Click here for today’s Scripture readings.
Rv 11:19a; 12:1-6a, 10ab
1 Cor 15:20-27
Lk 1:39-56
In the altiplano city of Oruru, Bolivia, there is a church named Our Lady of the Mineshaft. It’s built upon a legend as well as upon the mines beneath it that have been worked from before the time of the Spanish conquistadors until our present day.
The legend: the people of the region were the best in God’s creation until some demons sowed selfishness. They no longer shared a common language. A woman came to fight and conquer the demons, turning some into the sand of the desert surrounding the city, others into pieces of the landscape still visible today. She sent the rest into the mines, down into the earth where they belonged. The legend is beautiful, much more complex than this outline, but it ends today with, “And the woman was Mary”.
The ancient legend was baptized by Christian missionaries. A modern version tells of a robber and murderer, wounded after committing a crime, who crawls into the mineshaft to die. There Mary appears to him. She leads him to her Son, to mercy and repentance, and to a happy death. Her church is built over the mineshaft. Truly, Mary is a warrior, unafraid to enter into the territory of the demons and to steal from them one of her own. He died but not before being given life.
Our readings today are breathtaking. We see a dragon whose tail wipes out stars; a woman clothed with the sun, the moon beneath her feet, who gives birth to a baby destined to rule all the nations. The style of writing, ‘apocalypse’, as the Book of Revelation is sometimes called, is like ancient science fiction. It is not history, to be taken literally, but aimed at stirring up our feelings, taking us beyond experience to our imaginations. As the Ark of the Covenant is visible, so the woman appears, for she is now the bearer of what is most holy, the one who brings salvation and power and the Kingdom of our God.
From Paul we have a letter, “Christ has been raised from the dead…” Death came through Adam, but through Christ all shall be brought to life. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.
And Luke is our Gospel today, the lifegiving Word who brings to us God’s presence. Mary proclaims and rejoices in God our Savior. He shows mercy, fills the empty, and is the Promise Keeper of the love story given to all the people of Israel.
Mary stands upon the moon, she is in the depths of the earth, she is intimately involved in the lifegiving work of her son. He destroys death and is the New Adam, the first born from the dead and leads his children to the joy of the Father’s presence.
Our readings bring us back from great imaginings to a familiar, quiet scene. A young, pregnant woman, rides into the hill country of Judah. She jolts along in haste on her donkey because she has just heard that her cousin is six months pregnant. In her poem “The Visitation”, Jessica Powers invites us to see beyond Mary’s familiar blue gown, and flowers bending toward her in homage as she passes. It is a picture of love that hurried forth to serve; of Mary riding further and further into the truth.
We celebrate Mary’s part in God’s great work in Jesus. She shares intimately and uniquely in his life. Her response to God continues to help us embrace the life that we will share together in the Kingdom of Our God.
Father Bill Murphy, C.P. is the pastor of St. Joseph Monastery Passionist Parish in Baltimore, Maryland.
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Thanks for this entry.
I also found an interesting article about the Dormition/Assumption providing a broad perspective on the feast’s history and the various ways it is observed. Worth checking out: http://dstp.cba.pl/?p=2399.
Christian imagination is sparked by the profound truths of God’s revelation. Century after century, we find ways to speak these powerful truths in the language of our own times. Lord give us ears to hear those truths, and imagination to express them in ways that our own generation will listen and live.