Allow me to begin with a poem entitled, Fiat by Bishop Bob Morneau based on Henry Ossawa Tanner’s painting, Annunciation
On her bed of doubt,
in wrinkled night garment,
she sat, glancing with fear
at a golden shaft of streaming light,
pondering perhaps, "Was this
but a sequel to a dream?"
The light too brief for disbelief,
yet its silence eased not her trembling.
Somehow she murmured a "yes"
and with that the light's love and life
pierced her heart
and lodged in her womb.
The room remained the same
- rug still need smoothing
- jug and paten awaiting using.
Now all was different
in a maiden's soft but firm fiat.
To reflect on today’s feast, we need to call to mind this moment of Mary’s Yes – her life was like a seamless garment of weavings of Fiat uttered again and again. . . from Annunciation to her Assumption.
Today, we gather to celebrate, to remember and to affirm our belief once again in the passing of Mary into God’s eternal loving embrace– body and soul. We gather to celebrate all that she had within her that enabled her to:
• trust in Mystery,
• walk in the holy darkness of questions,
• ponder her experiences in the light of faith,
• hope in God’s love amidst her joys and sorrows, losses and discoveries, deaths and risings,
• and live with courage as she responded moment by moment to the challenges and surprises that resulted from her murmured soft but firm “Yes”.
The Assumption of Mary into heaven is one of the oldest celebrated feasts of Mary, easily traced back to at least the 5th century, perhaps, according to some historians, celebrated as early as the third century. The event is not found in Scripture, and there were no witnesses – the feast came before its definition– it came from the belief of the people, the heart of the people.
It is written that in 1946 Pope Pius XII sent an encyclical letter to all the bishops of the world and asked them to confer with their people about the mystery of the Assumption becoming a dogma of the Church. On the strength of their response and the testimony of history he declared the Assumption dogma in 1950. (What a great process – “confer with their people.” Maybe this should be considered once again.)
Most of what we know about Mary in Scripture comes from the Gospels of Luke and John. As a young Jewish girl, she grew into womanhood with an extraordinary faith.
Oftentimes she did not understand what God was asking of her, but she believed with all her heart that it could and would be done, and she acted accordingly. It was enough for her to be called to move within holy mystery and gently hold the tension of all that was being asked of her. She did not seek answers, or clarity or quick results – we are told that “she held all these things in her heart” and treasured them until their meaning was revealed a grace at a time! Truly a beautiful example of trust and love!
Mary was very much like the majority of women in the world today; she was a peasant from a village of about 1600 people. She was poor, exploited by the rich; she had to pay taxes to Caesar, to Herod, and to the Temple. She was persecuted. She was like many people in our world today, especially women in Asia, Africa, and Latin America who live in tiny villages and work 10 or more hours a day doing domestic chores – fetching water, gathering wood for fires, and preparing meals.
(I share with you some interesting and insightful findings on THE ROLE OF WOMEN AT THE TIME OF JESUS)
• Apart from their role as ritual mourners at funerals, Jewish women took no part in public life and were largely confined to the domestic scene.
A woman was exempt from the commandments requiring attendance at public religious ceremonies, and duties such as studying the Law or Torah, making pilgrimage to Jerusalem and reading from the Law in the synagogue.
• Schools were for boys only, and women sat apart from men in the synagogue. Men did not speak to women in the streets. Women had to veil themselves when going outside, so that no one could recognize their face.
• In the Temple, women had access only to the Courts of the Gentiles and of Women.
• Yet a woman had her own religious obligations. She was expected to keep kosher - as the one who presided over the kitchen, it would be her particular responsibility to see that the food laws were obeyed.
• She was to observe the Sabbath, to keep herself ritually clean and to perform significant domestic rituals.
• Within the household, a woman had much honor and many duties. She was responsible for grinding corn, baking and cooking. She did the washing, the spinning and the weaving, and she cared for the children. She would wait upon her husband and his guests, and was expected to obey him and in some cases, wash the face and feet of her husband.
• In rural communities, the women helped in the fields and, among poorer classes, the wife assisted her husband in his trade and often sold his goods. In her own domain, a woman's religious and social status was high, but in the eyes of the Law she was inferior, being coupled with minors and slaves in the rabbinical writings.
One particular author, once a conservative Jew, now an Episcopalian priest, shares the following comment reflecting upon this feast . . . He writes: “Well, of course, Jesus brought his mother into heaven. What kind of son would he be if he didn’t?” He further writes . . . “this feast is about the relationship between mother and son, and Mary’s role in salvation history.”
He then provides an example of the relationship between mother and son in his commentary on the Gospel story, The Wedding at Cana… (Again, he writes from his own lived experience of a Jewish son and his relationship with his mother.) He says, “Mary would chide Jesus, saying . . .
‘The wine has run out. I thought I raised you better than that? Hop to it, Jesus, and you servants, do what he tells you.’”
Mary not only witnesses to the action of God in her life, but she is a woman who was fully human, gifted with grace, truth, mercy, compassion, and faithfulness, on fire with the Spirit, generous in ministry, and centered in God.
These are but a few of the treasures that she possessed deep within her that enabled her to be a Jewish woman, wife, mother, sister, cousin, friend, disciple, prophet, and witness.
No doubt that after the Ascension of Jesus, Mary grew in age, grace and wisdom as well. She, too, was filled with the Pentecostal fire of the Spirit and would have received the same energy and power of the Spirit as the other disciples.
So how can this feast speak to us?
Let us ask boldly for all that she had within her that enabled her to be authentic, faithful, and trusting, so that we, too, will sing out our prophetic song of faithfulness and hope.
Let us ask boldly for all that she had within her to walk in Mystery, as we speak our firm Fiat for the transformation of the world, the Church and ourselves; for our story calls us to missionary zeal for nurturing the seed of faith and a pastoral concern for those whose faith life or human dignity is threatened.
I close with a selection from Soul Sisters by Edwina Gateley,
Who reflects upon this Gospel . . .
“Affirmed, loved and comforted,
You stayed with Elizabeth,
Absorbing the experience and the wisdom
of the older woman,
deepening in your own resolve
to nurture, hold
and mother God.
Your journey has blessed ours, Mary.
Your Yes dares us
to believe in the impossible,
to embrace the unknown,
and to expect the breaking through of mystery
onto our bleak and level horizons.
The words you heard, Mary,
we will forever remember.
We will not be afraid,
for the life that you birthed
will not be extinguished
in our souls.
And the journey
you took in faithfulness,
we also take.
We the people, women and men, the midwives,
and the healers will also,
like you Mary,
Give birth to God
for our world.”
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