Finding Hope
Mary’s name is biblical too, obviously—and almost always, the name is connected with hope.
Mary of Bethany was the sister of Martha, who famously curled up by Jesus’ feet as Martha worked, and worked herself into a frenzy. “Marth, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary,” Jesus tells her. “Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”
Mary Magdalene was among the first to see Jesus’ empty tomb, the hope of Easter.
And of course Mary, mother of Jesus, was responsible for carrying and bringing Jesus—the light and hope of the world—into that selfsame suffering, otherwise irredeemable, world.
First Reformed’s Mary, like the mother of Jesus, is pregnant. (The movie suggests that bringing a baby into the world is itself an act of hope, too.) Like Mary of Bethany, she refuses to let worry consume and distract her from the beauty to be found in life. Like Mary Magdalene, she’s seen death. But she believes in life, and the hope found therein.
“I share Michaels beliefs, but not his despair,” Mary tells Toller.
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