JESUS OF NAZARETH - THE FILM

 

JESUS OF NAZARETH - Full Length Movie

In the entire history of mankind, there has never been a more controversial, admired and most talked about person other than Jesus Christ. So much has been written about this revered Holy Man who is so misunderstood despite the fact that He willingly offered His very own life on the Cross as a supreme sacrifice so that all of mankind may be saved.

For those who prefer watching movies rather than reading the Bible, I highly recommend that you see this great classic film in its entirety; as it will surely change your perspective of Jesus Christ. It has touched and inspired many of my friends including skeptics who have seen this movie many times over.

What better way to reflect on a meaningful Lenten season than to understand and appreciate this Holy Man as the only Son of God who had conquered death through His Resurrection.

In a person's lifetime, JESUS OF NAZARETH is one must see great movie on DVD, I enthusiastically encourage everyone to watch. The entire movie consists of a two (2) discs DVD with Disc 1 focusing on the origin and birth of Jesus and Disc 2 detailing His life, work, teachings and suffering. 

While each Disc is about three hours in viewing duration; but under the artistic masterpiece and superb direction of the multi-awarded Film Director Franco Zeffirelli; the entire story was so engrossing in its realistic presentation that the viewer intensely enjoys uninterrupted viewing; hardly noticing the duration time has passed by.

It was originally presented by Sir Lew Grade and produced by Franco Zeffirelli Productions in 1977 as a television mini-series televised as continuing episodes with a total running time of 6 Hours and 22 Minutes.

The powerhouse award winning casts boast of Hollywood's greatest actors during their production time which had included Robert Powell, Anne Bancroft, Ernest Borgnine, Valentina Cortese, James Farentino, James Earl Jones, Stacey Keach, Tony Lo Bianco, James Mason, Ian McShane, Sir Laurence Olivier, Donald Pleasance, Christopher Plummer, Anthony Quinn, Fernando Rey, Rod Steiger, Peter Ustinov, Michael York, and Olivia Hussey as the Blessed Mother Mary.

This magnificent classic is the greatest Jesus movie of all time and what never ceases to amaze me is the par excellance performance of Robert Powell as Jesus Christ. He actually looks and talks like Jesus.

Even Director Zeffirelli was so impressed at his outstanding performance; he noted that Robert Powell never blinked his eyes even in the delivery of his long parts, which to him was the mark of a great actor as it was the first time he has witnessed such.

The following review is an excerpt of my movie review of Jesus of Nazareth as featured in Amazon.com:

No doubt about it, this for me is the greatest film on the life and story of Jesus Christ. While the Passion of The Christ centers on the actual suffering and was graphically vivid for the excruciating pain our sins have inflicted on Jesus, the movie Jesus Of Nazareth focuses more on his teachings and the impact of His earthly presence among those who have come into actual contact with Jesus.

This timeless masterpiece is a creatively brilliant humanist portrayal of the divine virtues of Faith, Hope, Love and Humility as Jesus teaches us to emulate.

In various scenes within the movie, Jesus emphasizes the fact that "All who were fortunate enough to see what others dreamed to see and to hear what others longed to hear" refer to the fortunate crowd who have actually witnessed the teachings of Jesus in the flesh as compared to those who only read in the Holy Scriptures about the coming of the Messiah.

But the greatest irony of all was those who were indeed fortunate enough to witness Him in the flesh were even the ones who rejected His Holy Presence even questioning the selfless purpose of His foretold Divine Mission, were the very same religious leaders entrusted to preach the Scriptures.

Well fortunately for us all, Jesus of Nazareth is now on video and although I've probably seen this over a dozen times; it never ceases to amaze me that I always get a different perspective of spiritual enlightenment and contemplative appreciation of the same impressionable scenes every time I watch it during Lenten Season and Christmas.

Now as a video viewer, you have two choices. You can either embrace and come to love the film as strong as your faith in Jesus or you can reject it by pressing the eject button and stow the discs away in its protective jewel box.

