I went to see The Passion of the Christ and left the cinema feeling inspired. These are my thoughts and reflections.

Two thousand years ago a gentle innocent man called Jesus was crucified. The Roman soldiers seemed be bereft of their humanity.

Christians should go to see the film to be reminded of the words of Jesus to look again at their own lives.

And maybe they will find a way to change the world; because nothing has changed, human nature does not change.

Two thousand years later Fergal Kean's film in Rwanda, Sunday Panorama, showed there was no difference in the behaviour "of the majority Hutu tribe, who at the behest of the Rwandan government were systematically and savagely killing the Tutsis."

The few of the survivors told their very painful stories.

We needed to see and hear these accounts of the force of evil.

One man said: "The devil entered into meand that made me kill my neighbour."

Panorama made me weep.

The pain one feels is the same pain the women of Jerusalem felt at the crucifixion we have to know that evil is still at work.

We must not be insensitive to the suffering of the innocent, the women and children of all the troubled spots in the world.

The main characters in the film are similar to the people of our day. Mary the mother of Jesus suffers silently like the mothers of children killed in bomb blasts, innocent children, travelling to school on buses, trains or just bystanders. Their mothers hold their broken, pierced bodies with the same anguish and silent cries.

The friends of Jesus were all characters as different and unique as we are today. Some brave and ready to stand up for justice and peace, some afraid, some watching from a distance not able to get involved.

The Passion has the most powerful teachings of Jesus. Which we Christians and non Christians alike must make up our own minds about.

So go and see it with your own eyes and discover for yourself if it is an historical fact.

It is a powerful film that demands to be watched.

G Collins

Stratton