Mary Did You Know Video - The Passion -

In Mel Gibson’s “The Pas­sion” of the Christ”, we see 
Mary in a way that is very dif­fer­ent from Hollywood’s tra­di­tional depic­tion.  We are used to see­ing Mary as beau­ti­ful, young, with a warm smile, lov­ing eyes, and of course a char­ac­ter born with­out sin.  In “ThePas­sion”, Mary retains her sin­less char­ac­ter, her sweet­ness, her gen­tle man­ner, but she is no longer the teenager who car­ried the Son of Man in her womb.

She is near­ing 50 years of age.  She has the wrin­kles of an aging mother, the worry lines of one who knows the suf­fer­ing that is to come – but pleads in her heart that it not be so.  Her robe is dusty and stained with blood – the blood of her own son.  Phys­i­cally this depic­tion of Mary is very dif­fer­ent for us.  Emo­tion­ally, how­ever, we may have felt more con­nected to Mary, as the real­ity of how Mary suf­fered in wit­ness­ing the suf­fer­ing of her son speaks to our lives in a more rel­e­vant and pow­er­ful way.

United with Mary through suffering

We all expe­ri­ence sad­ness through our own suf­fer­ing, and have wit­nessed the suf­fer­ing of those close to us.  In “The Pas­sion” we see how Mary wit­nessed the ter­ri­ble ordeals of her own son being humil­i­ated before the church elders, dragged before Pilate for judg­ment, scourged nearly unto death, and finally nailed to a cross to die.  We now real­ize the full­ness of Mary’s human­ity as we saw the inten­sity of her shock, dis­be­lief and intense sor­row as she remained with her son into his death.

The ordeal of Jesus’ per­se­cu­tion and death are so hor­rific that nearly all of his fol­low­ers aban­doned him, yet Mary, Mary Mag­da­lene and his apos­tle John remained.  What enabled Mary to remain with Jesus and per­se­vere through this suf­fer­ing? How does the answer to this ques­tion speak to our lives today? Mary’s love for Jesus as his mother, and her faith and hope in his divin­ity enabled her to endure the path to his death.  And 2000 years later it is this same love for our fel­low man and faith in God that enable us to per­se­vere through any suf­fer­ing the world may present.

Often when some­one else is suf­fer­ing, the best way we can help is in sim­ply being with them, and pray­ing for them.  We wish we could do more, yet often we can­not cure the ill­ness or remove the injus­tice that causes the suf­fer­ing.  In “The Pas­sion”, Mary knew she couldn’t stop the tor­ture and death of her son, yet her love for Jesus com­pelled her to remain with him despite the suf­fer­ing this caused her.  For Mary, her suf­fer­ing was so intense that she had to be sup­ported by Mag­da­lene and the apos­tle John as she lin­gered between con­scious­ness and unconsciousness.

The inten­sity of both Mary’s suf­fer­ing and her love for her son are vividly por­trayed in the scene where Mary and John scurry through the nar­row streets in an attempt to see Jesus.  Christ appears from behind the build­ings ahead.  His body weak­ened by scourg­ing and the crown of thorns; he bends under the weight of the cross and falls to the rocky street.  Mary stops short of the scene.  She slumps on a doorstep, sigh­ing in grief, immo­bi­lized by shock and fear.  She knows that her son is divine.  She knows that this was to be his earthly fate.  But she remains a human mother watch­ing her child suffer.

She is brought back to action by a flash­back in her mind.  It is an image of Jesus as a lit­tle boy, falling and call­ing for his mother.  Stirred by that mem­ory, she runs to her son weighed down by the cross and com­forts him.  Although Mary couldn’t save Jesus from death, she did every­thing that she could, and we can only imag­ine how much Mary’s sim­ple act of love meant to Jesus in the midst of his suffering.

Mary as our model for wit­ness­ing suffering

Was Mary’s abil­ity to endure her son’s death a story of the past, or does it in some way speak to each of our lives today?  The answer is defin­i­tively the latter-​​ for all of us suf­fer and wit­ness suffering.

