The Solemnity Of The Assumption Of The Blessed Virgin Mary – A Closer Look
By Fr Dexter Brereton, CSSp ThM STL
Luke 1: 39-56
Today, our series of continuous readings from John chapter 6 is interrupted for the celebration of what is truly a major feast of Mary, the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In the church’s liturgical tradition, the feast celebrates the passage of Mary, body and soul into heaven. Mary, the individual uniquely full of grace and bearer of the Word made flesh, is today proclaimed as already enjoying the transformation of body and soul, of the whole of her being, that is promised to all Christ’s faithful followers, the Church.
The first reading for today’s solemnity is very distinctive and taken from the Book of the Apocalypse chapters 11 – 12. In the Church’s reading of sacred scripture, she makes a connection between Mary and the symbolic woman in the book of the Apocalypse (or Revelation), who represents Israel. The woman is rescued from her enemies especially in times of persecution. She is “taken up” on eagle’s wings to the desert for protection when evil forces attack her son (Jesus) and persecution afflicts the rest of her offspring. This is the story of the Church, and it is also the story of Mary.
The Gospel reading today recounts a beautiful and touching meeting between two pregnant women, the young Mary and her older cousin Elizabeth. As I was reading this story I was moved by the closeness of their family ties which caused Mary, without any thought for her own discomfort, to hasten to the home of her cousin who was having a baby. We all know as Caribbean people that this habit endures down to our own time. It is a practice in many of our families that when a daughter, granddaughter or someone else is about to give birth, usually one of the older female relatives goes out to spend time with her, even if she should be living abroad. This beautiful family story somehow makes Mary come alive for me and seem a lot less remote, lost in the clouds. Mary of Nazareth is much like your typical West Indian woman deeply involved and concerned with the important life events of her family and friends.
Lastly, there is a feeling, in some liberal corners of the church, that Mary has undermined the cause of women, and served as a tool for their domestication. I do not believe that this criticism is entirely fair. Every time I read Mary’s Magnificat with these magnificent lines:
He has shown the power of his arm,
He has routed the proud of heart,
He has pulled down princes from their thrones and exalted the lowly
The hungry he has filled with good things, the rich sent
Empty away.
I say to myself ‘This woman was no shrinking violet!’ To use a more Trinidadian expression: Mary was no ‘frighten Friday’ afraid of her own shadow. She looked forward to JUSTICE and she wanted to see JUSTICE DONE. She knew that God’s justice would mean opposition and conflict and confrontation which would cause God to ‘pull down princes from their thrones’. All those older women who marched for George Floyd, because they remembered their own sons, remind me of Mary. All those women protesting in the Middle East for better governance, all those women now running from the Taliban in Afghanistan, they remind me of Mary.
Lord today we celebrate Mary’s holiness. Please teach us that holiness is not remoteness. Helps us to be like Mary, so concerned for justice in our land that we call upon you to pull down the mighty from their thrones and send the rich away empty. Amen.
