This weekend, the Feast of the Assumption of Mary, which is always on August 15th,  coincides with our Sunday celebration; and so it gives us a chance, an opportunity, an invitation to reflect a little on Mary, the Mother of Jesus, in our prayer life, in our devotions, in our spirituality.  And I’m going to frame it by asking you to think about two questions.  Here are the two questions:  What’s your image of Mary?  That’s what I want you to think about.  And here’s the second question:  Where did you get it?

Most of my life my image of Mary has been pretty standard.  Flowing robes usually white and blue, a light shining behind her and a pale complexion.  And where did I get it?  I asked myself that question and my first answer was, “Well, I remember imaging Mary as I said the Rosary”.  But I didn’t get it from the Rosary because the Rosary is about Jesus; it’s not about Mary, and secondly, there are no pictures.  If there is any image in my mind I got it from somewhere else.  So the images that I have of Mary came from holy cards and from art and artists of past centuries.  Many of the holy cards you see today are based on images of Mary from Our Lady of Lourdes and Our Lady of Fatima, but those images come from the imagination and the family background of the particular visionaries or mystics.  And then my other images of Mary come from movies, movies like ‘The Song of Bernadette” where you had Jennifer Jones, young and very beautiful, playing St. Bernadette.  Then you had Linda Darnell, very attractive and slightly pregnant, playing the Immaculate Conception.

More recently I have come up with some other images of Mary which are different and quite frankly somewhat upsetting.  Seven years ago I came across an image of Mary in U.S. Catholic magazine.  It accompanied an article that had the interesting title ‘Mary, Mary Quite Contrary’ and the photo showed a young woman with her back slightly turned to us so we couldn’t see face but her complexion was much darker than what I’m used to.  She was wearing mid-Eastern garb as Mary would have and she had her right hand raised in an angry fist - clutched in a fist.  Very different but maybe more accurate than my images from the holy cards.  Where do we get a good look at Mary; where do we get a good image?  I would suggest we don’t get it from holy cards and we don’t get it with their crowns and their jewels and their silk robes and their pale complexion and their blue eyes.  I don’t think it comes from reported apparitions or appearances or visions.  And also, I don’t think it comes from Hollywood casting.

The best image we have of Mary has to come from the Scripture.  The most authentic and inspired images we have of Mary come from the Scripture.  They don’t give us a picture but they give us a profile of the words and the actions of Mary. 

How do we find a healthy and a helpful image of Mary?  I think it comes from what Scripture tells us about Mary.  It says Scripture shows Mary first of all, the first picture we have of Mary is a pregnant unmarried teenager.  Think about that, a pregnant unmarried teenager. The second is this young woman who is arguing and questioning the messenger of God.  She is arguing with the Archangel Gabriel.  Finally, we see Mary ignoring the culture of her time, the rules and religious regulations of the time, that said if you’re pregnant you stay in the house and you don’t go anywhere.  You are confined.  She immediately travels to her cousins and stays there for three months.  We see Mary as a displaced immigrant first in Bethlehem and then in Egypt.  We see Mary as a distraught mother having lost her son in the temple.  We see Mary as a puzzled and bewildered mother when she sees Jesus teaching in public.  And we see Mary as a grieving heartbroken mother when her son dies. 

But most of all and best of all the Scripture puts on the lips of Mary the words and song that tells us what Mary is all about.  It’s a song that is usually called ‘The Magnificant’.  It’s a song that I  -  you’re very lucky I didn’t sing it today, I’m not like Fr. Donie, but it was in the Gospel.  This is what one scholar says about Mary’s Song, it’s often called ‘The Magnificant’  because that it’s first word in Latin.  It’s one of the most famous songs in Christianity.  It’s been whispered in monasteries, chanted in cathedrals, recited in small remote churches by evening candlelight and set to music with trumpets and kettle drums by John Sebastian Bach.  It’s the Gospel before the Gospel.  A fierce bright shout of triumph thirty weeks before Bethlehem, thirty years before Cavalry and Easter.  It goes with a swing and a crop and a stamp and a dance.  It’s all about God and it’s all about revolution.  And it’s all because of Jesus, Jesus who has only just been conceived, not yet born, but has made Elizabeth’s baby leap for joy in her womb and has made Mary giddy with excitement and hope and triumph.  In many cultures today it’s the women who really know how to celebrate, sing and dance with their bodies and their voices, saying things far deeper than words and that’s how Mary’s Song comes across to us, ‘The Magnificant’, Mary’s Song.  

I think that song tells us four things about Mary and four things about ourselves.  Because we call ourselves Christians we are called to carry Christ and bear Christ to the world just as Mary did.  Here are the four things:

First of all it announces that God embraces us with love.  My being proclaims the greatness of the Lord.  God embraces each and every one of us with love as he did Mary.

Secondly, it proclaims our self-worth and our self-assurance.  No good Old Catholic guilt here.  Rather, all generations are going to call us blessed.  “All generations will call me blessed”, says Mary.

The third thing, it’s revolutionary and that explains the raised clenched fist.  It also explains why a number of years ago when Pope John Paul II traveled to Paraguay and it was a military dictatorship, he was forbidden to pray ‘The Magnificant’.  He was censored.  The military dictatorship said you should say whatever you want Holy Father, but do not read ‘The Magnificant’ and it was taken away from him and he had to agree with that.  Because it said you cast down the mighty from their thrones, he lifts up the lowly, he fills the poor with good things, the rich he sends empty away.  It’s revolutionary.  Maybe that’s too strong a word for us to follow Mary, but at least it says in a world that is less than perfect and a church that is less than perfect we always have hope and we always try to be a people who make a difference.

And finally, the fourth thing about ‘The Magnificant’, Mary’s Song, it’s a song of joy.  She says, “My spirit rejoices in God my Savior.”  This is just the reverse of the philosopher Nietzsche looking at Christians and saying, “You sure don’t look redeemed.”  We are to be a people who look redeemed.  A people of joy, of song and even dance.  Joy and song, even dance for Mary and for us.  Not a bad profile for Mary, not a bad profile for us.  To be a people who know God’s love embraces us, who know our self-worth, who are revolutionary or at least willing to make a difference, and who are filled with joy.

The final thing we celebrate on this Feast of the Assumption is that Mary’s final resting place and final home is with the God who makes us smile, a God who makes us sing, and a God who makes us dance.  That applies to Mary and applies to us as well.  Let us give thanks to the Lord who is so very good.

Amen.

rjs