St. Mary the Virgin: A Woman Graced, Tried, and Rewarded

Today's Scripture Readings

 Isaiah 61:10-11 (NRSV)

I will greatly rejoice in the LORD,

my whole being shall exult in my God;

for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation,

he has covered me with the robe of righteousness,

as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland,

and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

For as the earth brings forth its shoots,

and as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up,

so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise

to spring up before all the nations. 

 

Psalm 34 (BCP. p.627)

 

Galatians 4:4-7 (NRSV)

When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children. And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God.

 

Luke 1:44-56 (NRSV)

Mary said,

"My soul magnifies the Lord,

and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.

Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;

for the Mighty One has done great things for me,

and holy is his name.

His mercy is for those who fear him

from generation to generation.

He has shown strength with his arm;

he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.

He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,

and lifted up the lowly;

he has filled the hungry with good things,

and sent the rich away empty.

He has helped his servant Israel,

in remembrance of his mercy,

according to the promise he made to our ancestors,

to Abraham and to his descendants forever."

 

Blog Reflection

As I read through the various traditions of what this August 15th, Commemoration of the St. Mary the Virgin means, I am awestruck by the diversity.  A diversity that is a great source of division among Christians.

For Roman Catholics, today is the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  Catholics believe that on this day, Mary did not die, but was assumed body and soul into Heaven.  It was a dogma proclaimed by Pope Pius XII in 1945.  This belief is based on another belief by Catholics in Mary's Immaculate Conception.  Meaning she was conceived without original sin, prefiguring the victory won by the death and resurrection of Christ.  Both dogma's suggest that because Mary was God's perfectly created creature, who did the will of God from conception to the end of her earthly life, she who was "full of grace" never experienced death, and was rewarded with a glorious assumption by Mary's Son.

 In the case of what this day means to the Eastern Orthodox, today is the Feast of the Dormition.  In a stunning explanation of the connection of the Feast of the Transfiguration which we celebrated on August 6 and the Dormition, the following comes from the website to St. Mary's Orthodox Cathedral in Minneapolis, Minnesota. 

Both feasts are connected with death. The Transfiguration comes before the death of Christ and anticipates it. The Dormition marks the death of the Mother of God, and comes after the death and resurrection of Christ. 

About the Transfiguration, we say that the revelation of His glory was the Lord's gift to the disciples Peter, James and John in anticipation of His suffering and death. The revelation of glory was meant to give the disciples something - some hope - to see them through their experience of holy week and to strengthen them in the face of death of their Master. Thy disciples beheld Thy glory as far as they could see it; so that when they would behold Thee crucified, they would understand that Thy suffering was voluntary.... (Kontakion) 

The Dormition of the Mother of God is also a gift. It is a gift of hope because it reveals that in Christ, death is no longer the master and great anxiety of our lives, but is itself subject to the power of His love. The reality and power of the resurrection of Christ is applied to our common human life in the person of the Mother of God. What is proclaimed as Gospel - the risen Christ, the Lord of Life, trampling death by death - is experienced here in the reality of the believer's new life in Christ. For being the Mother of Life, she was translated to life by the One who dwelt in her virginal womb. (Kontakion)

The Commemoration of the St. Mary the Virgin presents us with some interesting spiritual and theological problems as well as much to rejoice in.  The problem as Abbot Andrew Karr, OSB of St. Gregory's Abbey in Three Rivers, MI points out in his blog for today, is that Mary is either deified or made out to be a demigod.  

