Advent IV: Mary Sunday

Anglicans informally call this day Mary Sunday, not as if it replaces her feast in August or other Marian days, but because the readings on the last Sunday of Advent bid us reflect on Our Lady's role in the economy of salvation.  Many years ago, I toured an Anglican church building in Peper Harow, Surrey, England where the priest explained that all the church records had been burnt by dissenters in the 16th century.  In the sanctuary, the side and rear walls beside and behind the altar were made of marble and contained beautiful statues of great figures in the Christian Tradition.   One of those figures, depicting Mary, had been utterly obliterated by the Calvinist Taliban in the same attack.  As one writer put it, the continental reformers banished Mary to her celestial bedroom, never to return. And that was true until recent times.  The Ecumenical Society of the Blessed Virgin Mary -- of which I am a member -- is an international association composed of Anglicans, Episcopalians, Roman Catholics, and Orthodox but also Methodists Presbyterians, and others who have discovered the wonderful person who was the mother of Jesus and model disciple.

She was honoured from the beginning of her life with special graces [the Conception] to follow God' will perfectly.   Her strong 'yes' to an unconventional and inconvenient pregnancy [the Annunciation] made our own salvation possible.  Her teaching of the Faith to her son was followed by aid to his ministry alongside the other women.  Later she was there at the foot of the cross, and on to the upper room at Pentecost, then to the church in Ephesus with Saint John, and finally to Glory, reunited with her son [the Assumption.]   What a life!

In today's Gospel reading, Luke 1: 39-55, Mary's cousin Elizabeth expresses the first 'Hail Mary.'
And Jesus' mother responds by predicting that all generations to come will call her the "Blessed" Virgin Mary, and she utters the amazing poem we call the Magnificat.  From her prophetic side, we learn that the Kingdom of God that we are called to build is based on a new vision of justice and compassion:  the powerful will be cast down, the lowly raised up, the rich sent away empty.  We also learn that God is faithful to his promises to the Jewish people forever.  When God covenants he never reneges; God can be trusted.  Finally, the totality of the story reveals Mary as Theotokos, God-bearer, Mother of God, as she has been known since ancient times.  Following her example, each of us is to bear the Light into the world in our own time and place.  This was beautifully expressed by Episcopal priest and author Barbara Brown Taylor when she wrote:

     "You can decide to take part in a plan you didn't choose, doing things you do not know how to do, for reasons you don't entirely understand.  You can take part in a thrilling and dangerous scheme with no script and no guarantees.  You can agree to smuggle God into the world inside your own body."