Either way, it's worth one complete viewing which guarantees not only five star entertainment but an all star casts entertainment. This spectacular masterpiece film is always great no matter how many times one watches it; since the story is about the life of the greatest superstar of all time who ever walked the earth, none other than Jesus of Nazareth.

SOURCE OF ETERNAL LIFE: SACRED HEART OF JESUS

LAZARUS SCENE FROM JESUS OF NAZARETH

"But I know that even now whatever you ask of God, God will give it to you. Because I believe you are the Christ, the Son of God. He who has come into the world to give us eternal life."

"I am the Resurrection and the Life, and those who believe in Me shall never die'"

"He that believes in Me, but he were dead, yet shall he live!"


4TH PROMISE: I WILL BE THEIR SECURITY AND REFUGE DURING LIFE, AND ABOVE ALL, IN DEATH.

URBI ET ORBI: EASTER 2008 MESSAGE OF POPE BENEDICT XVI

"I have risen, I am still with you, forever."

URBI ET ORBI
EASTER 2008 MESSAGE
OF HIS HOLINESS POPE BENEDICT XVI

Resurrexi, et adhuc tecum sum. Alleluia! - I have risen, I am still with you. Alleluia! Dear brothers and sisters, Jesus, crucified and risen, repeats this joyful proclamation to us today: the Easter proclamation. Let us welcome it with deep wonder and gratitude!

Resurrexi et adhuc tecum sum – I have risen, I am still with you, forever. These words, taken from an ancient version of Psalm 138 (v. 18b), were sung at the beginning of today’s Mass. In them, at the rising of the Easter sun, the Church recognizes the voice of Jesus himself who, on rising from death, turns to the Father filled with gladness and love, and exclaims: My Father, here I am! I have risen, I am still with you, and so I shall be for ever; your Spirit never abandoned me. In this way we can also come to a new understanding of other passages from the psalm: “If I climb the heavens, you are there; if I descend into the underworld, you are there … Even darkness is not dark for you, and the night is as clear as day; for you, darkness is like light” (Ps 138:8,12).

It is true: in the solemn Easter vigil, darkness becomes light, night gives way to the day that knows no sunset. The death and resurrection of the Word of God incarnate is an event of invincible love, it is the victory of that Love which has delivered us from the slavery of sin and death. It has changed the course of history, giving to human life an indestructible and renewed meaning and value.

“I have risen and I am still with you, forever.” These words invite us to contemplate the risen Christ, letting his voice resound in our heart. With his redeeming sacrifice, Jesus of Nazareth has made us adopted children of God, so that we too can now take our place in the mysterious dialogue between him and the Father.

We are reminded of what he once said to those who were listening: “All things have been delivered to me by my Father; and no one knows the Father except the Son and any one to whom the Son chooses to reveal him” (Mt 11:27). In this perspective, we note that the words addressed by the risen Jesus to the Father on this day – “I am still with you, forever” – apply indirectly to us as well, “children of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him” (cf. Rom 8:17). Through the death and resurrection of Christ, we too rise to new life today, and uniting our voice with his, we proclaim that we wish to remain forever with God, our infinitely good and merciful Father.

In this way we enter the depths of the Paschal mystery. The astonishing event of the Resurrection of Jesus is essentially an event of love: the Father’s love in handing over his Son for the salvation of the world; the Son’s love in abandoning himself to the Father’s will for us all; the Spirit’s love in raising Jesus from the dead in his transfigured body. And there is more: the Father’s love which “newly embraces” the Son, enfolding him in glory; the Son’s love returning to the Father in the power of the Spirit, robed in our transfigured humanity.

From today’s solemnity, in which we relive the absolute, once-and-for-all experience of Jesus’ resurrection, we receive an appeal to be converted to Love; we receive an invitation to live by rejecting hatred and selfishness, and to follow with docility in the footsteps of the Lamb that was slain for our salvation, to imitate the Redeemer who is “gentle and lowly in heart”, who is “rest for our souls” (cf. Mt 11:29).

