St. Mary's Feast this week - Rector's Rambling for August 12, 2018

This week we will celebrate the Feast of St. Mary the Virgin.  This Feast is a relative newcomer to the Anglican Calendar, but has ancient roots in both the Western and Eastern Churches, and is worth celebrating!

The icon pictured is from the Eastern Orthodox tradition for this week’s Feast.  For the Orthodox this is known as the Feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos, or the Feast of the Falling Asleep of the God-bearer.  For the Western (Roman Catholic) Churches the Feast is known as the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  Both titles deal with the historical fact of the end of the earthly life of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the mother of God.

For Anglicans we call this celebration the Feast of St. Mary the Virgin.  We celebrate the important role that she plays in the story of our salvation.  It is by her agreeing to the message of the Archangel Gabriel that she conceives in her womb Jesus by the Holy Ghost.  She gives birth to him, nurses him, and raises him to follow the original covenant between God and the people of the Hebrews.  She is present throughout his earthly ministry, stands at the foot of the cross when he dies for our sins, she is a witness to the Resurrection, and she is present at Pentecost when God the Holy Ghost empowers his follows to be The Church to the world.  There is no other human being that can be counted as more faithful to him throughout his earthly life.  For that we celebrate her and give thanks to God for her.

For the Eastern and Western Churches, this feast deals with extra-biblical events of her death and assumption into heaven.  Although the bible does not mention her death, we can assume that in fact she did die (all humans do).  And both churches, in their own ways, describe Mary being reunited in heaven with her son Jesus as we all will also be with him at the end of time in the general resurrection of the dead.

Although we do not have the emphasis on these latter events because they are not explicitly detailed in Scripture (and therefore not required for belief for salvation), they can be helpful in reminding us about the role Mary played in bringing Jesus into the world, and hopeful in what the reward of faith in him is to us at the end of earthly life.