A few months ago, I started reading with interest when I saw the interesting painting of Mary on the cover of Christianity Today (December 2003). I thought that the choice of that particular painting was quite telling as to the underlying message of the article. The pitiable, really rather pathetic little girl, looking frightened and confused almost to the point of being tortured, was being crushed under the bright words, “The Blessed Evangelical Mary”. Mary, the ordinary, Mary the “sinner like the rest of us”, Mary the ignorant, poor and pitifully confused by all the divine intervention in her life, Mary the utter weakling. Even though he caricatured the Mother of God, at least Timothy George makes an attempt to open up a discussion about the role of Mary among Protestants, and I find this laudable. However, because of his all-too-common misconceptions about Catholic beliefs and practices, his attempt is flawed from the foundations. His Mary is an anti-Mary, a Mary who must, at all costs, be different from the “Catholic Goddess Mary”. I think this is a very important subject for Protestants, and so I thought it important and helpful to try an elucidate some of Catholic thought for the average Protestant reader who is not, perhaps, too biased against Catholic thought.
One writer said at the time of the release of The Passion, “We are in an ecumenical moment”. Mel Gibson is not a liberal Catholic, or a cultural Catholic, or even a ‘conservative’ Catholic (this is the closest group of Catholics to serious Evangelicals)- he is a ‘traditional Catholic’- meaning that he takes the two millennia of Catholic Tradition and Scripture as the rulers by which he measures his faith, and is suspicious of the newer developments in the Church after Vatican II in the sixties, including the ‘talks’ with various Protestant groups. This colors his film, because there is not a hint of compromise to either the secular world or the ecumenical movement which has tended to produce vague statements and agreements about peripheries. His film is unabashedly and clearly Catholic, and thus has a lot to do with this discussion of Mary- Mary as the Catholic has understood her for two millennia. She plays a central role in the film, and many Protestants will have simply missed the meaning of her role in real life as well as in the film. This is unfortunate, because the film is a teacher of some of the Catholic and ancient orthodoxies and orthopraxis surrounding Mary, Theotokos, as well as other doctrines we hold in difference. I was also grossly offended by the story told in Mr. George’s article about John Knox telling the boatmen to throw Mary’s statue overboard. Notwithstanding the fact that the boatmen were probably mocking Knox’s Protestantism, and trying to elicit such a reaction; but that he would demean, not a statue, but Our Lord’s mother, is revolting. It would be like someone showing you a picture of their beloved grandmother, now passed away, and you telling them, “No, I won’t look at it. Throw it out.” And I don’t believe that he thought Catholics worshipped Mary- in this time period, when the tradition of Western Hemisphere was largely Catholic, Knox should have known that the worship of anyone but God is abominable to Catholics. Knox was, like other Calvinists, an iconoclast, similar to those in the early centuries of Christianity.
I think it is essential for all who call themselves Christians to understand some of the deeper symbolism in the movie, especially those episodes surrounding Mary. I also thought that it would be a chance to correct some of the false impressions about Catholic thought inherent in many Protestant minds- especially about the Eucharist and the role of Mary. The Passion of the Christ is a chance to remedy this kind of thinking about Mary, and I think Gibson’s movie shows “it is as it was”, the dignified and sublime role of Mary in the life and Passion of Jesus Christ, and beyond.
In the Garden of Gethsemane, Our Lord crushes the head of a serpent. The first serpent in the Garden of Eden is told, along with Eve, that , “ I shall put enmity betwixt thou and the Woman- between your seed and hers, you shall bruise His heel and He shall crush your head.” So Eve’s seed, and Mary’s, Our Lord, crushes the head of the serpent even as His heel is bruised (the Passion) for the sake of humanity.
After Our Lord is seized in the Garden and taken to the illegally gathered Sanhedrin, John runs to Mary, and to Mary Magdalene. Mary recites a line from the Jewish Passover, “Why is this night different from all other nights?” She knows the real meaning of the Passion, when even the twelve did not understand. It is similar to her familiar knowledge of His powers unveiled at the Marriage of Cana, where she asks simply for Him to help them in their need. She KNOWS what will be required of Him, and she knows He can lay down His life- or not. Thus her role is more intimate, more knowledgeable than Protestants have hitherto given her credit. This understanding of Mary is from traditional Catholic thought and spirituality, not the imagination of Mel Gibson.
At the Sanhedrin trial of Our Lord, Mary is there. And Peter, after his denials, runs to Mary and kneels at her feet, not allowing her to touch his unworthy head. But he goes to her- and in Catholic understanding, it is likely that she prayed to God for his soul. This is the essence of intercessory prayer: When we have offended Our Lord and God by traitorous deeds, and are afraid to face Him, we can run to His mother and ask for her prayers. She has suffered much, has lived years with Jesus, would know her Son best and be able to ask for mercy from Him.
