The Virgin Mary

Mary, the mother of Jesus, figures prominently in the second surah of the Quran, The Family of Imran, in case you did not know. I have always had a tender spot in my heart for Mary. I hope she feels likewise. However, the portrayals of Mary in literature and film is not the way I see her. In the Passion of the Christ by Mel Gibson, she is the usual wailing woman, full of ululations and despair. (The Passion was violence-pornography to me. Murder can be considered as a fine art, and as well can it be considered as religion. The loving depictions of the pain of Jesus do not lead us to share in his pain - that was not the intent of that sacrifice-but to indulge in our self-centered and sadistic narcissism. And as far as the accusations that the film was anti-Semitic, we know that was nonsense.) Mary, the mother of Jesus, the Virgin, Theotokos, fights for her beloved children with all the passion in the universe. If we believe in her role as intercessor with her son, then I know she pleads the case with all the vigor and tenacity of a well trained lawyer in the heavenly courts. She files motion after motion, she objects and argues, she wears down the legalists in defense of us, her clients. Mary is a vigorous champion of the down-trodden: " He casts the mighty from their thrones." Mary is a force for radical change for living the way we are supposed to be living. Mary is not the shy and demure pre-teen as we usually see her depicted. She is wise and canny and committed to the welfare of her children. Mary is a Force to be reckoned with. She is an icon made up of every strong mother keeping her family together in the face of despair. Mary is not demure in the cause of us, her family. She will fight with every bit of her great passion for rectitude. As a proponent for her children, Mary to me resembles the women warriors of the past more than certain females of today who write and speak the spite and ire of their perversity into the willing ears of dupes. In short, rather than seeing a painting of a pasty-faced woman wearing a tiara standing upon the globe, I'd much rather say that Mary rulz!