In Steven Spielberg's movie, Schindler's...
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In Steven Spielberg's movie, Schindler's List, there is a little girl in the midst of the crowd heading for the ovens whom Schindler sees, for some reason, as standing out. Spielberg highlights her in an otherwise black-and-white film by tinting her in living colors. Blond hair, a red coat. He watches her for a long time, until she disappears from his view. When he later passes a heap of bodies, she is again highlighted for us, as Schindler, with a shock, recognizes her. Mary Magdalene is like that in the gospel accounts. Just one woman in a crowd of thousands of people in Jerusalem, she stands out by dint of a few shreds of information, a few moments of dialogue. She was the crazy one, the woman who wept over Jesus' feet, who was cured of seven demons (Mark 16). She was dramatic, extravagant, "overly emotional" and not too wise in her behavior. She followed Jesus right up to the cross, and was the one person all acknowledged to have certainly been at the cross until Jesus was dead and his body removed. We really know almost nothing else about her. She is, in a way, a nobody, like you or like me. An extra in the cast of thousands, made to stand out by the addition of a little color, a bit of business, a moment of horror and a moment of grace, so that we are drawn in, made to pay attention, forced to see the reality of the death and the amazement of the resurrection of Jesus. -- Herrmann