Dear Christian brothers and sisters in every part of the world, dear men and women whose spirit is sincerely open to the truth, let no heart be closed to the omnipotence of this redeeming love! Jesus Christ died and rose for all; he is our hope – true hope for every human being. Today, just as he did with his disciples in Galilee before returning to the Father, the risen Jesus now sends us everywhere as witnesses of his hope, and he reassures us: I am with you always, all days, until the end of the world (cf. Mt 28:20).

Fixing the gaze of our spirit on the glorious wounds of his transfigured body, we can understand the meaning and value of suffering, we can tend the many wounds that continue to disfigure humanity in our own day. In his glorious wounds we recognize the indestructible signs of the infinite mercy of the God of whom the prophet says: it is he who heals the wounds of broken hearts, who defends the weak and proclaims the freedom of slaves, who consoles all the afflicted and bestows upon them the oil of gladness instead of a mourning robe, a song of praise instead of a sorrowful heart (cf. Is 61:1,2,3).

If with humble trust we draw near to him, we encounter in his gaze the response to the deepest longings of our heart: to know God and to establish with him a living relationship in an authentic communion of love, which can fill our lives, our interpersonal and social relations with that same love. For this reason, humanity needs Christ: in him, our hope, “we have been saved” (cf. Rom 8:24).

How often relations between individuals, between groups and between peoples are marked not by love but by selfishness, injustice, hatred and violence! These are the scourges of humanity, open and festering in every corner of the planet, although they are often ignored and sometimes deliberately concealed; wounds that torture the souls and bodies of countless of our brothers and sisters.

They are waiting to be tended and healed by the glorious wounds of our Risen Lord (cf. 1 Pet 2:24-25) and by the solidarity of people who, following in his footsteps, perform deeds of charity in his name, make an active commitment to justice, and spread luminous signs of hope in areas bloodied by conflict and wherever the dignity of the human person continues to be scorned and trampled. It is hoped that these are precisely the places where gestures of moderation and forgiveness will increase!

Dear brothers and sisters! Let us allow the light that streams forth from this solemn day to enlighten us; let us open ourselves in sincere trust to the risen Christ, so that his victory over evil and death may also triumph in each one of us, in our families, in our cities and in our nations. Let it shine forth in every part of the world.

In particular, how can we fail to remember certain African regions, such as Dafur and Somalia, the tormented Middle East, especially the Holy Land, Iraq, Lebanon, and finally Tibet, all of whom I encourage to seek solutions that will safeguard peace and the common good!

Let us invoke the fullness of his Paschal gifts, through the intercession of Mary who, after sharing the sufferings of the passion and crucifixion of her innocent Son, also experienced the inexpressible joy of his resurrection. Sharing in the glory of Christ, may she be the one to protect us and guide us along the path of fraternal solidarity and peace. These are my Easter greetings, which I address to all who are present here, and to men and women of every nation and continent united with us through radio and television. Happy Easter!

Copyright 2008 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

SEARCHING FOR NAZARETH

Several years ago, I left the Philippines.

Maybe to look for myself. Maybe to look for GOD.

And so I went to Rome, the capital of the Holy Roman Catholic Church.

BUT I DID NOT FIND GOD THERE.

And then I went to Bethlehem and Jerusalem, where Jesus Christ - the Son Of God - was born, and where He died. BUT I DID NOT FIND GOD THERE.

Too noisy. Too commercial. Too institutional. Too regimented. Too artificial.

And with the endless pilgrims streaming in and out - not really praying, but forever posing for their pictures and their souvenir albums - I could not find God. Only vanity and shallowness.

So I went away, and I retreated to a place that was ordinary and humble and obscure - NAZARETH.

