| MND COMMENTARY |
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by Isaiah Flair For a moment, lets set aside all of the excruciatingly poisonous anti-Christian rhetoric that has flooded newspapers and networks since Mel's movie first shone a bright light on the treacherous agenda of “interfaith” interlopers across America. For a moment, lets look at the beautifically inspiring women of The Passion of the Christ. There are four of particular interest: Mary Magdalene, Veronica, Claudia (the wife of Pontius Pilate), and the Virgin Mary. The other three are the subject of a soon-to-be-published article. It will be available on this website later this Spring. To begin with though, lets give heed to the love of Mary Magdelene, a role performed in this film by the almost impossibly attractive, sensual, seductive, and sultry Italian actress Monica Bellucci. Mary Magdelene is portrayed in the film as the woman saved by Jesus from a crowd of priests who want to stone her to death. As she lies bloody and hopeless, prostrate in the dirt, the foot of the Christ comes down beside her with the sound of a single thunderclap. He stands beside Mary bravely and unflinchingly. Then, he draws a line in the sand, forever seperating the old from the new. On the other side of it stand the leering priests, their hands loaded up with jagged rocks. Jesus writes something in the dust; the priests look at Him in knowing fear, and they all coldly shudder, quickly creeping away to plot revenge. Mary Magdalene barely dares to look up. Who is this figure of love, who would so strongly step in to protect her, to save her from a culture thrilled to kill her in broad daylight while passerby passed on by? She reaches out to grasp the foot of The Man, in gratitude so great as to defeat disbelief. Later on, Mary Magdalene is seen huddled in the dark, lending daughterly comfort to the Virgin Mary, who wonders why that night is so deeply different from all other nights. The door breaks open, and John rushes into their poverty-drenched abode. John tells both of the women that the priests have shackled the Christ, and have dragged Him from the Garden in Gethsemane. Meanwhile, bound in chains, the Messiah is shoved bloodily onto the floor of the temple. Outside, Roman soldiers ride up to the outside of this building and ask why someone has been brought there so conspiratorially and covertly, in the middle of the night. Mary Magdalene rushes up to the soldier, seeking to appeal to his sense of justice. “They took Him in the middle of the night…in secret”, she says. “Who?” asks the soldier. She softly proclaims that the One captured is, “Jesus…Jesus of Nazareth”. The passionate love and devoted reverence poured into that single line is amazing. Mary Magdalene, who would be dead by stoning without the empathy of The Man, knows that He was born to lead humankind forward to Veritas Christi. A priest leers at her and dismisses the Roman soldier. “It is no one who matters”, says this priest. The Roman soldier goes off to tell Pilate that something is wrong: a trouble is stirring. He is so right… Soon after, we see the Christ brutally whipped and scourged by ignorant, animalistic Roman flunkies as the priests, looking on from a safe distance in austere silver and gold, laugh wickedly at the sight of the beaten and blood-soaked Son of God. When Christ is cast into a dank prison, there to have His crown of thorns placed upon his brow, Mary Magdalene and His mother step out onto the scene of the scourging: a stone courtyard. Jesus’ blood soaks every stone. There, together as spiritual daughter and mother, they go to work. After being given gentle Roman linens by the effervescent and illuminating Claudia, they get down on their hands and knees…futilely scrubbing the ground. They want to be near Him, to help, to take His suffering upon themselves somehow/someway. This is love immortal. It is an echo of the very Passion of the Christ. It is an early and clear image of Christianity itself. Of course, neither the Virgin Mary nor loyal Mary Magdalene can possibly change what happened at the scourging site, or hold Jesus in their arms as they so need to. But they love Him, so they will do all they can to ease the pain of The Man whom they adore and revere with all their hearts. I felt moved to respond in just one way: to love them both right
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