So according to Christian legend, today Jesus was crucified by an evil jury of his peers (well.. technically, he was sentenced to die by an angry mob. I guess they didn’t do mob studies back then).

And at the other end of the spectrum, according to Jedi legend, Anakin Skywalker will become the dark one on May 19th (or You-Know-Who in Harry Potter legend, if you will, but that’s not ’til July).

Back to Jesus: When I was a kid, I was led to believe that a wondrous portent would happen at the time that Jesus died… akin to how the temple’s curtain hiding the Holy of Holies was torn from half to half. So every Good Friday I’ve looked for it. Some years it’s downright biblical and the skies darken at three o’clock. Some years, there is a pause in otherwise horrid weather. But this year, Good Friday took a more pedestrian but somewhat impressive shape:

We had a Divine Movie Experience at a G-rated Film

I know this sounds weird, but it was amazing: we actually decided which movie to see in the spur of the moment, and we cringed when we realized that Robots was pretty popular, and that the auditorium was filling up quickly with tons of children on Spring Break. So you can imagine our surprise when the movie turned out to be sweet and pretty funny and fun and when ALL of the children –from the littlest keiki to the most dubious of teenagers– behaved in an absolutely heavenly manner. No kicking of seats. No crying. No unnecessary rustling of paper or wrappers. No popcorn tossing. Next to me were a little girl and her mom, sharing some candy. Below, three kids and possibly their grandma, quitely eating their popcorn and stoically keeping mute through the many pop culture references that dotted the picture. Even the least promising little baby –about 18 months and restless during previews– sat on his daddy’s lap and when he was not quietly enjoying the movie, he was out cold, sleeping.

It was our Good Friday portent. I may not always believe, but it’s moments like these that restore my faith in something greater than I.

26 Mar This entry was published on March 26, 2005 at 12:32 am and is filed under Religion. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.