Popoy's trauma with The Passion

This Maundy Thursday I made Popoy watch a slew of movies about Jesus Christ just to inject some spirituality into a six-year old numbed by endless cartoons and Marvel comics. First up was Jesus of Nazareth. That bored him. He wanted a faster moving story, ever asking when will they show Jesus on the Cross. So I decided to show him Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ.

Big mistake! A six-year old mind cannot stand all that blood, gore and torment of the NC-17 movie. Popoy said he's done watching and wanted to sleep already when the scene where Jesus was scourged was shown. Only when he cannot go to sleep that I realized that his young mind was bothered seeing all that. I had to explain that it was just a movie, that they were just actors acting out Jesus' life. That did not comfort him, and for the first time in years, the kid wanted me by his side to sleep. But he just cannot sleep. He made me promise that I will not put out the lights and that I will also not sleep. Sweet but not comforting. What have I done? He slept very lightly. He woke up several times during the night, asking will it be morning soon each time. He was still afraid.

His kuya Vito was chiding him the morning of Good Friday. It's just a movie Vito said. Indeed, Vito handled the movie better when he first saw it. But he was over eight years old then. Anyway, Popoy seemed to have recovered. I said we'll watch another Jesus Christ movie, Jesus Christ Superstar. I told him it's a musical and not scary at all. Into the movie, he said it's not Jesus, because He looks different from the ones we saw yesterday. When he aked if Jesus' flagellation will be shown and I said yes, he stopped watching.

Come sleeping time, Popoy again was having trouble getting sleep. Again he asked me to watch over him, making me promise to keep watch all night. He is sleeping better now. It's already 1:00am Black Saturday, he is still having a good sleep, so far so good.

The Holy Week-end bonding with my sons through spiritual movies did not turn out too well. It only traumatized Popoy. This might take a while to undo.