And in Nazareth, I looked for the most ordinary, the most humble, the most obscure place, I prayed there during the day, and as darkness came, I walked out in the cool of the evening and gazed up at the myriad stars - the same stars that the Carpenter Jesus saw thousands of years ago. And I inhaled the cool evening breeze . . . the same cool breeze that the Son of Mary, the Son of God, inhaled.

And there - in that simple, silent place - I was touched by the True, the Holy, the Divine.

My brothers, my sisters - as you walk the road of life, you may sometimes find the need to search. For yourself. To search. For GOD. You may find the need to be touched. By THE DIVINE, THE HOLY, and THE TRUE.

Do not look for your answers in the dancing sun and the bloody tears and the magic petals, because they are not always there, and they are not always true.

Look instead for Nazareth. YOUR NAZARETH. Stop . . . and for the first time, notice and appreciate . . . your COOK and your MAID, who prepare your breakfast and clean your toilet everyday. Stop and appreciate the LOLA (Grandma) and the LOLO (Grandpa) in your house, who no longer feel useful, who no longer feel needed, and who no longer feel loved.

Stop, and notice and appreciate your LITTLE CHILD - so vulnerable, so open, so close to GOD. Stop and notice and appreciate YOUR WIFE . . . because she is always there, serving your children and loving you, you have long ago taken her for granted. Stop and notice and appreciate YOUR HUSBAND, who works every day to feed you and to send the children to school.

Most of all, my friend, stop in front of the mirror. Then notice and appreciate the person you see there - YOURSELF - and behind the disguise of the common and the ordinary, discover THE DIVINE, THE HOLY and THE TRUE. For Jesus Christ says, "The Kingdom of God is inside you. The Kingdom of God is inside you."

Look again at yourself. And discover GOD right there.

My brothers, my sisters, do not be so fascinated with the very good and the very bad.

LOOK RATHER, FOR THE ORDINARY,
THE HUMBLE, THE OBSCURE.
LOOK FOR NAZARETH - YOUR NAZARETH. MAYBE,
MAYBE YOU'LL FIND GOD THERE.

BECAUSE HE IS THERE. WAITING. FOR YOU.

FR. ARSENIO C. JESENA, SJ
Catholic Author of the Jubilee Year 2000
From his book Yayee 4: Embraced By God
Published in the Philippines, December 2007
E-Mail: junisj@yahoo.com Phone: (632) 426-5941

JESUS OF NAZARETH: YESTERDAY AND TODAY

In the Philippines, January 9 is a sacred day of devotion for devout Filipino Catholics. Now on its 401st Anniversary, millions of Filipino devotees annually celebrate the Feast Day of The Black Nazarene by participating in the eight-hour festivities of Mass celebrations and street-wide procession of the Holy Image from the Basilica De San Juan Bautista in Quiapo, City of Manila.

Historically, it is widely believed the much revered Image of the Black Nazarene Jesus Christ got its name from the wood it was made from that for more than 400 years has been said to turn black.

In what seems to be a fervent display of faith, hope and passionate devotion, regular Filipino devotees brave the crowded streets unmindful of the heat and bear the arduous hardships, even risking life and limb; just to get a closer glimpse, touch and participate in the human effort to physically move the Black Nazarene Image set on top of movable cartwheels from the Church grounds to be paraded within the vicinities of Quiapo.

Miracles are widely believed to be granted to those who touch the Image. It is a common sight to see the devotees who share in the duty of bearing the gilded carriage that transports the Image have a towel wrapped around their necks. The towels are then thrown to the marshals stationed aboard the carriage who wipe it on the Black Nazarene and then thrown back to the devotees; perceiving it to be an extension of "physically touching the Black Nazarene".

The devotees themselves attest to the obtaining of numerous miraculous favors granted to them by the Black Nazarene for their firm observance of their faithful devotions spanning years even decades of participation in the celebrations.

In recognition and as fitting tribute to their living Faith in Jesus of Nazareth, this article is on Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, the Archbishop Emeritus of Milan who reviews the book JESUS OF NAZARETH by Pope Benedict XVI.