Each of us can resolve to imi­tate Mary in our own lives, by reach­ing out in love and com­pas­sion to assist and com­fort oth­ers whom are suf­fer­ing.  At times this can be rel­a­tively easy, such as sim­ply spend­ing time with a friend whom is suf­fer­ing with a prob­lem and may need some­one to lis­ten.  At other times the wit­ness­ing of suf­fer­ing may require much greater effort, such as when a loved one is dying from a painful illness.

Dur­ing the times when our suf­fer­ing is most intense, we can remem­ber Mary in The Pas­sion. Yes it can be hard, and at times we may feel as Mary did-​​ that we can’t go on.  Yet Mary teaches us that through our love for oth­ers, rooted in our love for God, and faith in the res­ur­rec­tion and power of God’s grace, we have the strength and courage to per­se­vere through any suf­fer­ing the world presents.

Virtues High­lighted

Per­se­ver­ance – try­ing hard and con­tin­u­ously 
despite hard­ships and obstacles

Love – the the­o­log­i­cal virtue by which we love God above all else for His sake, and other peo­ple as our­selves for love of God.

Dis­cus­sion Questions

Mary, more than any­one else, knew what would hap­pen to Jesus.  She also had unflinch­ing faith in his res­ur­rec­tion.  Why, then, did she still suf­fer so much dur­ing his trial and passion?

Mary was able to stand at the cross while other fled.  What gave her that strength?

We all have things in our life that don’t turn out as we would like.  What does Mary’s exam­ple teach us about cop­ing with our disappointments/​sufferings?

At the end of the movie Mary cra­dles Jesus in her arms, sup­port­ing him much like Michelangelo’s Pieta.  Her eyes rise and look directly out­ward, directly at us.  Her eyes seem to ask:  why?…how?…how could you?  How did this scene affect you and how would we answer these questions?

Com­mu­ni­ca­tions tech­nol­ogy enables us to become bet­ter informed of the suf­fer­ing of peo­ple through­out the world.  At times the vast­ness of the world’s prob­lems may seem over­whelm­ing, and it is a nat­ural ten­dency become desen­si­tized.  How does Mary’s wit­ness­ing to suf­fer­ing speak to these issues?

With our nation at war, some Amer­i­can moth­ers have faced the loss of a son.  How can Mary’s exam­ple be a comfort?

The 12 apos­tles had fol­low­ing Christ for three years.  They had the ben­e­fit of see­ing his amaz­ing mir­a­cles and lis­tened to his teach­ing.  Yet, when it would seem he needed them most, why was John the only one to be found?

Con­trast this with the actions of the apos­tles after the res­ur­rec­tion and receiv­ing the Holy Spirit through Pen­te­cost.  What does this tell us about the power of God’s grace and the Holy Spirit?

Per­sonal Reflection/​ Writ­ing

A) Was there a dis­ap­point­ment in your life that you felt you sim­ply could not endure?  Was there a time when it seemed that your clos­est friends, those you loved most, had aban­doned you?  Write about such a time and how Mary could serve as a model for help­ing you to persevere.

B) Write a per­sonal prayer to Mary that you can use the next time you have an oppor­tu­nity to wit­ness suffering.

Res­o­lu­tion Ideas

The sor­row­ful mys­ter­ies of the rosary give us a won­der­ful way to med­i­tate on Christ’s suf­fer­ing dur­ing his pas­sion.  Pray those mys­ter­ies, med­i­tat­ing on Mary dur­ing each of those mys­ter­ies, where she was, what she was enduring.

Orga­nize a group to pray at an abor­tion clinic.  At these clin­ics the most inno­cent of life is being taken, and here we have the oppor­tu­nity to imi­tate Mary as a prayer­ful wit­ness to their suffering.

The United States has dozens of Mar­ian shrines.  A visit to one can be a won­der­ful way to honor Our Lady and grow closer to her.

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