In 2004 ardent Roman Catholic Mel Gibson, aided by Jesus-portrayer and equally ardent Roman Catholic James Caviezel, following a script based partly on the Bible and partly on the diaries of Roman Catholic 18th century saint Anne Catherine Emmerich, produced the blockbuster movie, The Passion of the Christ.

Evangelical Protestant Christians jumped on board even though many of them had never heard the term "passion" as referring to anything Biblical. Actually it is a Biblical word, indirectly. The Greek word is translated "passion" once in the King James Bible, in Acts 1. It is a direct reference there to the suffering of Christ.

The word itself means a very strong impression or feeling, usually painful. And as you know, the English word has come from that humble beginning to cover a whole range of meanings.

So when we hear the term Passion of Christ, or Passion Play, or Passion Week, we should think Jesus and we should think the Cross. But the concept of suffering and giving one's life up in this all-consuming way is throughout the Bible and history and life. Passion is an important concept to track down.

Passion will change your life. Passion can even take your life.

Passion, like religion, can be good or bad. I grow weary of hearing leaders say to their flock, "I'm not into religion, I'm into Jesus." James, the half brother of the Lord who gave us a book by that name in the Bible, was into religion. He talked about vain religion, for sure. But he also talked about the pure kind, the kind he recommended to us. That's the kind that gets involved with orphans and widows and other needy folk. There is a good religion.

And passion too is in itself a neutral word. There are any number of bad passions, secondary passions, less-than-perfect passions, along with the good kind that Jesus had.

It's worth saying here that lack of passion is also destructive. A soldier thinking that the foxhole is a safe place may change his tune when he sees the hand grenade on the way. Passionate soldiers are on the battlefield. They too may die, but because of their passion, not their lack of it.

Passion starts early in life. Even little boys see little girls that sweep them off their feet. In a few years that passion, which we have called "love" in the West, can bring on all sorts of imagined ailments, especially if the intended is not as excited as the intendee.

People eventually decide upon a career, and some can become quite passionate about it. They will save lives. They will educate the poor. They will change their community or nation with their giftedness.

The altruistic among us can get very passionate about moral issues. They view a video about the abortion process, and watch a beating heart stop, and they cry "Murder." And so it is. A grievous crime forgivable only through the grace of God. Their own heart begins to beat harder and a passion is born.

Someone will hear of the atrocities of Kim Jong Un's Korea and will say, Stop this! Let God's people and all the people, go and be free. How dare you imprison the minds of a nation and the bodies of those whom you decide to cast away? Passion.

Some become passionate about politics. About changing society. Justice, they would call it. Hitler was a passionate man. What he believed, he believed passionately. Jews are not people, said he. They should not live. They are the source of evil. They must be destroyed.

We hate his ideas, but, look at his passion.

What is our passion? How hot is it? What stirs us to action? Or, are we still in the inactive phase? Just learning and hearing about something. Small stirrings. But not swept away just yet...