Weblogs: Emily Rose review

(via North Western Winds, a thoughtful review of a movie I probably won't see but which apparently treats the issues of good vs. evil and faith vs. suffering so intelligently that A.O. Scott of the NYT considers this movie to be pro-Catholic proaganda)

"Godpsy [sic] provides a quote from the Bible that might be helpful, although it isn't obvious on a first reading. The passage is from Colossians [1:24]:

Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body

There are two assertions here. The first is easier; Paul tells his readers that that he struggles for their good, as we should in a healthy community. The second part is more obscure. It is not in character for Paul to say that Christ's death was lacking in any way. What I think he's getting at is that his actions for the good of the community are mending on Christ's 'spiritual body', which is a common term for the Church and all of its members, past, present and future. Such actions counter the wounds caused by sin. Emily's sufferings are instructive, just as those of sick children, but the lesson here is not that we will die. The lesson (as I understand it) is that sin and spiritual combat are real. Emily herself tells her priest this, adding that in a vision she had, she consented to prolonging the ordeal in order that others can be learn and be saved.

Director Scott Derrickson says in Godspy, that:

'I often find myself troubled when I think deeply about this and the nature of God. It is perplexing. But isn't that the story of the saints, the apostles themselves? People who suffered tremendously so that God's nature could be revealed to the world. That does give me questions and apprehensions about God, but I always come back to a place of comfort when I think that God Himself endured that — if you believe in the incarnation. I hope agnostics will be troubled by the spiritual possibilities the film presents, but that Christians will also be troubled into thinking about issues like this.'"