Why? Because she made a woman, a very young woman feel dirty, ashamed for having natural carnal desires with someone she was attracted to for over 50 years. This movie, and it is based on a true story of which they liberally took artistic license for extra drama made young pregnant girls suffer to atone for their sins. Philomena had a breach birth and the suffering was encouraged to atone for her situation. Her child was adopted without her permission and literally ripped her heart out for 50 years. My problem, and I have always said this about the Catholic Church and God forgive me, is that we should not suppress our very natural human sexual desires. Nuns and Priests should be able to marry. They are not God; they may strive to be God-like, but they are human and should enjoy the pleasures that we humans were made to have. Suppression only leads to trouble, frustration, anger, and sadly, abuse. This movie did not help to restore my faith.
I know it was just a movie, but it drove home the message of what is wrong with the Catholic Church. The pain that Philomena felt and the overwhelming guilt caused by Nuns impressing upon her what a sinful dirty girl she was, well...it hurt me. And look at the nun in this story. She seemed filled with rage. Why? Rage and disgust that these young girls were so bad giving into their sexual needs? Rage because she had to give it up? I don't know....
This leads me to Mary Magdalene. Why? Because it is Easter. Because out of all the people Jesus appeared to, it is to Mary, his Mary. It wasn't to his apostles, nor was it to his own mother, Mary, or father, Joseph.
| Artist: | La Fosse Charles de |
| Location: | Hermitage Museum |
It was to Mary Magdalene. Now, while on earth Jesus was a man. I, personally believe he felt like a man and Mary was more than a fan or follower. Why do I think that? Well, when he appears to Mary and she does not recognize him and thinks he is a gardener, Jesus says, "Mary."
"Mary."
Instantly, she recognizes him with him saying her name, as if it's the most intimate word. He says, simply, "Mary." I do think Jesus and Mary were intimate. He chose her to appear to and says her name, her first name.
This kind of brings home the conversion of the movie Philomena, which clearly is a story about suppression of human needs and abuse of power.
I do think, the church, for whatever reason doesn't want to acknowledge that Jesus, for a moment in time, was a man and had a girlfriend or possibly a wife and for whatever reason, we gloss over this. We acknowledge that Jesus rises from the dead and appears to her, but why don't we say more? Why isn't there a Rosary for her? Why don't we know more about her? Abuse of power in the early church, I guess. Certain people didn't like the story, so they took artistic license to change it they way they want it to be.
Thus, suppression of sex for nuns and priests.
All I know is, I want to learn more of the special lady that Jesus was closest to, and I have to give kudos to the priest today in mass who pointed out how fascinating she is. It was like listening to the history channel. He mentioned that in the first Christian Church that borders Syria and Iraq, there is a fresco of Mary Magdalene holding the torch to the cave where Jesus was buried....in the first Christian Church. Along the way, we lost her importance and I want to understand why.
Interesting paragraph about Mary Magdalene that sums up her complexity and importance.
From The Smithsonian Magazine, Smithsonian.com by James Carroll - June 2006
" In one age after another her image was reinvented, from prostitute to sibyl to mystic to celibate nun to passive helpmeet to feminist icon to the matriarch of divinity’s secret dynasty. How the past is remembered, how sexual desire is domesticated, how men and women negotiate their separate impulses; how power inevitably seeks sanctification, how tradition becomes authoritative, how revolutions are co-opted; how fallibility is reckoned with, and how sweet devotion can be made to serve violent domination—all these cultural questions helped shape the story of the woman who befriended Jesus of Nazareth."
Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/who-was-mary-magdalene-119565482/#XiclI9kt85yvo49F.99
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