Every year in August on the Feast of Saint Mary the Virgin, commonly called Assumption, we honour our Lord's Mother as, to borrow the Orthodox title of the feast, "Mary in Glory." We employ names like Mother of the Saviour and Mother of the Church, even Queen of Heaven. On that feast day we look at our lovely Lady's lifetime of service in complete surrender to God and her heavenly journey to be reunited with Christ at the end.
Today we see her from the beginning of that life journey and experience in fullness her poverty, humility, and humanity. Our feast day is called in the East 'o Evangelismos, the good news, and indeed the birth of the Christ Child is great good news for humanity. (In Eastern artwork, the Archangel Gabriel is pictured dressed as a deacon because of deacons' special role of reading the Gospel to the congregation.) But consider that the message must have sounded like really bad news to Mary. In agreeing to become the Mother of God, she was signing her death warrant, as unwed mothers were routinely stoned to death. (Only Joseph's incredibly kind notion to divorce her quietly would have saved her from that fate. In that society, a woman's only value was in childbearing. In New Testament Greek the word for woman is literally "walking womb." And that womb must bear only a child sired by her husband. Mary's unexpected pregnancy would have been seen as an insult to Joseph.) And, besides Joseph's disdain, she would also be rejected by her family and friends, and society in general. She would likely have ended up in prostitution to survive.
Many people are unaware that Mary is very important to Muslims. In reality, unlike protestant Christianity, Islam embraces, explicitly or implicitly, all the key Catholic teachings and traditions about her! There is far more material about Mary in the text of the Qu'ran than in the New Testament. Following the passage equivalent to today's reading (Lk 1:26-38), the Qu'ran describes Mary's going away to a deserted place to the east. There she asks herself, what did I just agree to? She is tired and afraid, and prays for death. At that point a rivulet of water forms under her feet and dates fall from the tree, quenching her hunger and thirst. She sees this as a sign from God that he will always be with her to help her in the journey to which she agreed--and God is.
From then on, she is fully in track with God's will. In her Magnificat, she speaks of God's will that the mighty rich be knocked down a few pegs and the common man raised up. Obviously God is not keen on gross income inequality. What should it say to the Christian when we have a new tax policy in our country that will widen that gap between the wealthy and everyone else? What is the Gospel saying about that? I'm not answering that question. I am leaving that question with you to ponder as an example of how our faith can impact the real world.
The amazing life of Mary begins with the annunciation, with her "Yes" that made our salvation real. She will go on to be the "model disciple," a model of faith, obedience, service, trust, prayer, and perseverance. We experience a deep sense of gratitude this morning for the blessed Lady who brought us the One whose birth we will celebrate again in just a few hours. Just as she was Theotokos, the God-bearer, so let us be people who bring the Holy One into our culture in our time and place.
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