Isaiah 61. 10, 11
Luke 1. 46 – 55
The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Fr Alex
There are a number of names for today’s great feast of Our Lady. In the Eastern Church it is known as the Dormition, or the ‘falling-asleep’ of the Mother of God.
In the Catholic Church, it is the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Both traditions affirm essentially the same thing, that Mary was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, though they differ slightly on the details.
The Church of England, in typical fashion, doesn’t go so far as to make any theological claims about the nature of today’s feast, and simply calls it “The Blessed Virgin Mary.”
You’ll no doubt have seen something of the great wealth of western paintings and images on today’s subject, often with Mary ascending heavenwards from the ground, and perhaps receiving a crown from her Son.
The Eastern icons have rather more complicated imagery going on.
According to tradition, the Mother of God was living in the house of St John on Mount Zion, while the twelve apostles were preaching the gospel in different parts of the world. Then all of them (except for Thomas) were carried miraculously on the clouds to the Holy City, so they could see the Virgin once again before her death.
Also at her bedside were the apostle Paul and three bishops. As they stood around her, Mary commended her spirit to her Son and God; and Christ descended from heaven and took her soul up with him in his arms. Then the apostles, led by Peter, carried her body, singing funeral hymns, to Gethsemane, where she was laid in a tomb specially prepared for her. *
Thomas finally arrived on the third day, and was anxious to look one last time on the Mother of God, so he opened the tomb – only to find it empty. Poor old Thomas, why is it always him?
There are some wonderful icons that depict much of this tradition.
We have our own beautiful images of Our Lady, and her statue is the focus of prayer for many in this church.
But there is a bit of a danger in all the traditions and beautiful images of today’s feast. They can run the risk of taking us into the realm of the fantastical, the supernatural.
But the real joy of this feast is that, at its heart, it is all about the reality of our earthly life; and the reality of the life to come.
As our first hymn reminded us, Mary was there with Christ throughout his entire earthly life: from the moment of conception at the angel’s ‘Ave,’ through the hidden life at Nazareth; following and supporting him through his adult ministry… and eventually cradling his broken body as it was taken down from the cross.
As Pope Francis said in his Angelus homily this morning, we must not imagine Mary just as “a motionless wax statue;” but as someone “with worn-out sandals, with so much weariness.”
Her Magnificat that we just heard as our Gospel reading, is a call to follow Christ into the reality of life; into the mess and injustices and pain of earthly existence.
Mary’s uniquely close and faithful journey with Christ on earth ended with a unique end—the assumption into heaven. But like Christ’s Resurrection and Ascension, Mary’s Assumption is another glimpse of the destiny of our humanity: to be gathered up into the new reality of life that awaits all who follow her Son.
In the end of her earthly life we can already see Christ’s Easter victory being worked out, reaching her as well. It is this reality that we see depicted in the icons and paintings of this feast: Mary is departing, the apostles look on mournfully, but she is alive with Christ: the Mother of Life has passed over into life.
I read earlier today a beautiful reflection on these two mysteries of Resurrection and Assumption, which I’d like to share with you now.
Mary's Assumption is intimately connected to Jesus’ Resurrection. Both events of faith are about the same mystery: the triumph of God’s justice over human injustice, the victory of grace over sin.
Just as proclaiming the Resurrection of Jesus means continuing to announce his Passion which continues in those who are crucified and suffer injustice in this world;
by analogy, believing in Mary’s Assumption means proclaiming that the woman who gave birth in a stable among animals, whose heart was pierced with a sword of sorrow, who shared in her Son’s poverty, humiliation, persecution and violent death, who stood at the foot of the Cross, the Mother of the condemned; [she] has been exalted.
Just as the crucified one is the risen one, so the sorrowing one is the one assumed into heaven, the one in glory. … The Virgin of the Magnificat, on whose lips is placed the message that God is exalting the humble and casting down the powerful, finds her life confirmed and glorified by the Father of Jesus.
Mary's Assumption—seen in the light of Jesus’ Resurrection—is hope and promise for the poor of all times and for those who stand in solidarity with them; it is hope and promise that they will share in the final victory of the incarnate God. **
May we rejoice in that hope, shown to us today in the life of our Heavenly Mother. Amen.
* This section and others taken from The cross stands while the world turns, John Behr (2014).
** From Mary, Mother of God, Mother of the Poor, Ivone Gebara and Maria Bingemer (1989).