Feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary
15th August 2013
(Assumption)
Rev 11.19 – 12.6,10
Luke 1.46-55
Preached at St Mary’s Feltwell 16th August 2015
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
I wonder how many people here would admit to having done the following:
Wanting to avoid being involved in something, so making up a white lie about why you can’t come. Then for various reasons the small untruth has to grow
until it reaches unsustainable proportions.[1] And you find yourself living out an episode of Fawlty Towers as Basil Fawlty.
Such situations reveal the negative side of conviction to a cause, albeit that they might be amusing for the onlooker to observe. But conviction itself is not a bad trait, when focused towards proper ends.
For the Christian our conviction, our sights, should always be set on God’s Kingdom. The 3rd Century Bishop and Theologian Augustine of Hippo, knew this well when he conceived the Christian life in his workThe City of God, as one lived out in two co-existing cities: an earthly one and a heavenly one.[2] Christian life, then, involves living in the midst of the (not necessarilyimproving) earthly city (i.e. this life), but for the purposes of the heavenly city (God’s Kingdom). No wonder we often feel conflicted, lost and restless,[3]
on our journeys of Faith. No wonder too, that following Christ takes conviction to see it through to the end. We of course, have copious examples from the saints and martyrs[4]and from fellow Christians known to us of what life lived with this level of conviction and commitment looks like and can lead to.
Conviction of belief about Jesus is also what lead to our early Church doctrine being formulated and gave the Church revelations such as the two natures of Christ (human and divine) and the mystery of the Holy Trinity(three Persons, yet one God: consubstantial, co-eternal).[5] Holy Scripture contains all things necessary to salvation (as we are reminded in the 6tharticle of religionrecorded in the BCP). But doctrine which the Church holds by conviction and is handed down through tradition substantially enriches our the understanding of our Faith and thus our relationship with God.
All of this brings us neatly to the Feast which we celebrate today:Common Worship and the Book of Common Prayer, furtively label today as “a feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary”. But the wider Church celebrates it as:the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (or in the East the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary).
I wasn’t introduced to the idea or details of the feast of the Assumption (nor much other Marian theology) until six years ago[6] when I began working as a Pastoral Assistant in the Parish of Old St Pancras in Camden Town. I have to confess, having been brought up in a more protestant flavour of Anglicanism, it took me some time to make my peace with High Marian theology,but my Faith is much richer for it. And so can yours be, as I hope to show, but first…
The Assumption – the idea that the Virgin Mary was taken bodily up to heaven when her earthly life had run its course[7] so that her body might not suffer decay. Thisdoctrinewas only dogmatically defined by Pope Pius XII in 1950,[8] so surely it can be dispensed with and we can stop worrying?
Well firstly, though it was not dogmatically defined by the Church until then, there are reports of such belief as early as 4th Century. And whilst it is not recorded directly in scripture,it arises out of genuine faith in whoJesus is, and elements of scripture can taken to point us towards this belief: Pope Pius (amongst other scripture) quotes Ps. 132.8:"Arise, O Lord, into thy resting place: thou and the ark, which thou hast sanctified."[9] – Mary, Ark of the New Covenant, sanctified by Jesus, is given a place with him. Pius also points to the reading from Revelation we heard today:of the woman with a crown of twelve stars who bears the child who is to save and rule the world,as part of the fight against the old serpent, the devil.
The second reason not to dismiss it out of hand is that doing such weakens our Faith.It weakens our Faith because it fails to ask the question: why might it be important? The important thing about all Mariantheology and doctrine,whatever we think of it,is that it points to Jesus and reveals something about him and about our Faith.
This is not meant to imply that Mary is not important in her own right. Such a line of inquiry treads dangerous water as it can allow us to downplay the importance and role of women in society and in our Faith. When actually, realising Mary’s importance can help us have a more positive attitude towards women in this regard, if we let it.
But back now to what the Assumption teaches us about our Faith: to be assumed directly into heaven without her body suffering decay is a seen as a gift to Mary from God in response to her pure life and her willingness to follow God’s plan for her to bear God’s Son into the world, though it would bring her pain as well as joy. It is therefore a gift to all Christians because it gives tangible expression to the hope that we too will be received into paradise, into the glory of heaven, as Mary is. After all, it is obvious that Jesus should return to heaven – he is God’s perfect Son. I know I am not perfect and, without making too many assumptions, I’m guessing that most of you aren’t either and it is therefore understandable that we might worry about our worthiness to follow him there.
Of course, we’re not worthy. We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs from under his table. That is the whole reason Jesus has to come to earth in human flesh, to live, suffer, die, and rise again to return to heaven: so that we may eventually be drawn up into heaven too, when our earthly lives have run their course. Being restored to full relationship with God. In Mary’s assumption then, we can see our own hopes fulfilled.
We see (as we do in the Resurrection) that “Death is swallowed up in victory” (1 Cor. 15.54). We see that a well-lived life in response to God can restore us to the place and relationship that we lost through our turning away from God as codified in the narrative of the Fall from Genesis 3.
In other words the feast of the Assumption is an expression, a foretaste,
of our own bodily resurrection. That is the gift that this teaching is to us, and it should be treated in that vein. So we are reminded that our faith rejoices in physicality. Body as well as soul are rejoiced in and are part of the heavenly plan. We are reminded of this too in the physicality of the eucharist – the other foretaste of the heavenly banquet which we share today. In which we take Christ’s body and blood into ourselves and so are conformed to his body and become more and more part of the body of Christ. So through partaking in the eucharist we may strengthen our conviction of Faith.
Mary’s conviction to say “be it unto me according to thy word” (Luke 1.38), leads her to understand her relationship with God better, which leads her to proclaim the words of the Magnificat, which we heard in our Gospel reading today. Where Mary expresses her conviction in God’s saving power for all generations. Of how God lifts up those who are in need, and how, in relationship with God, all people will find their true worth. It is Mary’s conviction to her Faith, which leads to the Assumption.
So too, through Mary’s example, God calls us to conviction in our Faith. To continue to build ourselves up as a community in Christ’s image. Seeking out those who are: lost, poor, destitute, in any kind of need. And through our love and compassion, showing them God’s love for the world.
So, today, as we celebrate the life of this Church, named for Mary: let us make our conviction of Faith one built on Mary’s example, and not a house of cards, built on empty, Fawlty conviction.Then we will be able to join that voice from heaven fromRevelation 12.10 in proclaiming:“Now have come the salvation and the powerand the kingdom of our God”.
1
[1]c.f. snowball lie
[2]Augustine, de civitate dei (City of God), 14.1
[3]c.f. Augustine, Confessions, 1
[4]E.g. Maximillian Kolbe (14th August): vision of & devotion to Mary and martyrdom.
[5]c.f. doxology in many hymns e.g. Christ is made the sure foundation.
[6]When I was 26 years of age.
[7]Purposefully avoids mentioning whether she dies first or not. Belief on this varies amongst Catholics.
[8] See the MUNIFICENTISSIMUS DEUS.
[9] “Rise up, O Lord, and go to your resting-place, you and the ark of your might.” (NRSV)