'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."

Is it at all possible that you might be misunderstanding some of these sources?

Here is another source: Reparation—Love–Atonement by Joseph K. Hogan. Please note this line of thinking:

Reparation is like paying a debt, a payback, a return of something that is owed to another. ...Atonement is much the same. In a certain spirituality, because Christ was mocked and made a fool of; men and women become fools for Christ to atone for the humiliation of Christ. We atone to Christ for sin by prayer, penance, and self-denial; we ‘make up’ for the disastrous effects of a sinful life.

I'm fairly confident that I'm accurate on this. If I was wrong I'm sure I would have a hundred Catholics pointing me to St. Fred or St. Bob's writings. Instead I have the Orthodox telling me the blood atonement is blasphamous and the Catholics rather quiet.

Personally, one would hope people would be more forthright with their doctrine.

The full quote, with the part you excerpted underlined and the parts I want to stress bolded is:

That is a fair observation and it's not my intention to be misleading. Space and time are limited and I can't post everything but I do try to post the reference so people can read it for themselves and make their own determination. If you think this cut-off is bad you should try Augustine or Calvin who goes on and on and on.

According to New Advent:

Although the high authority of St. Bernard was thus against them, the views of St. Anselm and Abelard, the two men who in different ways were the fathers of Scholasticism, shaped the course of later medieval theology. ....Anselm's doctrine of Satisfaction was adopted as the basis. But St. Thomas and the other medieval masters agree with Abelard in rejecting the notion that this full Satisfaction for sin was absolutely necessary.... But we can never rest in these material figures as though they were literal and adequate. As both Abelard and Bernard [not Anselm] remind us, the Atonement is the work of love. It is essentially a sacrifice, the one supreme sacrifice of which the rest were but types and figures. New Advent on Atonement

According to New Advent above, Anselm isn't the proponent of this view. There are others who came along later who used Anselm's writings. Perhaps it was a mistake on my part to use his writings.

CATHOLICS! ORTHODOX FOLKS! We're talking about the ATONEMENT here. We've gotten through the name-calling part, now let's get down in the dirt and dig around some, please? BEsides, I may be doing a terrible job representing our POV.

Well, I'm beginning to think that I don't know what the details of the "blood atonement" argument are. It's like we are both coming to the same article from VERY different POVs, and so you say, "See THERE?" and I say, "Hmm, Yeah, so what?"

St. FRED? Did he publish?

Okay, let me struggle with your first quote one second, and amazingly, I'll argue that it's not representative of what we think about Atonement in general. Yeah, I know: Color you surprised. It's from an article about Spirituality. A big thing for us is identifying with Christ. And that gets us in almost as much trouble as "Mother of God", I guess. Note that what you underlined was about how "we atone to Christ" It presupposes the Atonement wrought in Christ. But we seek to participate in the work of Atonement -- and at least in my case I know that's preposterous of me, but what can I say, I like going overboard -- So we pray for others sins, fast for others' sins. In some other conversation about the Catholic view of works, I compared us to a very little child watching his father or her mother, and "helping". And you know how much "help" that can be. Mom bakes the cake, but Sissie licked the mixing spoon so she "helped". Jesus dies horribly for the world as the climax to the humiliation of the Incarnation. We skip dessert. I'm kind of hoping that God thinks that's cute.

Maybe I'm overstating our view of the uselessness of it all. Certainly when I'm fasting (something I do too rarely) I think I have real discomfort and I trust that God will use that the way he uses prayer, in a mysterious way, utterly incomprehensible to me, to do what HE does.

So that's about what I facetiously call spearchool atonement. It is built on Christ's "all sufficient merit".

Now, after our last exchange and as I began to get the idea that we are talking past each other - or at least I'm missing everything coming in my direction, I actually looked at that article fairly closely, not just looking for "See THERE?" quotes.

And what I got was what I expected: The Atonement is a HUGE mystery. The whole "work of Christ", but especially the Death on the Cross, accomplishes what can not be accomplished by any mere creature, the reconciliation of Creation and Creator. So the blood shed during the Crucifixion -- and the mysterious water and blood from His pierced side -- is central, critical, at the core of the Atoning work.

There is a problem with the idea that God needs to be propitiated (That word, hilasmos, is interesting.), but there is also a problem with what the Justice of God is if there is not to be some dreadful consequence to the dreadful act of disobedience which Sin is. It's all very well for me to say "Mercy is the perfection of justice" but sometimes trying to think about it is as useful (to me at any rate) as thinking about the sound of one hand. My response is, "Wha'?"

Certainly the notion of Satisfaction is not totally discarded in our thinking. But it's not currently the front runner either. And I think the Satisfactory doctrine is the one closest to what you may mean by "blood atonement".

