Posted on 12/04/2006 7:52:47 PM PST by Pyro7480
'The Nativity Story' Movie Problematic for Catholics, "Unsuitable" for Young Children
By John-Henry Westen
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."
See Fr. Geiger's full review here:
http://airmaria.com/
In those countries the predominant religion is Orthodoxy. The individual cultures were built around Orthodox faith, incorporating it into the way of life, not the other way around as is the case in America.
Trying to fit a culture into Orthodoxy doesn't change Orthodoxy; it only gives it ethnic "flavor." Trying to fit Orthodoxy into a protestant/secular culture does.
Thank you for you insihgts. If Jesus could doesn’t mean we can. Leprosy is not very contageous unlike its first cousin tuberculosis. You could live for years among lepers and never catch the disease. But what is called leprosy in the Bible is not Hansen’s Disease (true leprosy) but more like psoriasis or similar (non-contageous) dermatological condition. True leprosy was unknown in the Middle east during Jesus’ times.
God is my entire focus. I am pro-God so my comments here are directed toward any mortal thought or behavior as it concerns Him regardless of its "label."
Likewise, the Son does not relinquish His authority to us, who are now dead to this world but alive with Him in God (Col 3:2, Gal 2:20) That includes Peter and his successors.
IOW, our authority and power is only because our will is the Sons will which is the Fathers will. That is how we are One in Him and He in us. The indwelling Spirit is He who keeps us in Him, in His Light (John 17, Romans 8, I Cor 2)
The power is His. The glory is His. The authority is His.
We have no power, no glory, no authority of our own will.
Whenever our will slips and is not His will, we are in dire jeopardy. Jesus is the vine, the Father is the husbandman and we are the branches. (John 15) We can do nothing apart from Him!
In other words, the power of God, the wisdom of God is in Jesus Christ not in us or our institutions, doctrines or traditions. (I Cor 1:24)
Jesus Christ baptizes in the Holy Spirit not John the Baptist, not the priest, not the minister, not the Church.
Those of us who abide in Him, believe Him and trust Him make our petitions to God the Father through our high priest, Jesus Christ. (Hebrews)
The accoutrements whereby we do this is not the point whether by anointing with oil, laying on hands, speaking prayers from a pulpit or by written text, asking someone else to pray for us, obtaining credentials through study or an organization or whatever.
Our motivations, the desires of our hearts is what matters. The Father hears what we think and what we say in secret.
No one can usurp Gods authority or ours.
And we must not relinquish our responsibilities as a member of His family (Romans 8, John 1) to anyone else. We are - each and every one of us - responsible for bringing forth fruit to the Father. (John 15, Galatians 5:22-23) If we fail, it will be on us not on someone else.
My contention is and always will be: To God be the glory.
An element of God(father, son, holy spirit) becoming "HUMAN" is indeed mind boggling.. Not THAT any human that ever lived could/can/or will ever fully grasp the reality of it..
What God is cannot be grasped intellectually by logic.. by anyone except God himself... surely not by a bunch of teenagers(apostles).. Anyone(you/me) expecting THEM to grasp the full import of the events transpiring around them (about Jesus) is silly in the extreme.. Even the word Messiah barely covers a small part of Jesus ministry.. The creator becoming (like) one of the created is very creative.. Even as one of the created Jesus was infinitely more than that..
All the authors of both testaments even guided and anointed by the Holy Spirit could only share what they could mentally grasp.. even with a "vision/revelation".. Judging those authors harshly can only be done by one that has never had a "vision"..
So kosta50, are you a Christian or a Jew? (I.e., do you believe in bodily resurrection or not?)
I get the impression you don't much care for the "irrational".... And like Doubting Thomas, require convincing proof of the things you'd like to believe.
But faith itself is "irrational" -- at least in the sense that it is the evidence of things unseen, yet nonetheless known (yes I know, this is a paradox).
.
Thank you oh so much, dearest A-G, for this gloriously beautiful essay/post!
Excellent wisdom and Scriptures, of course.
Many excellent points, including this one:
The accoutrements whereby we do this is not the point
Wrong once again.
Job, Theology of; Temptation, Test
23:10 But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold
Where and how we go from there, our maturing (working out our salvation Phl 2:12) in Him is different for each one of us. Some, for instance, never taste spiritual meat but are always on milk. (I Cr 3) Peter stumbled quite a bit as he matured. Paul hit the ground running. John and Mary (Luke 10:38-42) in my view found the good part.
