I learnt that changing one little, one tiny letter, that we can become great in the eyes of God. But He requires us to be little, if we wish to be great.
Passion of the Christ actor, Jim Caviezel spoke with a fiery voice as he delivered his passionate speech during 2018 SLS conference near Chicago early January.
You cannot but be blown away by his gumption and candor which at different points of the fervent delivery left the college students screaming and applauding him.
Soft start to a fervent speech
“The name Saul means Great One. The name Paul means little One,” he began, calmly.
James Patrick Caviezel, one would think, would go ahead to speak effusively about his role in his next movie project “Paul, Apostle of Christ,” where he played Luke wending his way to Rome to see Paul, the imprisoned Apostle. Perhaps, that was his unspoken intention before it was overtaken by his yearn to investigate the whole idea of what Jesus Christ and his Apostles were tyrannized and eventually murdered for. What better way to promote the movie than such an excellent spirit-lifting delivery?
Making “Paul, the Apostle of Christ”
“While making this film,” he continued, “I learnt that changing one little, one tiny letter, that we can become great in the eyes of God. But He requires us to be little, if we wish to be great. This is the way of the saints, this is the way of the holy and this is the way Saul became Saint Paul.
Callings come when we least expect them. I remember mine vividly. I had this experience. I was 19 years old sitting in a movie theatre in my home town of Mount Vernon, Washington. The movie had ended and out there in the darkness, befriended only by my basketball and the aged seat, I had a sensation in my heart that made me think that I’m supposed to be an actor, that this is what God crafted me for, that this is what He wanted of me.
Yes, my rational sense intervened. I knew nothing about acting or agents or managers. I can’t memorize to save my life. Yet I had a conviction. I had a call.”
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He went a bit into how he started his career. “Cut to the spring of 2000, I was off for the role of Edmond Dantes in “The Count of Monte Cristo.” It was a new adaptation of the Dumas classic. Very stressful Period. This is the first time I ever had to carry a film on my own and here I was, what I long wanted to achieve but I had no peace. Everything on that film was a battle. My character, Edmond Dantes is unjustly imprisoned while there both in the book and in the film he carves on the wall ‘God will give me justice.’ …”
Encountering Mel Gibson
Caviezel who has done almost forty movies elucidated his encounter with Mel Gibson. “God loves each one of us personally. He is there for us, even in our darkest moments of despair... I inexplicably got a call from Mel Gibson. My agent didn’t call, my manager didn’t call. I didn’t know Mel Gibson. I wasn’t politicking for the role because nobody knows what’s happening.
Mel Gibson wants me to play Jesus Christ. He wants the guy with the initials of J.C who just happens to be 33 years of age to play Jesus Christ. Is that a coincidence? I don’t think so. Is your life a coincidence or is it all just a chance? Some of you may be miserable right now. Confused, uncertain of your future, hurting? This is not the time to back off or to give in.
Be ready for your cross
Jim vividly recounted his ‘cross’ experience as Jesus and challenged the audience to be ready to carry their own cross. “When I was up there on the cross, I learnt that in the suffering was our redemption. Remember the servant is no greater than the master; each of us must carry our own cross. There is a price for our faith, for our freedoms. I have been literally scourged, hit by the whips, crucified, struck by lightning, yes open-heart surgery; it’s what happens after five and a half months of hyperthermia.
One day, during the shoot, my arm was wedged under that heavy beam, when someone yanked it in the other direction, my muscles wrenched, my shoulder separated. I fell to the ground, dropped my head into the sand…. Without this being shot in the studio, you never would have seen that performance. The suffering made my performance just as it makes our lives.”
Fake Christianity
The actor came frankly against the ‘new’ Christianity now peddled all over the world. “Some of us now, you know them, embrace a fake Christianity where it’s all happy talk. I call it happy Jesus and glory. Guys, it was a lot of pain and suffering before the resurrection. Your path would be no different. So embrace your cross and race towards your goal. I want you to go out into this pagan world, I want you to have the courage to step into this pagan world and shamelessly express your faith in public.
The world needs proud warriors, animated by their faith, warriors like Saint Paul and Saint Luke who risked their names, their reputations to take their faith, their love for Jesus into the world. God is calling each one of us, each one of you to do great things but how often we fail to respond, dismissing it as some mental blurb.
It is time for our generation now to accept that call, the call of God urging all of us to give ourselves entirely to Him, to see that gentle Hand guiding your path. But you first must make the commitment to start praying, to fast, to meditate on the Holy Scriptures and to take the holy sacrament seriously…”
A reference to Saint Kolbe
He made a reference to Saint Kolbe’s 20th century assertion that indifference was the greatest sin of his century. While agreeing with Kolbe, Jim further stretched that the greatest sin ideology of the 21st century is still indifference. “The great saint of Aushwitz, Saint Maximilian Kolbe said that indifference is the greatest sin of the twentieth century. Oh, my brothers and sisters it is the greatest sin of the twenty-first century as well.”
Caviezel spurred the audience to work on their faith, stand out from the normal church-going crowd that practice “fake Christianity” and pull off the toga of indifference. He himself admitted only warriors of faith can do this. “We must shake off this indifference, this destructive tolerance of evil. Only our faith and the wisdom of Christ can save us, but it requires warriors ready to risk their reputations, their names, even our very lives to stand for the truth. Set yourselves apart from this corrupt generation. Be saints, you weren’t born to fit in, you were born to stand out…”
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We are a culture now in decline. For in our country now we are only too happy to go with the flow.”
A different definition of freedom
He bravely debunked the old concept of American freedom and gave a different definition that obviously would not sit well with many people. “We have a shrine to freedom now where all choices are equal no matter what the consequences are. Do you honestly think this is true freedom? Every generation of Americans needs to know that freedom exists not to do what you like but having the right to do what you ought. You, you, you, we all must fight for that authentic freedom and live, my friends.”
Metaphorical ending
He finished the speech on a splendid note drawing up the images of Holy Spirit as a shield and Jesus Christ as a sword – perfect war weapons in the life of a keen Christian. When a Christian overcomes the world, he will certainly live with God and the Saints in the hereafter. “By God, we must live, and with the Holy Spirit as your shield and Christ as your sword, may you join St. Michael and all the angels in sending Lucifer and his henchmen straight right back to Hell where they belong!”
Written by Omidire Idowu.
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