripped, the movie
flashes back to the Last Supper when the bread is brought to the
table and uncovered. When Jesus
is being elevated on the cross after being nailed to it, we see a
flashback to the Last Supper
when Jesus raises the bread and says, This is my bodyâ?| The apostle
John is shown as the one who
remembers these flashbacks and who makes the connection between the
Bread of Life on the cross
and the Breaking of the Bread at the Last Supper.
6) When is the first time we see Mary?
Just as Jesus is arrested and put into chains. She wakes up saying
:Why is this night different than any other?â?* And Mary Magdalene
responds that this is the night that they were set free from slavery.
Where do these lines come from? They are the words that the youngest
says to the oldest at a Jewish Passover/Seder supper ritual. In this
case, the oldest was saying them to the youngest because this was THE
night that would set in motion the plan of salvation to set us free from
sin. The new Passover had begun with Jesus as the Lamb.
Maia Morgenstern, a Jewess herself, had the idea to use these lines in
the scene and when she explained them to Mel, he agreed they had to be
included in the picture to tie everything together.
7) When is the first time we see a maggot? In the Garden of Gethsemane
when you see one crawling n and out of the nostril of Satan.
It is a very quick scene. When do we see a maggot again? When Judas
finds himself sitting next to a maggot infested mule. The maggot
represents death and corruption.
8) In this picture Pontius Pilate was portrayed sympathetically.
Why so? Mel wanted him to represent the struggle of every man when
faced with moral choices.
It was obvious to Pilate that Jesus was an innocent man. It was
obvious to Pilate that
Barabbas was corrupt. (It was no accident that his makeup made
Barabbas look even more
evil and deranged.) To Pilate the right choice was obvious but he
did not make it because
of his own fears and the pressure from an unruly crowd he wanted to
appease. Melâ's
message was that every time we choose sin, the choice is always
obvious like the choice
between Barabbas and Jesus. Of course there are times when the
temptation that approaches
us is very beautiful in appearance, but down deep inside, we know
what the choice should
be and very often we do exactly what Pilate did and afterwards try
to wash our hands to
relieve our guilt.
9) Why was there a scene when Jesus falls over the bridge only to find
Judas at the bottom?
Judas has just denied Jesus in the Garden. At this moment, Judas
represents every man who
when faced with the truth denies it. In this scene, he represents
every man who runs away
from the truth and Mel Gibson wanted to remind the audience that you
cannot run away and
hide from the truth because the truth will always find you. In this
case, Jesus has
been arrested, is beaten and falls from the bridge while hanging in
chains right in front of
Judas. The Truth found Judas even though he had denied Him and tried
to hide from Him.
10) Notice that in the picture whenever Satan is shown, he is always in
the background
moving behind the scenes. Notice he is always in the background
whenever there is
intensity and anger in the foreground directed towards Jesus. This
is symbolic of his
actions motivating the aggression and intensity of persecution
against the Body of Christ,
the Church, and also is symbolic of his responsibility behind all
evil motivations.
11) When Jesus is before Pilate, He notices a dove in the sky above Him.
It represents a
reminder of the vertical dimension, the relationship between man and
God. We as human
beings are often caught up in the horizontal dimension
(relationships with men and
worldly affairs) and forget there is a vertical dimension. The
vertical dimension
represents the spiritual life, the relationship of a soul with the
Father. The vertical
dimension is what is more important and the dove is a reminder to
Jesus that the vertical
dimension is in control despite the appearance of the situation.
12) Why do Mary and Mary Magdalene clean up the blood on the cobble
stones after Jesus is scourged?
It is because it is Jewish tradition to save the blood. Life is in
the blood. Blood had to
be collected. This is also representative of the cleaning of the
vessels at Mass when a
priest is done with the consecration and giving out the Eucharist.
The blood was precious
and Jesus' blood particularly is precious. Notice that they also
collected the instruments
that made Him bleed at the very end of the film when you see the
crown of thorns, the nails
and the hammer at the foot of the cross as they take down the body
of Jesus.
13) There is a scene at the crucifixion where Mary Magdalene is the only
one who sees a miracle
happen. It is a very quick scene and it happens when she is on her
knees (notice that the
only ones on their knees are Mary, John and the Magdalene at the
crucifixion). Jesus
has been nailed to the cross and the Romans are turning it over. You
expect Jesus to smash
His face into the ground when the cross falls over but it does not
happen. Instead what you
see is the Magdalene looking up to see that the cross is floating
above the ground. She is
the only one to see that Jesus is floating a few inches above the
ground the entire time
that they are hammering the nails on the back of the cross to secure
them. It is a
representation of God still in control of the whole crucifixion
process.
14) Every time that Jesus meets His mother Mary along His Passion He is
strengthened and
has new resolve. This is especially noticeable after Jesus is
scourged the first time.
The Romans have beat him over 70 times and He has collapsed. He sees
Mary and finds the
strength to stand up much to the dismay and surprise of the Roman
soldiers who then
decide to use a more vicious whip with metal tips. This scene
represents the idea that
Mary is living proof to Jesus that the sacrifice He is about to make
for mankind is
not in vain. The film shows that Jesus comes to a decision to
continue on the path to
Calvary each time they look at each other. Some say it reinforces
the idea of Mary as co-
redemptrix.
15) Simon of Cyrene represents every man who is faced with the cross and
does not want to
carry it. He also represents those who do not want to help others
carry their crosses.
Yet, in this film he also represents the person who is forced to
carry the cross and then
becomes so engaged with Christ that he wants a deeper relationship
with Him. The arms of
Jesus and Simon the Cyrene are intertwined as they carry the cross
together and that image
represents the efforts of each soul carrying its cross with the help
of the Savior.
That final look that Simon gives Jesus after he has finished helping
Him, represents
the longing of every soul to have a deeper relationship with the
Lord after coming
face to face with Him. It was through carrying the cross that Simon
came to have a
desire to have an intimate relationship with Jesus much like that of
the soul who longs
to know Christ better in the midst of suffering.
16) Notice in the Garden of Gethsemane scene when Judas denies Jesus
that the Lord never
takes His eyes off of him when he denies Him. The Lord never takes
His eyes off of
Judas even when Judas runs away. That is representative of the
Lord's own relationship
with us. Jesus never takes His eyes off of us when we deny Him or
turn away from Him.
Saturday, April 10, 2004
about: my life
sorrie ah... my blog still under renovation... dun expect too much from this.. as in, updating... hehe... thanks 4 patroning anyway... hehe...
Tuesday, April 06, 2004
about: my life
heeeellllllllllllllllllooooooo