Judas, on the other hand, runs not to Our Lord or to His mother, but runs to the leaders of the Temple- and they no longer have anything to give. “What is that to us? Look thou to it”. They turn Judas back on himself; they have no grace to give because the time of the Temple is passing. In betraying the Christ, they are the unwitting instruments by which the Temple worship will be fulfilled- not abolished, but fulfilled. This is another digression between Catholic and Protestant thought- at least the Protestantism I have understood. It is hard to pin down any one Protestant theology, unless it is CS Lewis’ Mere Christianity. At any rate, the Catholic Mass is very similar to the Jewish Temple rites, and close study will render an understanding that this is a fulfillment of what the Temple was foreshadowing.
Another beautiful scene exhibiting Mary’s role in the spiritual life is the moments when she lays on the floor of one of the Temple’s side courts and is miraculously right above her Son. Her close and intimate connection with Him is made manifest, and Catholics know that this close connection would not stop with the end of their respective lives on earth, but would become more loving and intimate in heaven. Her role in sharing His suffering, in the way that only a mother can, is being slowly revealed more and more as the film progresses. What is the point of thinking about this closeness? Firstly, just for the sake of truth, beauty and secondly, for the honor due her because of her special role. Third, as the film builds, and the suffering builds, the viewer can begin to understand that to bear her suffering would take, at the least, an extraordinary person. But Mary takes no credit for herself, for she is, as the Angel Gabriel titled her, “Full of Grace”. She has been filled with grace by the Eternal Word, her Son, by the Father, and by her Spouse, the Holy Spirit. This is the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, so resented and misunderstood by Protestants. She was given the graces to share in the ultimate horror of her suffering God-Son, and the graces were needed so that she would be able to fulfill her role, as I will explain later. Her great merit is in her response, her fiat to the overflowing graces offered her.
Another important, and probably misunderstood, scene in the film is when Pilate’s wife brings Mary the white linen cloths. After the scourging, Mary begins to reverently wipe up the Blood of Jesus with these cloths. This is a strong Catholic image of devotion to Sacraments and relics. The Blood is precious beyond all other relics and things on Earth. Mary understands this, and takes the lead in showing Mary Magdalene and John just what this Passion is about: That each drop of this Blood redeems, and so reverence must be shown It. The Blood is a physical entity which simultaneously contains within it real grace and redemption. Thus are the Sacraments, and in a lesser sense, sacramentals: they are little dew-drops from Heaven, giving the believer grace to go on, to love, to be willing to be forgiven. Holy Water, used for Baptism and for blessing people, places and things; saint’s relics, churches, holy sights like those in the Holy Land, etc. All are infused with grace, little points of connection to Heaven- in a REAL way, not a dead memorial or literary symbol. Sacraments are, as the Catechism of the Catholic Church elucidates, “the masterworks of God”, “powers that come forth from the Body of Christ…. They are the on-going salvific mysteries of Christ, dispensed by His ministers.” His cleansing, healing, saving, and loving are all carried on by the seven Sacraments. They are: Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist, Penance, Anointing of the Sick, Holy Orders and Matrimony. These all require, obviously, both a divine and visible Church. Sacramentals, on the other hand, are “sacred signs which bear resemblance to the Sacraments”. They render a person more ready to receive grace- saying a blessing over a meal is a sacramental. We offer our lives and thanks for our food, thus rendering us more ready to receive and appreciate God’s providence. There are many other examples. Thus, in the scene where Mary is wiping up the Precious Blood, she is paying exquisite reverence and love for a Sacrament (part of the Eucharist). Christ’s blood saves us, and she is showing again her important role, because she alone sees It for what It really is, salvation- each drop enough to save the whole world.
Another similar example of the reverence for Sacraments and Sacramentals in The Passion is Veronica’s veil. This is an old and beautiful tradition handed down largely by word of mouth over the centuries. The imprint of the face of the Suffering Savior was kept in different places through the centuries.
A very important Marian scene is when Jesus is carrying His cross, and the film cross-cuts between Mary walking through one side of the road, and the Devil walking on the other. They are facing each other, at war. This is a visual rendering of another important point in Catholic spirituality. There is a tradition that at the end of time, that Mary will be at war with the Devil- that she will, in her intercession with Her Son, be given a role in the Triumph of Christ over the Devil. This is most clearly delineated in Scripture in the Apocalypse, when the dragon tries to slay the Woman in childbirth. This Woman is both a figure of Mary and a figure of the Church at the End of Days. Often, mystical writings, like the Apocalypse, carry double meanings, and require interpretation by the Church.
