On this Day O' Beautiful Mother

Today we celebrate the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. For Roman Catholics, Anglicans, Episcopalians and others, this Feast Day is one of the larger ones and one that we take great pride in. Churches all over the world will be full of candles and incense, flowers and processions, Masses will be offered for the souls of our departed, expecting mothers will be blessed for safe and healthy babies and easy deliveries. The Church rejoices this day!

Theologians have spent hundreds of years trying to understand the mystery of the relationship of Mary and Jesus and that of Mary to the Church. Mary has been given many titles through the years and countless books have been written on her great powers, miracles have been attributed to her, stories upon stories of visions and apparitions have been told to us for centuries now, but now, today, centuries later we still do not really know the depth of this relationship and the roll that Mary plays in our lives.

I will admit that most of my theology in my early life was shaped by the Benedictine Sisters that taught at our little Catholic grade school. These humble and dedicated women were not theologians, they were dedicated servants that were doing their best to continue the traditions and teaching of the church to those children entrusted to their care, but much of what we were taught was really a somewhat simplistic and methodical view of this strange and wonderful woman.

One of the great things about education is having our thought processes challenged, and hopefully through maturation we can articulate those things that we grew up with and yet make them our own. This is kind of how I feel about Mary. Mary is such an integral part of who I am, yet I no longer say the rosary daily, I don’t go out of my way to light candles in front of every statue I find and I don’t wear my holy medals anymore.

But what do I do? I find comfort in her presence in my life. I try and model my life as a Christian in the same form that she did; that willingness to be open to the sacred, to be free to let God influence our lives by giving up our self will to do Gods will, to be willing to walk with those carrying their cross and share in their pain and grief.

There is always so much discussion about was she a virgin or wasn’t she? Did she have other children or was she, like I was taught, solely the mother of Jesus? Was she assumed into heaven body and spirit or did she really die a death like the rest of us? I am not sure all of this really matters. What matters is that she did have a role in our faith, she did open herself to the holy, and that she continues to direct us to the redeeming power of her son.

I will admit though, there are times when I still feel like a third grader, sitting amid the other kids at our school Mass and I hear:

On this day, O Beautiful Mother,
On this day we give thee our love,
Near the Madonna, fondly we hover……