The sentence we have been sparring over leaves out my favorite (Jesus stomps the devil) but, I think, makes conscious reference to the other theories I have mentioned. It's an effort, I think, at a summation of the thinking about the atonement.

Okay, darn it, I have to go get ready to go out. I hope I have moved this forward a little. I'll very much look forward to hearing from you, but I won't get back until late tonight or sometime tomorrow.

Who has the authority to interpret in your sect? Who is the sole person who can make infallible statements that you must follow if you are to be in good standing in your sect?

Not only a single man, but a church hierarchy that appears to elevate itself above God's word...

CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
PART ONE
THE PROFESSION OF FAITH
SECTION ONE
CHAPTER THREE

WE BELIEVE...
166) Faith is a personal act - the free response of the human person to the initiative of God who reveals himself. But faith is not an isolated act. No one can believe alone, just as no one can live alone. You have not given yourself faith as you have not given yourself life. The believer has received faith from others and should hand it on to others. Our love for Jesus and for our neighbor impels us to speak to others about our faith. Each believer is thus a link in the great chain of believers. I cannot believe without being carried by the faith of others, and by my faith I help support others in the faith.
**Aside: I received my faith from God alone. Thank you, God. Thank you, Jesus Christ. Thank you, Holy Spirit. Pity the poor castaway on some desert island. No church to save him; his soul lost forever because "he cannot believe alone."
168) It is the Church that believes first, and so bears, nourishes and sustains my faith. Everywhere, it is the Church that first confesses the Lord: "Throughout the world the holy Church acclaims you", as we sing in the hymn "Te Deum"; with her and in her, we are won over and brought to confess: "I believe", "We believe". It is through the Church that we receive faith and new life in Christ by Baptism. In the Rituale Romanum, the minister of Baptism asks the catechumen: "What do you ask of God's Church?" And the answer is: "Faith." "What does faith offer you?" "Eternal life."54
**Aside: The church is made up of all true believers. The church does not predate the word of God nor the naming of the elect. To venerate the earthly institution over the eternal sacrifice is error.
169) Salvation comes from God alone; but because we receive the life of faith through the Church, she is our mother: "We believe the Church as the mother of our new birth, and not in the Church as if she were the author of our salvation."55 Because she is our mother, she is also our teacher in the faith.
**Aside: "the church is the mother of our new birth, but not the author of our salvation"??? Say what? Such a statement would shock Paul -- "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost" (Titus 3:5)
171) The Church, "the pillar and bulwark of the truth", faithfully guards "the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints". She guards the memory of Christ's words; it is she who from generation to generation hands on the apostles' confession of faith.57 As a mother who teaches her children to speak and so to understand and communicate, the Church our Mother teaches us the language of faith in order to introduce us to the understanding and the life of faith.
**Aside: "The church guards the memory of Christ's words"? Why not the words themselves, and not just the "memory" of them? "Memory" can be awfully subjective.
173) "Indeed, the Church, though scattered throughout the whole world, even to the ends of the earth, having received the faith from the apostles and their disciples. . . guards [this preaching and faith] with care, as dwelling in but a single house, and similarly believes as if having but one soul and a single heart, and preaches, teaches and hands on this faith with a unanimous voice, as if possessing only one mouth."59
**Aside: "Unanimous voice"? Hardly.
174) "For though languages differ throughout the world, the content of the Tradition is one and the same. The Churches established in Germany have no other faith or Tradition, nor do those of the Iberians, nor those of the Celts, nor those of the East, of Egypt, of Libya, nor those established at the center of the world. . ."60 The Church's message "is true and solid, in which one and the same way of salvation appears throughout the whole world."
**Aside: "the content of the Tradition is the same..." No, it's not. "Tradition" by definition, changes with time and circumstance.
175) "We guard with care the faith that we have received from the Church, for without ceasing, under the action of God's Spirit, this deposit of great price, as if in an excellent vessel, is constantly being renewed and causes the very vessel that contains it to be renewed."62
**Aside: Faith itself comes from the Church? Paul would be pretty shocked to read that one. "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." (Romans 10:17)
181) "Believing" is an ecclesial act. The Church's faith precedes, engenders, supports and nourishes our faith. The Church is the mother of all believers. "No one can have God as Father who does not have the Church as Mother" (St. Cyprian, De unit. 6: PL 4, 519).
**Aside: Ecclesial: "adjective; pertaining to a church or its functions, teachings, or organization." So men's belief in Jesus Christ is an act of the organization of the church? Again, this contradicts Scripture. "But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth: Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.: -- 2 Thess. 2:13-14
182) We believe all "that which is contained in the word of God, written or handed down, and which the Church proposes for belief as divinely revealed".
**Aside: There's that questionable addendum again, "which the Church proposes for belief..."

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.