By Anassa K

Orthodox Easter is fast approaching and Catholic Easter is not long over so it seems like just the right time to say something about Jesus and his teachings.

Being convent-educated throughout the sixties and seventies, Jesus was a big part of life but only because churchgoing played a huge social role in a small community. Church itself was often an excuse to get out of the house and go ‘gallivanting’ around the town afterwards with friends, kept in check by the fear of hell if ‘temptation’ reared its ugly head.

School dances were regulated by ‘leaving enough room for Jesus’ when you danced with a boy. Jesus was always watching. He knew everything and could send you to hell or purgatory for misbehaving. He was also your best friend and loved everyone. It was hard to relate to such a contradictory character, depicted only in paintings and stained-glass windows, and some cryptic words in a big daunting book.

What eventually brought Jesus to life for me personally was Franco Zeffirelli’s film Jesus of Nazareth, which I watched in one seven-hour sitting at a cinema in 1980. It was a revelation. It probably helped that at the time I was involved in a Charismatic Renewal prayer group, a fringe Catholic organisation that tried hard to be hip and happy-clappy, which I was dragged into by a then roommate who went on to become a nun.
It was fun for while, uplifting even, very far removed from the staidness of regular church and very appealing to young people in a city far from home. It kept us in touch with our roots and out of trouble for the most part and turned Jesus into the trendy ‘must-have’ friend for life.

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