There have been many books on Jesus Christ published in recent times, in different languages and from different viewpoints. Something that brings out the extraordinary relevance of the figure of Jesus and the multiplicity of possible approaches.

But not till now has a book on Jesus been published by a Pope. Pope John Paul II accustomed us to various stories about his life. But it is the first time that a book by a Pope comes out that treats of such an arduous and ample theme.

It is true that only some aspects of the life of Jesus, from Baptism to Transfiguration are dealt with in this volume. The author hopes to be able to complete his work, in the not too distant future.

At all events, the question necessarily arises: are the words contained in this volume the words of a Pope, with the magisterial authority due to them or are they the reflections of a scholar who is expressing his personal convictions, though they may come from long familiarity with his subject and arise from his personal involvement in the life of the Church and in the following of Christ?

The Pope himself aims to resolve any possible ambiguity by saying: "It goes without saying that this book is in no way an exercise of the magisterium, but is solely an expression of my personal search "for the face of the Lord" (of Psalm 27:6). Everyone is free, then, to contradict me. I would only ask my readers for that initial goodwill without which there can be no understanding" (P. XXIII).

Reading these pages one often comes across references to that background, beginning with the distance that the author takes from such great contemporary Catholic exegate as Rudolf Schnackenburg, as early as the introduction. "It has opened up to us a wealth of material and an abundance of findings that enable the figure of Jesus to become present to us with a vitality and depth what we could not have imagined even just a few decades ago."

And nevertheless, the author intends to employ "new methodological insights, that allow us to offer a properly theological interpretation of the Bible. To be sure, this requires faith, but the aim unequivocally is not, nor should be, to give up serious engagement with history" (P. XXIII).

Thus the author's own method, to which I shall return later, begins to take shape. But now let me deal with the book in itself. It has as title Jesus of Nazareth, and deals as I have said above, with the facts of life of Jesus from Baptism to Transfiguration.

The work is entitled Jesus of Nazareth, but I think that the real title should more precisely be "Jesus of Nazareth Yesterday and Today." In fact the author passes with ease from the consideration of the facts concerning Jesus to their importance for the following centuries and for our Church. Thus, the book is full of allusions to contemporary questions.

For example, speaking of the temptation in the desert in which Satan offers Jesus the dominion of the world, he states that "its true content becomes apparent when we realize that throughout history it is constantly taking on new forms."

"The Christian empire attempted at an early stage to use the faith in order to cement political unity. The Kingdom of Christ was now expected to take the form of a political kingdom and its splendor. The powerlessness of faith, the earthly powerlessness of Jesus Christ, was to be given the helping hand of political and military might. This temptation to use power to secure the faith has arisen again and again in varied forms throughout the centuries, and again and again faith has risked being suffocated in the embrace of power" (PP. 39-40).

This kind of consideration on history after Jesus and on the present gives the book an amplitude and a savor that other books on Jesus concerned with the meticulous discussion solely of events in the life, do not possess.

The author shows that without the reality of Jesus, made of flesh and blood, Christianity becomes a simple moralism and an affair of the intellect. He is, for this reason, also concerned to anchor the Christian faith to its Jewish roots, and does so both by referring to the prophecy in DT 18:15, from which the argument of the book starts, and by recalling many other passages from the Old Testament that are cited by Jesus and that, apart from constituting the framework through which his words are to be understood, give a precise context to His history.

But above all, what matters is the fact that this Jesus has a vision of God which no other man has. He quotes for this the Prologue of John's Gospel: "No one has ever seen God: the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, has revealed Him" (John 1:18).

This is the point of departure starting from which it is possible to understand the figure of Jesus. This entails a certain interpenetration between historical knowledge and the faith's knowledge. Each of these ways, reason just as faith, maintains its dignity, freedom and own method, without mixture or blending.

