Remembering the Promise

Gospel: Luke 1: 39-56

A Christian feast would not be so were there not some controversy surrounding it.  In a tradition that cannot celebrate the greatest feast of Easter on the same day, so today's feast comes with its own set of disputes, not the least of which is where it took place.  For some, Mary went with the apostle John to Ephesus where she was lifted up to heaven, and shrine exists there.  For others, Mary's dormition took place in Jerusalem, where the Dormition Church marks the locale of that tradition.  

Along the way rival ideas about whether Mary fell asleep and was brought up to heaven or whether she was just brought up to heaven added to the endless minutiae of disputes in Christianity that leave a person tired and exhausted, much like Mary to be sure at the end of her life.  This poor, simple village woman who exists as our model of bearing Christ and bringing him forth into the world by our life, surely did not sign on for such disputatious nonsense regarding the end of her days on this earth.  

In her Magnificat Mary rejoices that God has remembered the promises to his people, the promises of liberation and renewal.  Mary experienced that liberation and new life.  Her life and her final moments on earth invite us to experience that liberation and renewal as well.  Rather than adding to the discord and oppression in church and world, let us instead imitate Mary, bearing the Lord, bringing forth the Lord into the world in our lives, and being transformed by the liberation and new life that his life brings to all.