Editor's note: The Tidings is offering an at home retreat through Lent using Franco Zeffirelli's miniseries, "Jesus of Nazareth." This is the ninth and final segment.

This is one miniseries where you are sure to know the ending. In fact, showing the ending of this story is a real challenge to any filmmaker. Which Gospel to follow? Each one has a different story of the Resurrection, different characters, and different appearances. Is it possible to describe, much less show, how the apostles experienced the presence of the risen Christ?

Zeffirelli chose to underplay this tremendous event, the base rock of our Christian Faith.

This final section begins with Zerah persuading the Romans to place a guard at the tomb, and in the dialogue, Zeffirelli raises all the later objections against the Resurrection. But the most important dialog is Zerah's caution, "This Jesus may be much more dangerous now that he is dead." Do you remember that term, "dangerous," from earlier dialogue?

The next scenes at the tomb with Mary Magdalene, the other women and the guards are cleverly shot. Note how the Gospel "angels" are portrayed. Mary, as the first witness of the Resurrection, goes to the room where the apostles are hiding, but they do not believe her. She leaves, disappointed, this "Apostle to the Apostles."

But the apostles agonize over her story, until Peter's profession of faith. The dialogue in this part is difficult to hear; he says, "Yes, I believe, because he said so…because he wanted it to be so. He wanted everything to happen just as it did…. You ask me, 'Do I believe he is risen?' Yes, I do. And I know in my heart he will not abandon us…. He has forgiven me…us… (and then he looks directly at the camera:), "…forgiven all of us."

At the tomb, when Zerah enters the crypt and sees the cloth lying on the empty slab, he sums up the entire film: "Now it begins…now it all begins."

The film could have ended here; and actually almost did. Zeffirelli had set up a scene in Morocco where Jesus was to appear to the apostles, appearing through the door left open by Mary Magdalene. But, in Zeffirelli's own words, "The scene lacked all credibility and veered our project toward the perilous shores of a Hollywood epic." A second attempt was made a short time later, to have Jesus come unrecognized, as he did in the Emmaus story.

But when the cameras were ready to roll, a fierce wind swept through the whole countryside, uprooting trees and roofs and shattering windows. The shoot was cancelled, and Zeffirelli surrendered and felt defeated. There would be no resurrection scene.

A few days before delivering the final print of the film, Zeffirelli spent all night rummaging through the 130 hours of footage, until he found a photographic test of Jesus taking leave of the apostles after the Resurrection. It had been all but forgotten. It is now the final scene in the film.

The scene contains a phrase that has always been dear to Zeffirelli: Peter says, "Lord, stay with us, for the night is falling…." It is from the Emmaus story. The answer of Jesus is the film's "last word," and a fitting ending to this epic testimony of faith.

In the last chapter of his book, entitled (also!) "Now It All Begins," Zeffirelli wrote, "Discussion of the film still goes on, about its significance, its true intentions, which were to offer a little faith to today's troubled world." May it all begin again.

(On video, begin after the "Pieta" scene, the last 17 minutes of the video. On DVD, view Chapters 88-90.)

Discussion Questions

--- Was the resurrection depicted the way you expected? What did you notice?

--- What did Zerah say in these scenes?

--- Was the only "appearance" scene of Jesus what you expected?

--- Did you see Mary's ointment in any earlier scene?

---General Evaluation: Did this format help you make a "Home Retreat"? Would you like something like this again next year? Please write us with your comments: The Tidings, 3424 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90010, or email TScannell@The-Tidings.com.