The Passion of the Christ has become the most talked about and anticipated movie in the country — while breaking all the rules. It is a movie filmed entirely in dead languages, with a cast made up largely of unknowns. It's a long movie, and it's filled almost throughout with a level of violence too great for most audiences. It has no romantic interest and no racy scenes. It is opening on a Wednesday, not a weekend. It hasn't been advertised on television.

In short, it lacks all of the elements movies rely on to generate “buzz.” So much so that its makers were called fools for doing what they did.

But it turns out they weren't so foolish after all. Their movie has grabbed featured spots in print and television media and, as our Page One story points out, busloads of people plan to descend on theaters to see it as soon as they possibly can. What happened?

Controversy helped. The noisy charge that the movie is antiSemitic drew a level of sustained attention to the film other filmmakers long for. The sheer quality of the filmmaking — several writers in our pages have called it “a work of art” — has a lot to do with its success, too. And the fact that superstar Mel Gibson created it doesn't hurt.

But the bottom-line reason for the excitement about The Passion of the Christ is its subject matter. It's about Christ. If Gibson created an artistic, subtitled movie about say, Pliny the Younger, it's doubtful he would generate much excitement. And it's also doubtful Gibson would have been criticized for anti-Semitism for Pliny: The Movie. The charges seem aimed at the Gospel story itself more than against Gibson personally.

Even the movie's controversy is about Christ.

This should remind Catholics of a fact they sometimes forget: Jesus Christ attracts people.

There are many things the Church has used to attract people: liturgy, hip preaching, moral precepts, issues seminars, high culture, folk culture, great architecture, “homey” architecture. None of them can, by itself, fill thousands of movie theaters — or churches, for that matter — around the world. And none of them has eternal value apart from Christ.

If you want to attract a crowd to your church, offer them Christ. Barb Ernster's Page 3 story shows that's true even in the Eucharist — where he looks like a piece of bread, Christ attracts a crowd.

A second lesson from the movie: The Church should put the Passion at the center of its message. Catholics know this, deep down — after all, a crucifix and Stations of the Cross are required in every church. But we all too often forget it, offering “wiser” messages about social reform instead.

Nothing moves people like the Passion. When the Second Person of the Trinity subjects himself to brutal violence and forgives the very people who kill him, he teaches us that God's love is a love to the end. This is the only basis for real social reform.

The brutality of the cross isn't the selling point we naturally settle on. But it's the supernatural choice.

As St. Paul said: “We proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are called, Jews and Greeks alike, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength” (1 Corinthians 22-25).

If enough Catholics were as foolish as the makers of The Passion of the Christ more often, we would transform the world.