Br. Keith Nelson

The Dormition of Saint Mary the Virgin, Mother of Our Lord Jesus Christ

By the time of Jesus, the bodily resurrection of the faithful at a future time appointed by God had become a significant strand in Jewish belief, especially among the Pharisees, but also among the common people. For example, after the death of Lazarus in John’s gospel, Jesus tells Martha of Bethany, “Your brother will rise again,” to which she replies, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” In addition to this pre-Christian belief in a general resurrection, there were prominent figures both within and outside of Scripture who were said to have been “taken up” into God’s presence. The prophet Elijah is the most explicit example, taken up to God at the end of his life by angels in a fiery chariot. In the case of Moses, there is room for mystery: In the book Deuteronomy, Moses “was buried in the a valley in the land of Moab, opposite Beth-peor, but no one knows his burial place to this day.” A non-canonical, first-century Jewish text, the Assumption of Moses, seems to imply that Moses was taken up by God after his death, but then asserts that, like him, there would likewise be a future assumption of the entire people of Israel, following the example of Moses.  Moses becomes a representative figure: in his total self-offering to God, the people of Israel have found, and will further find, the consummation of God’s purpose for them.

The pious legends that flowered among the faithful surrounding the death of Mary of Nazareth, whose principle feast we keep today, stand in deep continuity with these older Jewish traditions. Naturally, the early church interpreted Mary’s life and death through the foundational events of the resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ. Most of these accounts read like exercises in imaginative remembering. They ponder what the shape and purpose of Mary’s life must have been like after Jesus, dying on the cross, entrusted her to the care of St. John the Evangelist, and her role in encouraging the apostles and other disciples. They remember a second angelic visit by Gabriel, communicating to her that her death and reunion with her Son and Lord are close at hand. They remember the apostles, spread throughout the world preaching the gospel, snatched up by the Holy Spirit and miraculously assembled around her death bed. They remember the descent of Christ from the heavens to receive Mary’s soul into his own arms; they remember her peaceful bodily death and entombment; her bodily resurrection after three days; and finally, her being taken up into heaven, amid much rejoicing by the angelic hosts.

The assumption is almost the Marian corollary of the ascension of Jesus – with one crucial distinction. Christ’s transition into eternity is, in Greek, an “anabasis” – a “going up,” relying upon the agency of the one going – while Mary’s is an “analepsis” – a “taking up” that relies upon the agency of God.

There are several potential stumbling blocks to getting into the “moods and motivations” of this Marian feast.

The first is that it is found nowhere in the canon of Scripture. For Episcopalians, who believe that Scripture “contains all things necessary to salvation,” today’s feast may seem a little over the top, an exercise in gilding an otherwise perfectly adequate lily.

To this I might ask: When you consider all the activities you take part in on a daily basis, the relationships you cultivate, and the innocent or beautiful or edifying things you simply enjoy, how many are strictly necessary? If necessity were our only criterion for life’s endeavors, would there be music? Or art? Or poetry? What about snacks? Or birdwatching? Or kissing? Or the rest and refreshment that come from sitting and doing nothing?

Our “life of faith” should not occupy a box so far outside our so-called “ordinary life” that the same questions don’t apply. There is room for principled elaboration on the story of salvation, even if the only point is that it adds color, flavor, and texture to our souls. The Jewish tradition has called this midrash. And like midrash, such elaboration flourishes in an atmosphere of freedom, when there is room for interpretations that move in different directions; that imagine the narrative details from multiple perspectives; even stories that disagree.

Such multivalent storytelling retains its integrity because it remains tethered to the community of the faithful. If it is led by the Spirit, it always leads us back to the Gospel story, and our shared storyteller, Jesus.

Another cause for suspicion may well be the place of the Assumption in Roman Catholic tradition. It seems clear that, by the fourth century, there existed a widespread Christian belief that there was indeed something special about the death of St. Mary, and worthy of the Church’s remembrance. However, in 1950, Pope Pius XII took the step of declaring Mary’s assumption a dogma of the Catholic faith: a doctrine requiring the belief of the faithful. To many who share the Anglican heritage, as well as other Protestants, this has seemed a theological overdetermination, putting too fine a point on something essentially mysterious.

On this, I will only speak for myself. I am the type of Episcopalian who – in keeping with our Society’s tradition – has a high degree of enthusiasm for the role of St. Mary in the ongoing life of the Church. I regularly bring her my cares and concerns for the world in prayer. I ask for her loving intercession. I look to her as a model of courageous faith in times of personal challenge. I make time for my friendship with her, because from her I learn more about her Son. With her help, I become better a better disciple and friend of Jesus.

I am personally most suspicious when Mary, the mother of Jesus, becomes a mascot: a representative figure, but of only one tradition within the Church universal, or of one party within a tradition. When St. Mary becomes a patroness of scrupulous boundaries and tidy divisions among Christians, I usually ask: Is this the Mary of Luke’s magnificat? Is this the Mary who says boldly of God, “He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and has lifted up the lowly?” Is this the Mary from whom Jesus learned to cross the boundaries of ritual purity to touch the hearts and bodies of those deemed unworthy to participate in God’s covenant love?

And I know that there are Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Christians who share my suspicion, or are sympathetic to it, in whole or in part.

It must also be acknowledged that Marian mascot-making has extended itself just as easily to Protestants, for whom rejection of Marian devotion has too often meant rejection of Roman Catholics. No side is pure and blameless. Prayer for the healing of these divisions is the sacred duty of every Christian.

Just as Jesus belongs to his entire Body, the Church at all times and in all places, his human mother Mary belongs to all Christians. Mary, the mother of God, is Mary, the Mother of the Church. This title is one of the true ecumenical gifts to emerge from the second Vatican Council. If Mary is seen as a representative of the entire Church; and her death the model of a trusting, faithful, final act of self-surrender into the hands of her Redeemer; then her reunion with Christ, her Son and Lord, in both body and soul are a prefiguration. They are a promise of the consummate joy with which we shall all be crowned when God gathers all things to himself, and Christ is “all in all.”

To put it simply, if the dormition and assumption were only about a very special woman called Mary of Nazareth, then this would be a strange way to spend a Friday evening. Like every feast of the Church, the Spirit uses these mysteries to teach us something essential about our own journey into God.

In the words of Anglican theologian John MacQuarrie:

“…the Assumption is not a once-for-all event to be dated to a moment in past history, but a continuing process which is going on at this very moment…The Assumption is a ‘theological event,’ for a theological event is not tied to a moment of time. It can take effect and be present at all times. The Assumption began when there occurred the dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary, but it continues throughout the history of the Church and it will be complete only when the Church is fully united with its Lord, as the body with its Head, and his glory is manifest in all.”

Holy Mary, mother of the Church, pray for us: that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ. Amen.