Mary, Full of Grace?

Hail Mary, Full of Grace, 

The Lord is with thee.

 Blessed art thou among women, 

and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. 

Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now, 

and at the hour of our death. Amen. 

We are approaching Christmas, a time when Mary, the mother of Jesus, gets star billing in pageants everywhere. In addition, she got lots of attention over the weekend during the reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral, not surprising given that this historic church is dedicated to her.

                             A Virgin Mary statue is returned to Notre Dame Cathedral after 5 years away. 

So, one might think that a new Netflix film about her called, simply, Mary, would be perfect for the season. It even has the wonderful Anthony Hopkins as Herod -- we know that Hopkins knows how to do evil. Well, it sounds as though the film is a stinker with a 30% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The headline in the Telegraph reads: 

Mary: Netflix’s biblical biopic is the worst film of the year: This bafflingly awful film about the Virgin Mary, starring Anthony Hopkins as Herod, is one bad choice built from thousands of smaller ones.

I'm taking "bafflingly awful" as a Mary repellent. Christianity Today offered "Hail Mary, Full of Violence" for their headline. No thanks. 

How can some of the most meaningful stories in our faith result in such awful films? 

We won't watch Mary but we did go to see The Best Christmas Pageant Ever recently. We went with two of our grandchildren and we weren't expecting much. It began with a bit of a "made for TV" feel to it but it just got better and better. It is about a traditional pageant in a small town that gets knocked sideways by the disruption of participation by kids from the community's wild-child family. Lo and behold, they rise to the occasion and the tween girl who plays Mary comes to appreciate the sacredness of her role. Did I fight back tears in the end?...of course not!...maybe.