Amazing Grace

Of course, such issues have been hotly debated throughout the history of religion. During the fifth century, a series of arguments erupted between the British monk Pelagius and the Christian father St. Augustine concerning whether or not salvation could be attained by personal deeds and good works. The Gothic Church won out, and the orthodox stance ever since has been that it comes only by virtue of divine grace. No amount of trying or personal effort is going to merit salvation, and most sophisticated saints have realized many attempts to do so only build up the worst sin of all, namely spiritual pride. Grace must come as a gift, as it says in Ephesians, "lest any man should boast."

One of the most poignant examples of grace in the prequel trilogy comes when Padme still accepts and cares for Anakin, even after his confession of his slaughter of the Tusken Raider tribe. Certainly it is no accident she is dressed in blue and white robes, the traditional garments that the Virgin Mary is depicted as wearing. As Alan Watts notes in his masterpiece of Christian theology, "Behold the Spirit," for the medieval Catholic soul, the "symbolic feminine attributes of love, compassion, mercy, and beauty" were hard to reconcile with the overly masculine image of God as the "king of kings," and as a result they were all poured on the virtually deified Virgin Mary. One twelfth century hymn after another praises her as the "Mother of God," the "Mistress of Angels," and the "Queen of Heaven."

This is what Padme is meant to represent in that scene as she sits down and gently soothes Anakin. The same could be said of her as Watts said of the medieval attitude to Mary - "To her the most depraved sinner could pour out his heart in the certainty that he would be accepted in a loving embrace as infinite and all-inclusive as the sky that was symbolized by her star-decked robe of blue. In the image of the Mother, God was so much more approachable, more loving and forgiving, more tender and careful of her children." One cannot imagine the same scene playing out between Anakin and Obi-Wan, or even Anakin and Qui-Gon Jinn, but Padme allows it to work.

Turning Eastward, the representation of grace also finds form in the mysterious Tao, which its first sage Lao Tzu praises as being feminine

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