(LifeSiteNews) — Mel Gibson told Raymond Arroyo that losing his home in the LA fires may be spiritual preparation for making the highly anticipated “The Resurrection of the Christ” movie.
In the first episode of Arroyo’s new Arroyo Grande podcast, the Catholic journalist asked Gibson why he said in an interview that seeing the loss of his home in the fires serves as a “purification” for him.
READ: Mel Gibson’s home destroyed in LA fire while he was in Texas for the Joe Rogan podcast
“It was an odd mixture of sadness and kind of a weird realization and blessing,” Gibson told Arroyo.
“Yeah, I’m going to miss some stuff; there was valuable stuff, there was personal stuff … but … I feel like I’m being stripped down and prepared for something else.”
“I feel like the Almighty is preparing me to do something big,” the movie director stated.
Arroyo asked Gibson if he sees the tragedy as a “spiritual preparation for the Resurrection movie you are about to embark on.”
“Yeah, I think that’s kind of it,” he replied. “God gives, God takes, we come in with nothing; that’s the same way we go out.”
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“Here is the deal: You’ll always be OK if you seek first the Kingdom of God. Look at the flowers of the field. Look at the birds in the air; they get fed, they get clothed,” Gibson said, paraphrasing the Gospel of Matthew.
“That was one of my dad’s favorite passages. He said, stop worrying about money, about stuff,” he recalled.
Despite the downside of losing his house to the flames, Gibson said he “see(s) it as a kind of a blessing and a purification.”
Gibson explained that the movie will be more complex than simply showing the Resurrection of Christ and the events of the Acts of the Apostles.
“You have to ask the essential question of: ‘In our existence, why are the big realms of good and evil … why are these realms slugging it out for the hearts and souls of mankind? Why are we the meat in that sandwich? Little old us, flawed us, imperfect us. Why is that about us?’”
“And I’m trying to answer that question. I don’t know if I can,” he added.
“Maybe with God’s help and with image and with sound and music, we can deliver on some answers to some of these massive questions, these existential questions,” Gibson stated.
READ: Mel Gibson defends resurrection of Christ as historical event on Joe Rogan podcast