Column on Assumption Day

“If Mary points us beyond our traditional divisions, ideologues of all persuasions—conservative and liberal, feminist and antifeminist—have long attempted to use Mary to argue their causes, with varying degrees of success. But Mary ultimately resists all causes” (Kathleen Norris)

As we approach the 500^th anniversary of the Reformation, Catholics and Protestants (with the exception of many Episcopalians)  may well  mark the coming years for reflection of their mutual  traditions, their trajectories, and what has been lost and gained in each road of the Christian faith. Almost everyone knows the doctrine of papal infallibility. Few know that it has been used by a Pope only in 1950, on the Assumption of Mary, the mother of Jesus, into heaven. August 15^th is a major Roman Catholic religious day, a holy day of obligation, the Assumption of Mary. When I was young in Catholic school, I was annoyed that it did not provide a day off from school.

The belief is fairly early in church history. For instance Gregory of tours wrote of it in the 500s.  It is also shrouded in pious legends. Some date her death at the year 48, in the presence of the disciples.  It is not quite clear if the Assumption of Mary is an event like the taking up of Enoch and Elijah in the Old Testament, or a special event after her death. The prayers say that her body did not see corruption, but that still leaves open her death. Some seem to read it as a sort of immediate resurrection from the dead. It is an assumption, not ascension, in that God took her up, body and soul, into the divine realm of heaven.

In the bible readings for the day, we find a fascinating set in the Psalms, in Revelation, and in the epistles. Revelation 12 leads one to see Mary as a queen of heaven. Psalm 45 shifts from a royal marriage psalm to one directed toward Mary as queen. At a different mass, Ps. 132 links Mary to the image of the Ark of the Covenant. First Cor. 15 is used to have Mary follow her Son in resurrection glory. The gospel reading is Lk. 1:39-55 to hold on to her great prayer, the Magnificat.

Protestants wonder if the exaltation of Mary threatens to displace Jesus as a focus. They tend to be perplexed by the emphasis on Mary in Catholic piety. They do not grasp the rosary’s repeated use of the prayer, Hail Mary, whose early words are Scriptural.

On the other hand, Christians could agree that Mary was vital in the birth and raising of Jesus and the birth of the emboldened group of disciples at Pentecost. As portrayed by Luke, Mary is the model, perhaps at a very young age, of a reflective  person, saturated in Scripture, who responds to her role in a powerful prayer of justice (Luke 1:35).  Just recently, in a bible study on Galatians we come to chapter two’s line: “Christ lives in me.” In that sense we are all part of Mary’s legacy. After all, she has been called mother of Christ, mother of god. In Paul’s view baptism makes us carriers of the living Christ.  Put differently, we are all mangers for the living Christ, but who placed Jesus in the manger but his parents? With a bit of soul searching, Mary is indeed a model, a pattern for the church. The astonishing amount of religious art with Mary offers a window into the spiritual use of imagery as an aid in prayer. Images of Mary remind us of God’s favor

. Mary is what it looks like to believe that we already are who God says we are.” 
― Nadia Bolz-Weber,