St Mary, the Mother of Jesus

 

This Sunday, the 15th of August, is the day in the Church year when we celebrate the Feast of St Mary, the Mother of Jesus. The actual title of the day depends on the Church you attend. In the Roman Catholic Church, for example, it is called the Feast of the Assumption marking the bodily ascent of Mary into heaven at the end of her life. For Orthodox Christians, it is called the Feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos, traditionally kept as a national and religious holiday to celebrate the “falling asleep” or death of the mother of Jesus. And in the Anglican Church calendar, it is referred to as St Mary, the Mother of Jesus – a title that occurs in Acts 1:14 – and is implied in various Gospel passages. This title is also a compromise between the streams of belief found in the Anglican Church.

Those of a more evangelical or low church tradition, for example, usually avoid the feast day partly because it is not Biblical. However, those of a more Anglo-catholic faith, celebrate the feast in a very similar way to the Roman Catholic Church. And those Anglicans of a more Orthodox outlook might use lots of incense and music in their celebration. Understandably, those who have no religious faith may feel both confused and curious.

I grew up in an evangelical Anglican household. My father was an Anglican minister, and my mother was a Church Army Officer. (The Church Army is an organisation within the Anglican Church that trained people to become street evangelists and run evangelistic missions). As a teenager, I loved going into the Church near our house in the evenings when no one else was there. Sometimes I would play the organ. Other times I would sit and allow the silence of the building to wrap itself around me. In that space, words were no longer necessary. The silence was more potent than words could ever describe.

Years later, when living in a Franciscan Community in the USA, I explored one of the tracks that made its way up the hillside. On this particular track, someone had placed fourteen posts at intervals, marking the events mentioned in the Gospels during Jesus journey to the cross, usually referred to as The Stations of the Cross. When I came to the fourth post, which marked Jesus meeting his mother, I experienced a moment when time suddenly felt it was standing still. And while nothing changed – everything changed because I had a strong-extrasensory feeling that Mary was also standing there.

I have often pondered that experience. Some years later, I came across this passage from Albert Schweitzer. He was commenting on the mystery of human relationships and wrote:

We wander through this life together in a semi-darkness in which none of us can distinguish exactly the features of our neighbour. Only from time to time, through some experience that we have of our companion, or through some remark passed, they stand for a moment close to us, as though illuminated by a flash of lightning. Then we see them as they really are. 1

That moment on that hillside was a similar moment for me, when Mary, the mother of Jesus, stood 'for a moment close' to me 'as though illuminated by a flash of lightning'. The experience also provided me with new insight into a prayer that Father Bede Jarrett. O.P. once wrote and is often used at funerals:

Life is unending because love is undying,
and the boundaries of this mortal life are but a horizon,
and a horizon is but the limit of our sight.
Lift us up, strong Son of God, that we may see further!
Strengthen us in faith that we may see beyond the horizon!
And while you prepare a place for us, as you have promised,
prepare us also for that happy place,
that where you are we may be also,
with those we have loved, forever.2

Kia mau te rongo me te pai ki a koe i to haerenga

May you find peace and good will on your journey.

Phil

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1   Albert Schweitzer, Charles Rhind Joy (1947). “Albert Schweitzer: An Anthology”, Boston: Beacon Press

2  https://rccav.org/prayers/day-5-november-fifth