In 1997, there was a furor over whether or not Pope John Paul II would make the solemn, infallible, ex cathedra statement, officially giving Mary a title traditionally ascribed to her, “Co- Redemptrix”. This caused an uproar among those Catholics and Protestants who were hoping for some ecumenical meeting ground. Like those ecumenicalists at the time of the declaration of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception in the 50’s, many believed that this would further divide Catholics and Protestants. What most people do not understand is that these doctrines have been part of Catholic spirituality for many centuries. The traditions are then codified, defined and declared dogmatically so that there is no confusion or loss over time of the traditional understanding. The essence of Co-Redemptrix is that Christ came to us through Mary (the source of this miracle, of course, being God Himself). She is the new Ark of the Covenant in her maternity- and this really cannot be disputed. If Christ is God, as all we who call ourselves Christians ostensibly believe, then everything surrounding His life and existence has transcendent importance. Every little meal made for Him, every sacrifice a mother makes, and especially the suffering she bore from the very beginning of her maternity to the end of the Passion of Jesus, takes on salvific importance because of who He was. Thus is the Co-Redemptrix, a grand title, giving honor where honor is due. Although Mary was not the source of salvation, and she is an infinite distance from Our Lord, as a creature to a Creator, she is “blessed above all women”. Christ came to us through her, and I mean that literally; not ‘through’ as in ‘because of’, but actually ‘through’ as through a door. We see this role of Co-Redemptrix in the movie in the most moving way, when she begs John to get her to Jesus on the Via Dolorosa, and she runs to him, as she did once when he fell as a child. He has fallen once again under the weight of the Cross; and who will forget the way His face grew luminous as He recognized her, she saying, “I’m here, I’m here”; and the way He held her face, stood, and said, “See, Mother, how I make all things new?” It was so clear how her love spurred on His infinite love, to even greater heights than the infinite height it already encompassed.
Finally, we reach Calvary. This is the climax of the movie, the Climax of History. Gibson does some beautiful flashbacks to the scene of the Last Supper, or the Jewish Passover Meal. St. John, the only apostle on Calvary, goes through a process of realization that the words spoken at the Last Supper, “This is My Body” and “This is My Blood” were literal, as Jesus tells crowds of people in John’s Gospel even before the Passover meal. The Passover Meal, which was the Last Supper, was much more ritualized than most people understand. It was more like a church service, with symbols and singing and prayers and special vestments. In fact, if looked at side by side, the liturgy is most close to a Tridentine Rite Roman Catholic Pontifical High Mass. In the Jewish Passover Meal, there were four cups of wine taken at different intervals of the meal, and the ceremony of the unleavened bread was separate from the other parts of the meal. At the third cup is where Christ spoke the words “This is My Blood” and at the breaking of the unleavened bread, the ‘manna from heaven’ is when He spoke the words, “This is My Body, broken for you.” He did not take the fourth cup, called the Cup of Consummation, until He says, on the Cross, “I thirst” and they give him a taste of gall (vinegar-wine), and then says, “It is consummated”. St. John realizes that Our Lord is still celebrating the Passover Meal on Calvary, in fact, He has fulfilled it. All the rituals of the Old Testament, and the Temple, are not trashed, they are fulfilled. His broken body IS the unleavened bread, His spilled Blood IS the wine, the Cup of Consummation. He asked His apostles to carry on this ritual, to carry on His Real Presence, to carry on His sublime sacrifice on Calvary. He did not leave us empty symbols, but He left Himself: “I will be with you until the end of time”; “My name is great among the Gentiles, and My sacrifices are offered up every hour from where the sun rises to its setting”
As Jesus is hanging on the Cross, His mother approaches tenderly and kisses His ripped toe. She begs, “Son, let me die with you.” He responds by giving her to St. John as mother and St. John to her as son. His response, deeper than words, but clear as the Blood dripping on the ground, is that the newborn Church needed a Mother, needed the person who knew Him best and loved Him best. He was giving her a new role, now not only His mother but the Mother of the faithful, “all generations shall call me blessed”. He gave her to St. John in particular because St. John was the only apostle there.
I once said to my parents (Presbyterians), after coming home to the Church, that one cannot understand the faith of our fathers without living it: “For it is not by understanding, but by faith.” Belief is a grace, and it works like a spiral, you delve deeper and then you come back upon truths and realities that once looked strange, because you had not lived them- and they appear suddenly beautiful, full of light. Protestants would understand this in the statement,"The Cross is foolishness to those who are perishing”. Such is Catholicism. You must live with it to understand it. It requires the gift of faith and one’s own gift of obedience, like the obedience of Mary, Theotokos.