From all this the work method also clearly transpires. The author is wholly contrary to what has recently been called, above all on the Anglo-Saxon American literature, "the imperialism of the historico-critical method" (see for example W. Brueggermann, Theology of the Old Testament, 2002). The author acknowledges that this method is important but that it also risks dismembering the text and making incomprehensible the facts to which the text is referring.

He thus proposes to read the different texts within the framework of the totality of the Scripture. It has become clear that there is a single overall direction, that the Old Testament and the New Testaments belong together. This Christological hermeneutic, which sees Jesus Christ as the key to the whole and learns from Him to understand the Bible as a unity presupposes a prior act of faith. It cannot be the conclusion of a purely historical method.

But this act of faith is based upon reason - historical reason - and so makes it possible to see the internal unity of the Scripture. By the same token it enables us to understand anew the individual elements that have shaped it, without robbing them of their historical originality" (P. XIX).

The author thus rejects the contradiction between faith and history, because he is convinced that the Jesus of the Gospels is a historically plausible and consistent figure and that the faith of the Church cannot do without a certain historical basis. All this means in practice that the author, as he himself expresses it, puts trust in the Gospels, though integrating everything that modern exegesis has to say about them. From this emerges a real Jesus, a historical Jesus in the true and proper meaning of the term, whose figure is much more logical and historically comprehensible than the reconstructions we have been faced with over the last decades (CF. PP. XXI-XXII).

The author is convinced that "unless there had been something extraordinary in what happened, unless the person and words of Jesus radically surpassed the hopes and expectations of the time, there is no way to explain why He was crucified or why He made such an impact" (P. XXII). That impact led His Disciples to acknowledge to Him within the space of twenty years the name that the prophet Isaiah had reserved to God alone.

Consequently, the author expresses his persuasion "that the deepest theme of Jesus preaching was His own mystery, the mystery of the Son, in whom God is among us and keeps His Word" (P. 188). That is true in particular for the Sermon on the Mount, to which the author devotes two chapters, as for the message of the Parables and for the other great words of Jesus.

If such is the author's method, what should one think of the overall outcome of the work? The author avows that this book is the results of a long inward journey (PP. XI and XXIV). He began working on it during the holidays of the Year 2003. The book is nevertheless the mature fruit of contemplation and study that have occupied his whole life.

He has drawn the consequence from it that Jesus is not a myth, but a man of flesh and of blood, a most real presence in history. We can follow the paths he took. We can listen to His Words, thanks to the witnesses. He died and rose again.

The book thus constitutes the ardent witness of a great scholar, who today also has a place in the forefront of the Catholic Church, to Jesus of Nazareth and on His meaning for the history of mankind and for the perception of the real figure of God. It is always comforting to read testimonies such as this. I find the book very fine: it also gets itself read with a certain ease (I would recommend the reader start from the chapters on discourses of Jesus).

The book does not limit itself to the intellectual aspect only. It shows us the way of the love of God and of our neighbor, as is said very well in explaining the Parable of the Good Samaritan: "Now we realize that we are all in need of the gift of God's redeeming love ourselves, so that we too can become 'lovers' in our turn. Now we realize that we always need God, who makes Himself our neighbor, so that we can become neighbors" (P. 201).

He deals with the theme of the "failure of the Prophet," of every Prophet: His message goes too much against general opinion, and the comfortable habits of life. It is only through failure that His Word becomes efficacious. This failure of the Prophet is an obscure question mark hanging over the whole history of Israel, and in a certain way it constantly recurs in the history of humanity. Above all, it is again and again the destiny of Jesus Christ: He ends up on the Cross. But that very Cross is the source of great fruitfulness" (PP. 189-190).

However, at this point, it is better to wait for the second volume, which will treat at length the mystery of the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus. The reading of this book thus invites us to wait with desire what is to come.


CARDINAL CARLO MARIA MARTINI
Archbishop Emeritus of Milan
The Messenger of Divine Love
July-September 2007