“The Case for Christ” and St. Thomas Aquinas (Photos)

The Case for Christ, based on the book by the same name, released eight Lents ago, on the Eve of Easter, did not win accolades from Hollywood, let alone an Oscar.

The film, featuring one of Hollywood’s greatest stars, Faye Dunaway among other brilliant actors, deserved to be richly rewarded. For it artfully unpacks faith and “the most significant event in human history,” Christ’s Passion and Resurrection. 

Watching the film is also a wonderful way to celebrate today’s feast of St. Thomas Aquinas, as I will later explain. But first, let’s look at the movie itself.

Screenwriter Brian Bird, who wrote several episodes of Touched by an Angel, tells the story in a very human way.

Chicago Tribune reporter Lee Strobel (Mike Vogel), and his wife Leslie (Erika Christensen) are living “the good life.” Lee is a star investigative reporter, a cool, fun-loving, “just the facts” kid.

His no-holds-barred coverage of a class-action lawsuit against the Ford Motor Company has just won him a major public service award.

Then, too, he is atheist in good standing, his wife an agnostic.

One night, early in their marriage, they almost lose their little girl, Ali (Haley Rosenwasser) swallows a big gum ball at a restaurant and starts choking.  Miraculously, a nearby woman springs into action, performing the Heimlich maneuver and saving her life.

The woman, Alfie (L. Scott Caldwell), is a nurse at nearby Mercy Hospital and a devout Christian. She makes clear that she was there because something told her to go to that restaurant: God wanted her there.

Which gets Leslie to thinking. Indeed, that Heimlich maneuver sets into motion a whole series of events whereby Christ effectively performs a spiritual life-saving maneuver on Leslie and Lee through various intermediaries starting with Alfie.

When Leslie goes to Alfie’s church and starts praying, Lee Strobel is livid. He feels like she is cheating on him with Christ! So, he sets about trying to disprove and save her from Christianity.

A documentary film based on the book made ten years earlier outlines “A Journalist’s Personal Investigation of Evidence for Jesus” and focuses on three topics: What are my sources? Who was Jesus? and Resurrection.

In the feature film, as very pregnant Leslie nears birth, Strobel consults Dr. Gary R. Habermas (a real-life professor at Liberty University). Strobel has read Habermas’s book and wants to know the facts of the resurrection.

All that is necessary is to prove that “Jesus died and he was seen afterwards,” Habermas says.

Yes, counters Strobel, but Jesus’s followers were “zealots,” in other words “biased sources.”

The two men go back and forth. “Where are the facts?” Lee wants to know. Habermas points to the eyewitness accounts.  “But that’s still just one historical source, the Bible,” Strobel counters.

No, Habermas insist, “There are at least nine ancient sources both inside and outside the Bible confirming that disciples and others encountered Jesus after the crucifixion.”

There are further points and counterpoints, until Habermas explains that the question of belief is “personal” to him:

“I lost my wife Debbie to cancer,” he says. “It was the worst thing that will ever happen to me. But… it made me confront my beliefs. And that is where I found my true comfort because I know that I am going to see my wife again one day.”

When Strobel gently notes that feelings should not determine facts, Habermas ultimately replies that “ sometimes truth reminds us of what’s really important.”

Their conversation sets Strobel to thinking as his journey begins in earnest.

After his wife gives birth, Strobel has other encounters that challenge his skepticism. One is with archaeologist-turned-Catholic-priest Father Jose Maria Marquez (Miguel Perez). Fr. Marquez studies the most ancient manuscripts of the New Testament writings and is interested in their reliability. He points out that there are many thousands of copies of Greek New Testament manuscripts and fragments – while only 1565 ancient copies of Homer’s Iliad survive.

As they leave the church, Strobel eyes a replica of the Shroud of Turin as Fr. Marquez notes that the original “is in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Italy under lock and key.” “No one’s ever proven if the shroud is the actual burial cloth of the Christ,” the priest observes, “but whenever someone looks in those eyes for the first time, the Galilean who hung on the cross two millennia ago suddenly becomes a real person.”

But why, Strobel asks, did he let himself die?

“The answer to that,” says Fr. Marquest, “is what got me out of the dirt and into the church. It’s really very simple. Love.”

Strobel is now on fire; yet, still, in his heart, he wants to find the flaw since his hate is stronger.

Meanwhile his wife is praying that his stone-heart will turn into flesh as they endure rough patches in their marriage. Also at stake is his troubled relationship with his father, who tries to reconcile with his son.

Meeting with Dr. Roberta Waters (Dunaway), a professor of psychiatry, Strobel is helped to understand his own “father problem.” Dr. Waters highlights for him how this very issue has plagued famous atheists throughout history.

Suffice it to say, Lee Strobel does find love, as the film unwinds in a most poignant and inspiring way, the storyline itself providing proof that faith is reasonable.

It should be noted that Fr. Marquez is a made-up, composite character, as all the experts Strobel actually consulted for his book were of the evangelical, Protestant tradition. The character is a fitting addition, however, given the Fathers of the Church and notably St. Thomas Aquinas (1224/25 – 1274).

In fact, watching The Case for Christ this week is a wonderful way to celebrate his feast. After all, in his Summa Theologica, Thomas Aquinas laid out the case for Jesus Christ as the Son of God who died for our sins.

Toward the end of his life, Aquinas placed his life’s work on the altar and Jesus spoke to him from a crucifix. “You have written well of me, Thomas,” the Lord told him. “What reward will you receive from me for your labor?”

“Lord, nothing except you,” Thomas responded. After that encounter, he told his fellow Dominicans that he regarded all his writings as “but a pile of straw.”

In the end, the case for Christ truly does come down to love.

You may watch The Case for Christ on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Roku, and a number of other streaming services.

And, as another present for the great saint’s feast, view the PHOTO GALLERY below to see images of a reliquary containing his skull. It was on display at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C. this past November as part of a tour to celebrate the 700^th anniversary of his canonization.

St. Thomas Aquinas, pray for us!