'The Nativity Story' Movie Problematic for Catholics, "Unsuitable" for Young Children

'The Nativity Story' Movie Problematic for Catholics, "Unsuitable" for Young Children

NEW YORK, December 4, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A review of New Line Cinema's The Nativity story by Fr. Angelo Mary Geiger of the Franciscans of the Immaculate in the United States, points out that the film, which opened December 1, misinterprets scripture from a Catholic perspective.

While Fr. Geiger admits that he found the film is "in general, to be a pious and reverential presentation of the Christmas mystery." He adds however, that "not only does the movie get the Virgin Birth wrong, it thoroughly Protestantizes its portrayal of Our Lady."

In Isaiah 7:14 the Bible predicts the coming of the Messiah saying: "Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign. Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel." Fr. Geiger, in an video blog post, explains that the Catholic Church has taught for over 2000 years that the referenced Scripture showed that Mary would not only conceive the child miraculously, but would give birth to the child miraculously - keeping her physical virginity intact during the birth.

The film, he suggests, in portraying a natural, painful birth of Christ, thus denies the truth of the virginal and miraculous birth of Christ, which, he notes, the Fathers of the Church compared to light passing through glass without breaking it. Fr. Geiger quoted the fourth century St. Augustine on the matter saying. "That same power which brought the body of the young man through closed doors, brought the body of the infant forth from the inviolate womb of the mother."

Fr. Geiger contrasts The Nativity Story with The Passion of the Christ, noting that with the latter, Catholics and Protestants could agree to support it. He suggests, however, that the latter is "a virtual coup against Catholic Mariology".

The characterization of Mary further debases her as Fr. Geiger relates in his review. "Mary in The Nativity lacks depth and stature, and becomes the subject of a treatment on teenage psychology."

Beyond the non-miraculous birth, the biggest let-down for Catholics comes from Director Catherine Hardwicke's own words. Hardwicke explains her rationale in an interview: "We wanted her [Mary] to feel accessible to a young teenager, so she wouldn't seem so far away from their life that it had no meaning for them. I wanted them to see Mary as a girl, as a teenager at first, not perfectly pious from the very first moment. So you see Mary going through stuff with her parents where they say, 'You're going to marry this guy, and these are the rules you have to follow.' Her father is telling her that she's not to have sex with Joseph for a year-and Joseph is standing right there."

Comments Fr. Geiger, "it is rather disconcerting to see Our Blessed Mother portrayed with 'attitude;' asserting herself in a rather anachronistic rebellion against an arranged marriage, choosing her words carefully with her parents, and posing meaningful silences toward those who do not understand her."

Fr. Geiger adds that the film also contains "an overly graphic scene of St. Elizabeth giving birth," which is "just not suitable, in my opinion, for young children to view."

Despite its flaws Fr. Geiger, after viewing the film, also has some good things to say about it. "Today, one must commend any sincere attempt to put Christ back into Christmas, and this film is certainly one of them," he says. "The Nativity Story in no way compares to the masterpiece which is The Passion of the Christ, but it is at least sincere, untainted by cynicism, and a worthy effort by Hollywood to end the prejudice against Christianity in the public square."

And, in addition to a good portrait of St. Joseph, the film offers "at least one cinematic and spiritual triumph" in portraying the Visitation of Mary to St. Elizabeth. "Although the Magnificat is relegated to a kind of epilogue at the movie's end, the meeting between Mary and Elizabeth is otherwise faithful to the scriptures and quite poignant. In a separate scene, the two women experience the concurrent movement of their children in utero and share deeply in each other's joy. I can't think of another piece of celluloid that illustrates the dignity of the unborn child better than this."

cherry

Look. If you accuse me of cherrypicking quotes, kindly show where my quotes are out of context. I did the same with yours. I maintain that Matthew 25, Romans 2 and James 2 describe certain works as salvific and do so in context. I also showed why the quotes you gave so far either do not say what you pretend they say, or do not contradict the Catholic doctrine in their context.

You now repeated several of your previous prooftexts and I will refer to my previous post for their treatment, and I will explain the rest.

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Galatians 2:16, Romans 4:2, Romans 3:27, 2 Timothy 1:9, 2 Timothy 3:16f, Titus 1:16, John 15:16, Matthew 7:14f were treated in 8216. They are either referring to works of law, or works of social or any other temporal reward, or simply do not say anything about the issue on hand. You now offer a few additional prooftext on works, to which we turn.

Titus 3:5. The opening passage of Titus 3 is a good prooftext for salvific nature of works of love. Let us read the entire passage:

1 Admonish them to be subject to princes and powers, to obey at a word, to be ready to every good work. 2 To speak evil of no man, not to be litigious, but gentle: shewing all mildness towards all men. 3 For we ourselves also were some time unwise, incredulous, erring, slaves to divers desires and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another. 4 But when the goodness and kindness of God our Saviour appeared: 5 Not by the works of justice, which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us, by the laver of regeneration, and renovation of the Holy Ghost; 6 Whom he hath poured forth upon us abundantly, through Jesus Christ our Saviour: 7 That, being justified by his grace, we may be heirs, according to hope of life everlasting. 8 It is a faithful saying: and these things I will have thee affirm constantly: that they, who believe in God, may be careful to excel in good works.

Indeed, Christ did not offer the sacrifice of the Cross because of any particular work of ours that by justice demanded it. We, however, having been baptized should excel in good works.