There is no doubt that Christ lives for those of us who "know" Him because He "knows" us!
Thomas was able to thrust his hand in His side and yet Christ appears to several without revealing His identity and in other instances, appears in the midst of a closed room. This is the type of body we shall also have:
Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and [of] the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. John 3:5-6
But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, [even] to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. John 1:12-13
For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only [they], but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, [to wit], the redemption of our body. Romans 8:22-23
God's power is not limited to man's logic.
Frankly, AG, many of your posts used to go right over my head. They seemed too personal, too inward.
I was suspicious.
Then as God would have it, I returned to reading Calvin and found in his writings many of the same things you were saying.
I can imagine Calvin, mired in the dark ages of idolatry and lies, reading Scripture and exclaiming -- "Here it is! Here is the Holy Spirit speaking to me personally. Here is the Holy Spirit showing me my salvation at the feet of Christ on the cross. Here are the words of God who tells me Christ has paid for every sin and I am now justified in His eyes by the sacrifice of His Son. Here is the Holy Spirit opening my heart and giving me understanding and quickening my mind and illuminating every page of Scripture.
B.B. Warfield about Calvin...
"His theological method was persistently, rigorously, some may even say exaggeratedly, a posteriori. All a priori reasoning here he not only eschewed but vigorously repelled. His instrument of research was not logical amplification, but exegetical investigation. In one word, he was distinctly a Biblical theologian, or, let us say it frankly, by way of eminence "the Biblical theologian of his age." Whither the Bible took him, thither he went: where scriptural declarations failed him, there he stopped short. It is this which imparts to Calvin's theological teaching the quality which is its prime characteristic and its real offence in the eyes of his critics--I mean its positiveness. There is no mistaking the note of confidence in his teaching, and it is perhaps not surprising that this note of confidence irritates his critics. They resent the air of finality he gives to his declarations, not staying to consider that he gives them this air of finality because he presents them, not as his teachings, but as the teachings of the Holy Spirit in His inspired Word. Calvin's positiveness of tone is thus the mark not of extravagance but of sobriety and restraint. He even speaks with impatience of speculative, and what we may call inferential theology, and he is accordingly himself spoken of with impatience by modern historians of thought as a "merely Biblical theologian," who is, therefore, without any real doctrine of God, such as Zwingli has. The reproach, if it be a reproach, is just. Calvin refused to go beyond "what is written"--written plainly in the book of nature or in the book of revelation. He insisted that we can know nothing of God, for example, except what He has chosen to make known to us in His works and Word; all beyond this is but empty fancy, which merely "flutters" in the brain. And it was just because he refused to go one step beyond what is written that he felt so sure of his steps. He could not present the dictates of the Holy Ghost as a series of debatable propositions."
Sound familiar? It did to me. And so while we probably still disagree over the meaning of some parts of Scripture, I believe we both have good reason to be confident our paths are being led directly by the Holy Spirit who will eventually, progressively and perfectly bring every thought to Christ and every child of God to the covert of His wings.
This was always revolutionary thinking. During the time of Christ, during the time of the Apostles, during the Reformation and still to this day -- the truth of the Holy Spirit has many enemies who seek to drown out its voice and erase its presence and supplant it with men and magisteriums and the priestly class and wooden idols and a variety of extra-Biblical sacraments that actually defame the word of God.
As if it possibly could.
Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you... But the comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." -- John 14:16-18;26 "And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;
Amen. If we begin our understanding with the truth that God is in control of His creation, every word of Scripture becomes a positive and encouraging exhortation to righteousness.
That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God." -- 1 Peter 4:1-2"Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin;
“Frankly, AG, many of your posts used to go right over my head.”
Frankly, many of both of your posts still go right over my head. But then, I am male!
That’s because you’re ducking. 8~)
Now see, most Protestants would be embarrassed to write that. "Good works...form our faith?"
Faith is in the "good work" accomplished by Christ on the cross. Period. Not in our own good works which are as filthy rags to God. Christ, our redeemer, does not share that title with those He redeems. Our sins are nailed to His cross and He carries every one of them.
He has froth around his mouth.
LOL. No, I think he's "got milk!"
"As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby" -- 1 Peter 2:2
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