Picturing Mary
I saw Picturing Mary, a PBS documentary about historical images of Mary, Jesus' mother, last night at Theatre N in downtown Wilmington.
Rather than just showing the documentary, they started with readings of poetry and songs about Mary. (One poem compared a pregnant mother comparing herself with Mary in an inappropriate way, in my opinion.)
The documentary itself was okay, in my opinion. There were many more (and more famous) images of Mary they could have dealt with. They ignored the Black Madonna of Częstochowa and only dealt with Our Lady of Guadalupe quickly. I appreciated seeing the devotion to Mary of the Ethiopian Church which has been separated from the Catholic Church spiritually by doctrinal divisions and geographically by Islam. One thing I've always found interesting is the number of doctrines that are held by the Churches with apostolic origins that are rejected by those whose creation came later. Most Protestant churches reject the Catholic devotion to Mary, while I'm not aware of any apostolic Churches that don't share it. (In this context, apostolic means being able to trace their origins back to the apostles and maintaining a proper succession of bishops and clergy.) The Ethiopian Church is an example of this: they are not in union with the Catholic Church (although they are apostolic to the best of my knowlege), but still share our devotion to Mary.
After the documentary and brief break, we gathered for a discussion about Mary. The first question was what if Jesus had been conceived as a result of sex rather than a virgin birth. (I whispered to the person next to me, "If it wasn't a virgin birth, to hell with it all. We might as well be Episcopalians.") Amusingly enough, other than those who were either functional athiests or Episcopalians, the concensus was no Virgin Birth, no Jesus as God, no point to it all. We then also discussed Mary as an intercessor. Many didn't believe in Mary's intercession at all, while another seemed to imply that she believed Mary was divine. (She's not divine, or at least not in any way other than we will be once we're in Heaven from our sharing in God's nature. But she has no special claim to divinity, as the Church has long held.) On her intercessory power, I raised the point, "How reluctant are any of us to say no to our mothers when they ask us for something." The wedding feast at Cana (John 3:1-11) shows the power of her intercession. Jesus was reluctant to help out the married couple, but did so because his mother wished it. There's no reason to expect that to change in Heaven. (And speaking personally, I know she's been a great help to me in my struggles to live the faith)
The documentary will be shown this Sunday afternoon at 3 PM on WHYY-TV 12. Despite some of its flaws, it's still worth viewing. Check it out if you can.