“Surely we are left with nothing to do but approach Mary with loving veneration – the Mother of our God incarnate’. Mother Thekla
This Sunday, the 15th of August, the Church of England gives thanks for the life and ministry of Mary the mother of Jesus. In the Catholic Church it is believed that when Mary died she was assumed (that is taken up) body and soul into heaven. In the Orthodox Church it is believed that when Mary ‘fell asleep’ (hence dormition), when Mary died her soul was taken up into heaven by her son Jesus, three days later her body was resurrected and taken up into heaven to be reunited with her soul. Although with regard to the latter this is pious Orthodox belief not an objective Orthodox doctrine. In the Church of England we simply celebrate her life and work on the anniversary of her dying as with any other saint. And this not to say the other churches are wrong.
‘As with any other saint…’ That said, we should not underestimate the importance of Mary in the Christian tradition. The Church of England has sixth feasts that celebrate Mary. The is the Annunciation on the 25th March celebrating the visit of the Angel Gabriel to Mary; The Visitation, on the 31st of May celebrating the visit of Mary to her cousin Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist; The Assumption or Dormition on the 15th August remembering her dying; We celebrate her birth on the 8th of September, and her being conceived on the 8th of December. We can add to that the Presentation of Christ in the Temple on the 2nd of February because this also commemorates the Purification of Mary on the 40th day after the birth of Jesus at Christmas. The Catholic and Orthodox churches have even more feasts celebrating Mary in some way. We can add to that the dedication of our medieval churches, in England alone there are well over 2000 medieval churches dedicated to St Mary. As an illustration of how numerous are churches dedicated to St Mary, it just so happens I was baptised in St Mary’s Chiddingstone, confirmed and took my first communion in St Mary’s Marlborough, I was ordained deacon in St Mary’s Moseley, and in the Eardisley Group of Parishes, the churches in Brilley and Almeley are both dedicated to St Mary and the Cathedral in Hereford is also dedicated to St Mary.
It is true to say that in the Christian tradition there is no other saint as important as Mary. So why is this, and haven’t Protestants done away with all of that Marion devotion? To begin to answer that question we need to look back at the feasts written about above.
The Annunciation, the Visitation, and the Purification are all connected with God becoming a human being in Jesus Christ, without the ‘Yes’ of Mary this might not have happened. Like no other saint, Mary is integral to the story of our salvation in Jesus Christ. Since the council of Ephesus in 431 AD, Mary has been known as the ‘Theotokos, that is the ‘God bearer’ or ‘birth giver of God’. The usual English rendering of that term is ‘Mother of God’. To those who object to that kind language there is a simple question, ‘If Mary is not the Mother of God, then who is Jesus? He is a prophet and a good man, but he not God with us as a human being. Even Nestorius who opposed the use of the term ‘Theotokos’ at the council, nevertheless accepted that it could be used so long as Mary was not seen as divine herself. In other words use the term but don’t make Mary into a Goddess.
Now one might ask whether veneration of Mary in this way is more of a Catholic idea than a Protestant one. It might surprise people to know that Martin Luther whose protest began the reformation had a great devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary which he kept for the whole of his life. He wrote
‘[Mary] became the Mother of God, in which work so many and such great good things are bestowed on her as pass man’s understanding. For on this there follows all honour, all blessedness, and her unique place in the whole of mankind, among which she has no equal’.
If we turn to the Bible we find an account of the Visitation of Mary to her cousin Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist. Upon here meeting Elizabeth…
‘exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! But why am I so favoured, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfil his promises to her!”’
Notice the words ‘mother of my Lord’, in Israel there is no Lord but God. It’s arguable that the origin of the term ‘Theotokos’, ‘Mother of God’ is found here in Luke’s Gospel in the words of Elizabeth.
There can be no doubting of the centrality of Mary in the Christian story of God’s saving work in Jesus Christ.
When receiving the news from the Angel Gabriel that she is to be the mother of Jesus, Mary responds with these words,
“I am the Lord’s servant, may your word to me be fulfilled.”
At the wedding in Cana, where Jesus turned the water into wine, he did it in response to the initiative of Mary, who said to the people, ‘do whatever he [Jesus] tells you to do’.
In both of these episodes we see Mary pointing away from herself and pointing us to Jesus, ‘I am the LORD’S servant’, and ‘do whatever HE tells to do. As followers of Jesus, our lives, like hers should point to Jesus. In all that we say and don’t say, in all that we do and do not do, in the people we are, our lives, like that of Mary, will by grace direct the gaze of others away from ourselves so that they may look on Jesus and follow him.
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