The Nativity: A Blessed Experience

I went into the movie excited and hoping for a positive, uplifting, and prayerful experience. It was that and a whole lot more!!! Of course they did 'embellish' a little on character development and historical accuracy. If they hadnt the movie would have been literally 20 minutes long! The movie was however doctrinally sound (not that I was there with a notebook and pen to pick the movie apart) and there is most definitely nothing offensive that I saw with regard to Catholic Tradition.

Mary was portrayed beautifully by Keisha Castle-Hughes (Whale Rider) (who I really like especially because she is polynesian ) as strong willed, faithful, prayerful, and virtuous young Woman. One of my three favorite scenes is when Mary encounters Elizabeth!!! I got choked up !! They also stayed true to the biblical dialogue for that scene which made it all the more special.

Just as many people often do with Christ Himself, I often forget that The Blessed Mother was human. I think the movie does a wonderful job in portraying her human emotion and concern for her family, her husband, and her child all the while maintaing her faithfulness, purity, and holiness.

For me though the character that engaged me most in the movie was Joseph, played by Oscar Isaac. Joseph is portayed as a virtuous, hard working man who strives to be pleasing to God in all that he does. He cares for Mary with such a love that inspires me to be a better husband. My two other favorite scenes are with Joseph 1) When carries Mary into Bethlehem looking for a place for her to give birth 2)When Joseph looks at the baby Jesus for the first time (awesome!!!) I have never meditated on or considered Joseph in the way they portrayed him. It has given me a new perspective on him and has sparked a new devotion in my heart to him as I strive to be a good father to my child and good husband to my wife

The Magi are portrayed with 'interesting' personalities and add a sense of humor to the movie. They movie writers did take liberty on a couple of things that are not clear historically like the arrival of the wise men (in the movie they arrive on the night of Christ's birth, when in reality they surely arrived much later) or on Joseph's age (he was older than Mary but still quite young in the movie) and also on several points of theological speculation (i.e. Mary did suffer pain in the movie during her childbirth, but I think they were going with the 'low pain' theory because she surely didnt seem to be suffering as much pain as when Elizabeth gives birth to John earlier in the movie)

Overall I think the movie will be a classic that we can all treasure and share with our children and grandchildren as they learn about Christ's birth, the beauty, purity and holiness of the Blessed Mother, and the virtue of St. Joseph.