According to the Roman Catholic lectionary, today is the
Feast of the Assumption. I can honestly
say, had I been asked when I was growing up a Quaker lad, if I knew what the
Feast of the Assumption was, I would have no clue. I don’t even think I could have guessed! By high school surely I knew what a “feast”
meant. I don’t know that Quakers ever
used the language of feast. Probably it
would have been more of a secular term.
I would likely have understood it when it is paired with famine: feast
or famine.
The Feast of the Assumption.
Certainly, I would not have known what the language of “assumption”
meant. I was smart enough to know the
verb must be “assume.” And I knew what
it meant to “assume’ something. That
meant that something would be taken for granted. For example, I assumed the sun would come up
tomorrow and a new day would happen. I
knew there were many things in life that we could assume. But somehow this understanding of “assume”
did not fit with the language of “feast.”
So I would have been at a loss.
I knew the language of “assumption” had to have some other
meaning---some nuance---that I did not grasp.
So I could have turned to the dictionary. There we can find that “assume” can also mean
to “take up” or “to be taken up.” That
was the key. That began to make some
sense for understanding this Catholic feast---the Feast of the Assumption of
Mary. This would be the day celebrating
the taking up of Mary into heaven.
A little research can fill in the gaps. This feast day does indeed celebrate the
specialness of Mary, the mother of Jesus.
The Feast of the Assumption teaches that Mary’s body did not decay at
her death, but that her body and soul were taken up into heaven. That teaching emerged fairly early (maybe as
early as the 6th century) in the Christian Church. Then at some point, the teaching became
official doctrine of the Catholic Church.
And this Feast also has become part of the lectionary, which
means every year on this date, the story of Mary is re-told and
celebrated. When I was younger, I
probably went through a couple phases.
The first phase, as I have indicated, was ignorance. I would have had no clue what the whole thing
was about. The second phase, sadly, was
probably a period in which I would have thought the whole idea of Mary’s
“Assumption” to be unlikely---or worse, silly.
Over the years I have grown (hopefully!) and become more
appreciative of traditions that are not mine.
Clearly, I count myself a Christian, as do Roman Catholics. But to be Quaker and to be Catholic is not
exactly the same thing. Where there is
variation, there is room for understanding and appreciation.
So what does the Feast of the Assumption of Mary mean to
me? In the first place it is easy to
appreciate who Mary was as a human being and what she has come to mean to the
Church---Catholic Church and other Churches.
Surely, she was an amazing woman.
Whoever she is behind the stories, the myth and the tradition, Mary was
a wife, mother and tremendous caregiver.
She is special.
It is the idea of being special that makes the most sense to
me. Of course, my theology holds that
every one of us---all humans---is special.
But Mary was even more special---somehow more special in ways that I
cannot even articulate. Part of the
specialness of Mary was the role that God chose for her---or allowed for
her. The New Testament stories of Mary
narrate the special role she played as the instrument of God. She became the bearer of the gift of
God---the very Presence of the Divinity Itself.
I prefer thinking Mary was a willing bearer of this
Presence. Mary is the epitome of the
“yes” we can all say to God. Mary had so
many other options. She could have said,
“No!” She could have said, “Are you
kidding me!” But she was open and
available. She was ready and
willing. Mary played a central role in
God’s active participation in human history.
She was and is an amazing woman.
She lived her life and, then, like all humans, Mary came to
the end of her life. It was at this
point that God “assumed” her into the Divine Presence. I don’t have a clue about the details of this
action. I am content for it to be a
mystery. I realize to call it a mystery
either confesses its profundity or its silliness. I prefer it to be profound.
And perhaps it is at this point that I go beyond acceptable
Catholic teaching. I like to think that
Mary’s assumption is a model and prelude to what awaits all of us. Those of us who invite the Presence of God
into our lives here and now will, at our death, be “assumed” into the Presence
of God. In this sense Mary, the special
woman, becomes the model of every one of us, a special
man or woman. For that I am grateful.
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