Romans 4:6. We covered Romans 3:29 - 4.5: "St. Paul says that Abraham had faith and was circumcised, while a Gentile would have faith but not Jewish law, and that would be reputed to justice." I have nothing to add to this previous explanation of mine. Verse 6 simply adds another example of "blessedness in uncircumcision". You did not add anything to your previous prooftext.

Romans 9:11 refers to children of Isaac elected before even their birth. This is an election issue, not a works of love issue, -- we certainly do not think that children are capable of works of love as we understand it, as it requires mature mind. We also have no dispute with the concept of divine election.

Romans 11:6 speaks of the election of the Hebrew remnant so the works there are works of Jewish law, and not salvific works of love. The broader inference can indeed be made from this verse, that works done outside of divine grace are not salvific. We agree.

Galatians 3:9f speaks of Abraham justified by faith and not by his circumcision. The reference is made explicitly not to works in general but to works of law. We agree, works of Jewish, or any other law are not salvific. Whether Abraham is justified by faith alone is answered in the negative by St. James in chapter 2 of his epistle.

Ephesians 2:8-9. I was wondering how you forgot that one the first time. The reference there is plain to works done in order to boast, and we of course agree that these, or any work done for temporal reward, are not salvific.

Romans 8:1 says nothing about works either way on its face. "Walk" of course, is used as a vague synonym for the effort of life, and in such is a prooftext for salvific works.

John 5:24 is a good example of what you might call cherry-picking. Wouild it have killed you to read the entire passage:

21 For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and giveth life: so the Son also giveth life to whom he will. 22 For neither doth the Father judge any man, but hath given all judgment to the Son. 23 That all men may honour the Son, as they honour the Father. He who honoureth not the Son, honoureth not the Father, who hath sent him. 24 Amen, amen I say unto you, that he who heareth my word, and believeth him that sent me, hath life everlasting; and cometh not into judgment, but is passed from death to life. 25 Amen, amen I say unto you, that the hour cometh, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live. 26 For as the Father hath life in himself, so he hath given the Son also to have life in himself: 27 And he hath given him power to do judgment, because he is the Son of man. 28 Wonder not at this; for the hour cometh, wherein all that are in the graves shall hear the voice of the Son of God. 29 And they that have done good things, shall come forth unto the resurrection of life; but they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of judgment.

"They that have done good things, shall come forth unto the resurrection of life; but they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of judgment". Faith and doing good things are inextricably linked in our salvation, just what the Church has always taught.

John 3:18. Same thing: you pick one verse and pretend the rest of the passage is not there. Read through to verse 21 ad try not to scream this time.

Hebrews 11:7. This is great. Noah built an ark. He did not have faith and got saved. He took an axe and a chisel and got saved. This is an excellent point to make to the Sola Fide superstitionists.

Titus 3:7. You got Titus 3:5 in the beginning of the list. Twenty prooftexts down, you got around to verse 7. Do you ever just read the gospel, or do you go from quotebook to quotebook? Read verse 8, "be careful to excel in good works".

Titus 2:11 does simply say that salvation is from God and available to all men. Bad verse for a Calvinist to read. Put a tape over it or something.

Ephesians 2:5. Once again you have two quotebooks out of sync, as we already had Eph. 2:8, and the works are identified as works for reward in v. 9. Verse 5 merely says that we are saved by the grace of God. Yes.

Galatians 2:21. No, righteousness does not come by law. We are not saved by the works of law. This is the Catholic teaching.

Ephesians 1:7 Yes, redemption is through the blood of Christ and by His grace. This is the Catholic teaching.

Romans 3:24 and Romans 5:15 explain that grace is free and cannot be earned. We agree. It is by His grace that we do our salvific works, when we choose to do them. This is the Catholic teaching.

Acts 2:21, 5:11, and 16:31 al say the same thing, that one who believes in Christ shall be saved. It does not explain what that faith entails. All these are calls to conversion and baptism, -- it is not a detailed explanation of what a Christian life of faith is to be. It is too generic to conclude that works play no part in the walk of faith, and of course from plenty other scripture we know that they do. Besides, Acts 5:11 speaks of the dietetic restrictions being unnecessary, and they are works of the Hebrew law, just like circumcision.

Romans 5:9-10. Christ died for sinners, yes. This is the Catholic teaching. We must be going through your third quotebook, because we treated Romans 5 in the second quotebook. Why don't you sort your prooftexts by their appearance in the scripture? After all, this is the order in which the scripture was intended to be read.

Romans 10:9,13. The context is that not only the Jews are saved, but the road to salvation is open to all believers, Jew or Greek. What united us? The faith. St. Paul is not discoursing the role of works, like he did in Galatians, -- he is confirming that faith in Christ is what unites Christians.

1 Corinthians 1:18 does not say anything about who will be saved or why.

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AS TO THE JUDGMENT OF THE SAVED

Nothing here supports your bizarre theory of works only mattering to the reprobates. 1 Corinthians 3 is a prooftext for purgatory, it describes how the works of the saved are purified before they reach final salvation in heaven. All whose works are tried in 1 Cor. 3 are heading to heaven; it does not explain how they got to be saved in the first place. It surely does explain how works matter, for if your house is all stubble, -- bad works -- there will be nothing left of you.

THE JUDGMENT OF THE LOST

That passage describes the judgement of the lost by their works. So, both judgements describe works. But what separates the two categories, the lost and the saved? Matthew 25 gives the answer: works of charity do.

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