The Mother of Christ gets a new movie

Hollywood can’t resist a good love story, but how do you make a movie about divine love and the most famous woman in the world?

With great difficulty.

Netflix has just spent US$70 million, making a film, simply entitled Mary.

The film recounts the events around the birth of Jesus, through the eyes of Mary, his mother. Hollywood movies tend to exaggerate the subject though in this case there is no need, as the truth of her story is truly out of this world.

The epic is about to be released on December 6 and the trailer is slick, compelling and skillfully shot. Even those who are not religious would find it compelling, though the only big name star is Oscar winning actor, Anthony Hopkins, who plays Herod.

The trailer for Mary is certainly full of beauty and goodness – but what about the truth?

“This film shines a light on Mary’s journey,” says director Daniel J Caruso, “blending sacred scripture to create a story that feels both sacred and modern.”

The filmmakers, who consulted with an array of theologians and scholars, claim biblical authenticity.

Caruso has described how the film reintroduces Mary and Joseph as ‘young, relatable figures’. “They’re cool yet grounded in their humanity and faith.”

The director, Caruso, is a Catholic father of five but the film is not exclusively a Catholic production. Pastor Joel Osteen, an evangelical Baptist from Texas is an Executive producer.

Corrections

And, already, there are a few murmurings from some lay Catholics on social media, anxious about errors, most seriously around the denial of Mary’s perpetual virginity.

So far as I write, the only reference to blasphemy in the press, relates to a minor controversy that Mary is portrayed by an Israeli Jew, actress Noa Cohen, rather than a Palestinian.

The producer Mary Aloe, also a person of faith, calls the film a “labour of love”.

“This story is needed now more than ever in our world. This is a story of faith, hope, and pure love.”

I do hope this is an authentic faith film, but whatever its contents, we can perhaps view it as an opportunity to focus attention on faith and correct errors through healthy debate. St Paul assures us after all that the Lord turns all things to good for those who love him.

Mary is the most honoured woman in the world and perhaps the least understood also.

Mary’s heart was breaking as she shared in her son’s humiliating and torturous death on a cross”

Yet this woman of the word, this new Eve, draws us ever closer to Christ if we let her.

Her mission as the virgin mother of God, and the spouse of the Holy Spirit is to be our mother.

As the first disciple, Mary – whose name means bitter – had to endure much suffering.

Indeed, the sweetest moments of her life were tempered with bitterness: giving birth in poverty in a stable, having to flee persecution, encountering dire prophecies of a sword through her heart as she carried her child joyfully into the Temple at Jerusalem.

Even as her soul rejoiced in the Lord, her saviour, Mary’s heart was breaking as she shared in her son’s humiliating and torturous death on a cross.

Mother

The trailer for the film, Mary speaks of her courage and her witness, a young girl who heard the words of an angel: for God all things are possible.

The film is to be released two days before the great solemnity of the Immaculate Conception – which even Catholics mistake for a reference to Christ’s birth, rather than Mary’s.

As Catholics we believe that Mary was formed without sin so that she was a worthy vessel to carry the Divine son of God, who had saved her before she was born.

I recall one theologian who was plagued by questions about this by a Protestant, demanding biblical proof. Exasperated with endless debates, he finally shot back: “Look if you could create your own mother wouldn’t you make her without sin?”

Mary was a longed for child, and that her parents Joaquim and Anne, consecrated her to God before she was born”

The American theologian Scott Hahn, is an interesting convert. He was raised a Lutheran who hated the Catholic Church, and even broke his Catholic grandmother’s rosary beads after she died. But after he became a Catholic, he turned to the subject of Mary and wrote, Hail, Holy Queen.

This new film Mary seems to hold to the tradition that Mary was a longed for child, and that her parents Joaquim and Anne, consecrated her to God before she was born.

If this film leads to soul searching among believers and non-believers, that is to be welcome.

I had a few discussions when I entered the convent in Belfast where I was often visited by evangelical Christians who wanted to ‘save me’.

Debate

One particularly affable gentleman, George, was delighted to be invited into the parlour.

Almost immediately he started in on Mary. “Now George, please don’t come into the Lord’s house insulting his mother. How would you like it if I insulted your mother…?”

I got the usual false views about Catholics and Mary.

“Catholics worship Mary,” said George. “No, we worship God, but we honour Mary.”

“Mary is dead,” said George. “No,” I insisted. “We worship a God of the living and she is very much alive, just as Moses and Elijah were at the Transfiguration of Christ.”

“Mary,” George shot back, “was not a perpetual virgin. Mark’s gospel refers to the brothers of Jesus.”

“No,” I replied, “this is not to be taken as brothers as in this culture, cousins could be referred to as brothers.”

And so it went on.

There is one beautiful line in this film, delivered by Mary, that really stands out”

Frankly, anyone – particularly any woman – who really ponders Mary’s life and her destiny as the virgin mother of Jesus, could only come to one conclusion: having experienced God’s amazing love, Mary remained a virgin because she belonged entirely to God alone.

There is one beautiful line in this film, delivered by Mary, that really stands out. It is message we desperately need to hear today: “Love will save the world”.