Our evangelization task would be easy if we could tap the excitement that the movie "Titanic" is generating and rechannel it toward our faith.

Millions of people are going to theatres early and often to get tickets to the movie that is titanic in story line, customer line and clock time.

Many are returning several times to experience the heart-wrenching film whose haunting musical score causes some to sob as they recall scenes while listening to a CD or tape.

Much talk around the water cooler at work, the lunch table at schools and the fireplace at home centers on various questions about the movie, such as:

Was the love story true?
Did the woman die?
Why weren't there more lifeboats, etc. etc.?

If we focused so much time, energy and discussion on faith in Jesus Christ, we would be able to embrace, celebrate and carry forward into the next millennium with ease - no matter what it would bring, and fully expecting it to bring Jesus.

Actually, it should not be that hard because the hottest movie ticket ever sold pales in comparison to the greatest story ever told - despite some parallels:

Tips of icebergs are involved in both: However, while the tip of an iceberg brought down the Titanic, the tip of the iceberg that is God's love lifts us up.

Both are love stories: However, the romance of Leonardo DiCaprio's and Kate Winslet's characters are fiction, while God's love - first, in creating us and then, in sending his son to die to save is - is fact.

Both are great mysteries: However, the Titanic's mysterious fate and the awesomeness of our salvation both show the power of God, despite humans' egotistic belief that they can create something unsinkable.

Both involve death and burial: However, the Titanic's, at the bottom of the sea (sorry to tip off the ending for anyone visiting from another planet), quite likely is permanent, while Jesus' was only three days and ours - like the human victims on the Titanic - also will be temporary.

Both involve resurrection: However, the film's moving rendition of an afterlife is conjecture at best - albeit an inviting one to our minds - while God's resurrection for us remains clouded in mystery.

Both involve a precious jewel: However, the one in the film not only is fiction but also is only of this world, while the jewel Jesus offers us is life everlasting.

By my count, despite some parallels and the awesomeness of both moments of history, our salvation through Jesus Christ wins, hands down (or all hands on deck, whichever you prefer).

The only two unsinkable things here are Molly Brown and our faith - and even Molly eventually met her maker the same way we will.

So why do we seem to marvel so much more at a boat that sank than at the One who calmed the sea?

(This editorial originally appeared in The Catholic Spirit, newspaper of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, written by Mike Tighe, managing editor. It is reproduced here with Mr. Tighe's kind permission.)

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