Mary’s real glory is that she was a human being every much as the rest of us. That is, she was and is a Jewish girl. Mary is, of course, inseparable from the Incarnation of the Word in her womb. Although Mary’s son was (and is) divine, Jesus was (and is) fully human, like you and me. In his excellent book Sheer Grace, Drasko Dizdar says that Mary, far from being a deity or demigod, “is the utterly and simply human subversion of this deification of human “archetypes” into the divine feminine.’” This is what the famous words of Mary in the Magnificat are all about when she says God “has cast down the mighty from their seats and has lifted up the lowly.” If such words simply mean other people become just as mighty as the ones who were cast down, then the words change nothing for humanity. The ones who are raised up are lowly and continue to be raised up only by remaining lowly. The proud are scattered in the “imagination of their hearts.” The rich are sent away empty because their hearts are too full of their desires to have room for God. What is so subversive about Mary, then, is her humanity. While other humans try to make themselves more than human by being movers and shakers, Mary is blessedly content to be human. As Dizdar says, Mary is a whole human being “as God has always intended the human creature to be as creature.” 

Then there is the matter of The Real Mary .  A 16 year old girl in a culture under immense oppression, with religious laws that are represented by as much misogyny as you can get.  Women were property to be owned by some man, with their dignity at the mercy of such a culture.  Yet, she has the most incredible experience with the Angel Gabriel who tells her that she was to be the mother of the Incarnate Word.  She accepts God's will, and she struggles like all of us do, with what exactly God is doing when we are blessed by God's random act of grace to do mighty things.   In her Magnificat, she sings of how God turned over the worlds corrupt structure, and gave life to the lowly, the hungry, and keeps God's promise of mercy.  Yet, as Mary experiences the crushing moments of Jesus' agonizing death, she questions God's purpose, and suffers with her son, and experiences what all parents who lose children do.  The experience of having died an inner and excruciating death as a mother feels in the depths of her womb, because the child who was once part of her body, is dead. 

On the subject of today's Commemoration of St. Mary the Virgin, I would like to throw some things out based on my own experience. I was a Roman Catholic for 15 years and believed very strongly in the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption, her perpetual virginity and the rest. One of the great gifts of being Episcopalian is that we are open to differences of belief and opinion, and even questioning so that we arrive at an authentic faith. So, here is what I now think. It is just as possible that the Immaculate Conception and Assumption did happen, as much as it is possible that they did not. Whether they happened or not, we do know from the Gospel accounts, that Mary received a fantastic random act of grace to conceive and give birth to Christ, who is God incarnate. The human became infused with the divine, and the divine changed forever the relationship between humankind and God. Therefore, Mary is an awesome example of what it means to be a recipient of God's random act of grace, and to live her life, changed forever, by the fruit of her womb. Whether we believe in the Immaculate Conception and/or Assumption or not, I think the important thing is, are we transformed by our encounter with Jesus, the fruit of Mary's womb? How do we respond when we receive a random act of God's grace? Are we truly transformed, or do we return to business as usual? Mary is the example of how to live out that transformation, and receive the reward of God's saving grace. 

Perhaps on this Commemoration, we can pray for God's random act of grace to help us address the issue of climate change, the horrific violence to LGBT people in Russia, Uganda, New York City, and in other places because of prejudice and oppression.   What would we do if we received God's random act of grace to uphold the dignity of women with regards to adequate reproductive health care, job creation and training, equal job wages, protection from exploitation and gender violence?   

If we were to receive such a random act of God's grace, would we truly be transformed, to become a missionary of God's transforming grace?  Or would we just continue with business as usual?

Amen.

Prayers

Almighty God, whose blessed Son restored Mary Magdalene
to health of body and of mind, and called her to be a witness
of his resurrection: Mercifully grant that by your grace we
may be healed from all our infirmities and know you in the
power of his unending life; who with you and the Holy Spirit
lives and reigns, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (Collect for St. Mary the Virgin, Book of Common Prayer, p.242).

 O God, you made us in your own image and redeemed us
through Jesus your Son: Look with compassion on the whole
human family; take away the arrogance and hatred which
infect our hearts; break down the walls that separate us;
unite us in bonds of love; and work through our struggle and
confusion to accomplish your purposes on earth; that, in
your good time, all nations and races may serve you in
harmony around your heavenly throne; through Jesus Christ
our Lord. Amen.  (Prayer for the Human Family, p.815).