Good Friday

I watched The Passion of the Christ for the first time last night, and even though I still don't completely understand the parts with the devil just standing there or the necessity of the last shot being of Jesus' legs, one thing that really struck me was Mary's reaction to Jesus' passion.

She tries to stop the whole thing at first. 

For some reason, I've always imagined Mary just standing there helplessly, watching Jesus be tortured and killed. Mary is so often portrayed as gentle, and it's hard for me to reconcile in my mind gentleness and boldness. But it makes sense that she would be bold. It could have gotten her arrested for speaking out in the way she does in the movie, but she doesn't care. All she cares about is her Son.

When she realizes Jesus does not protest, she trusts Him.

When Jesus is first arrested in the movie, Mary yells to have him freed, that He is innocent. When she notices that He does not fight back, however, that He submits willingly to the torture, she allows Him. This is in direct contrast with Peter, who told Jesus that what He was doing was folly, that he would not permit Him to die. In the movie, even, Peter asks if they should run during the agony in the Garden, if they should flee. Mary, however, trusts God, and she trusts her Son. In the movie, she turns away during the scourging and asks quietly, "My son, when will you choose to deliver yourself?" I'm not sure how accurate it is to think that Mary did not know that Jesus was to die, but there is a sense in that scene that even if she does not know, she trusts. She trusts that Jesus could deliver Himself from this if He wished and that since He has not done so, then He has a reason. She grieves His Passion but she does not try to prevent it.

She still sees Jesus as her little child. 

When Jesus falls near Mary, we get a flashback to Him falling as a child. Just as any mother forever sees her children as her children, Mary runs to Jesus not simply because He is God but because He is her child and she longs to comfort Him. She kisses Him and whispers, "I'm here." Also, Jesus still sees His mother as such. He remembers being a small child. He is human, and her words and presence actually provide Him with comfort. Even when He cries out from the cross "My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?" she is there. When His Father seems to have abandoned Him, His mother is still there.

She kisses His feet on the cross.

I often think of Mary as kneeling far away from the cross rather than right in front of it, touching the cross, kissing the feet of Jesus as He suffers and dies.

By the end of it all, Mary is covered in Jesus' blood. 

When Christ suffers, His mother suffers. We have wounded her when we have wounded Him.

I'm praying for you!

:)