Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary August 15, 2017 Luke 1: 39-56
The Gospel Luke 1: 39-56
Mary set out
and traveled to the hill country in haste
to a town of Judah,
where she entered the house of Zechariah
and greeted Elizabeth.
When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting,
the infant leaped in her womb,
and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit,
cried out in a loud voice and said,
“Blessed are you among women,
and blessed is the fruit of your womb.
And how does this happen to me,
that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears,
the infant in my womb leaped for joy.
Blessed are you who believed
that what was spoken to you by the Lord
would be fulfilled.”
And Mary said:
“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord;
my spirit rejoices in God my Savior
for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant.
From this day all generations will call me blessed:
the Almighty has done great things for me
and holy is his Name.
He has mercy on those who fear him
in every generation.
He has shown the strength of his arm,
and has scattered the proud in their conceit.
He has cast down the mighty from their thrones,
and has lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.
He has come to the help of his servant Israel
for he has remembered his promise of mercy,
the promise he made to our fathers,
to Abraham and his children forever.”
Mary remained with her about three months
and then returned to her home.
After the Gospel:
“My soul glorifies the Lord! …” Mary’s praise continues to echo
around the world!
Today, the Greek Church and the Latin Church are united singing Mary’s
hymn.
For the Orthodox, it’s preceded by a two-week fast,
it’s their feast of “The Falling Asleep of the Mother of God,” dating
back to apostolic times.
Especially in Jerusalem, at the Church of the Dormition, there will be
long Liturgies,
litanies and processions carrying the icon of the Falling Asleep of Mary.
For Roman Catholics, it’s a Holy Day, remembering our Mother at the end
of her earthly life, taken up into Heaven.
But not everyone agrees with us.
Protestant theologian Karl Barth once stated: “In the doctrine and worship
of Mary
there is disclosed the one heresy of the Roman Catholic Church which
explains all the rest.”
Dr. Barth died in 1968, and we trust that he’s been joining with all the
angels and saints,
as heaven celebrates the Assumption of Mary!
If you follow today’s polls, they say: Mary is making a comeback among
Protestants.
Many of us remember Kathleen Norris, who visited here several times to
learn about Benedictine life — and one of her books – Cloister Walk –
read in our refectory.
Kathleen wasn’t familiar enough with the Bible to know where our nightly
Vespers prayer comes from, it took a while before she learned that the
stirring words of the Magnificat
come straight from Mary’s lips in Scripture. It was Catholic monks who
reintroduced Kathleen to one of the most treasured practices of
Protestant Christians – memorizing and singing Scripture.
“The Magnificat” – that beautiful Vespers hymn – propped the door open
for her and other Protestants to realize:
what Mary lacks in quantity of appearance in Scripture,
she makes up for in quality:
All our Bibles have St Luke beginning his gospel with Mary,
telling of her “fiat,” her “yes” to Gabriel’s announcement,
which allowed God to enter her womb.
Her womb then became the physical site of the enfleshment of God,
Mary became to quote an Orthodox prayer, ‘Space for the Spaceless
One.’
She was the young woman who mothered the Baby – which prompted Martin
Luther to preach: “Mary suckled God, rocked God to sleep, prepared soup
and broth for God.”
Scripture tells us that Mary “treasured” the words entrusted to her by
angels and shepherds, and, elsewhere, that she “pondered all these things
in her heart.”
Simeon’s prophecy that her child will be destined “for the rise and fall
of many in Israel,”
that a sword would pierce her own soul,
suggest that Mary’s importance will continue long after her child’s birth,
right on through the salvation story.
We read, further on, that Mary was present,
indeed she was the instigator, of Jesus’ first miracle at Cana in
Galilee.
At the end, at the foot of the Cross, Mary is among the women noted as
present …
when the male disciples flee.
At Pentecost, in the Upper Room, the most important room in Christendom,
Mary is the only woman named present.
Anyone who reads Scripture has to agree, that,
even though Mary’s appearances in Scripture are limited,
they’re all tied to crucial moments in salvation history, without which
there would be no Church.
When you look at the early church –
every time it had to struggle with heresy, it also dealt with role of
Mary.
The first Church Councils had to tell our true faith apart from heresy;
they clearly prove: the churches which preserved strong doctrines on Mary
never abandoned their true Christology.
The Council of Ephesus, in 431, crystallized our belief that the Christian
God entered a womb, was born of Mary,
that God was truly willing to get involved in the flesh and blood of
human life,
that when we call Mary by her most important title
“Theotokos,” “God-Bearer,” “Mother of God,”
we’re not only correct,
we’re in fact safeguarding the fleshiness of God,
we’re safeguarding the entire saving work of God in Jesus Christ.
All the controversy notwithstanding, The Second Vatican Council
confidently declared,
in Lumen Gentium, that Mary is an ecumenical bridge,
a potential source of unity for all Christians, that day of unity
we’re all praying for.
Her honor comes from being the Mother of God,
her titles come from us, they’re for us,
her Assumption gives us hope in the Resurrection.
“Mary our Mother.” That’s what both Catholics and Orthodox have
traditionally called her because of Jesus’ words, “Woman, behold your
son,” “Behold your Mother.”
Today we remember the end of our Mother’s journey, by professing our
common belief,
not found in Scripture, but present in both our traditions from the very
beginning,
finally put into words by Pope Pius XII:
“The Most Blessed Virgin Mary,
when the course of her earthly life was completed,
was taken up body and soul into the glory of heaven,
where she already shares in the glory of her Son’s Resurrection,
thus anticipating the resurrection of all members of His Body.”
This evening, to close our Feastday,
the last prayer of our day will be Compline,
we’ll turn and face the icon of Mary with her child on her lap,
candles flickering on their bronzed faces as we chant the Salve Regina!
We’ll be united with the Greek Church in front of their icon of the
Dormition,
chanting their age-old hymn:
“In giving birth, you kept your virginity.
In your Falling Asleep, you did not leave the world, O Mother of God,
but you were joined to the Source of Life.
You conceived the living God and,
by your prayers,
will deliver our souls from death. Amen.”