{"id":23161,"date":"2012-08-15T08:49:52","date_gmt":"2012-08-15T13:49:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/?p=23161"},"modified":"2012-08-15T08:49:52","modified_gmt":"2012-08-15T13:49:52","slug":"on-the-feast-of-the-assumption","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/2012\/08\/15\/on-the-feast-of-the-assumption\/","title":{"rendered":"On The Feast of the Assumption"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"From my new book, <\/em>Forty Days, Forty Graces<\/a>, available in print and Kindle versions at Amazon.<\/em><\/p>\n

At the center of salvation history stands a simple Jewish peasant girl. As the Old Testament began with the story of Eve, the New Testament begins with the story of Mary, the New Eve, mother of the New Adam. She is the Theotokos<\/em>, the God-Bearer, Ark of the New Covenant. She is the first Christian, and the mother of the Church, which is the Body of her son, Jesus Christ. It is therefore entirely appropriate that we should pause to contemplate this plain Jewish maiden, who is also the Mother of God and our mother in the Faith.<\/p>\n

As a former Evangelical, there is still something deep within me that flinches ever so slightly at the invocation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Though all of my old questions about Mary\u2019s role in salvation history have long since been resolved, and although I\u2019ve now been consecrated to the Immaculate Heart for a decade, I remain conscious of that imperceptible spasm of reservation that awakens upon hearing the Angelus<\/em>, the Regina Coeli<\/em>, or any other Marian prayer.<\/p>\n

So it is odd that I should always be so moved by reading the great Marian hymn of the East, the Akathistos<\/em>, which dates from the Sixth Century. The language is florid, as was often the style in the history of the Church; and yet, this hymn \u2013 a litany, really \u2013 manages to navigate the delicate line between the entirely proper exaltation of Our Lady as humanity\u2019s greatest perfection and the disturbing, near-idolatrous worship of Mary that can sometimes be detected in popular devotion. As St. Louis de Montfort wrote in True Devotion to Mary: \u201cIf devotion to our Lady distracted us from our Lord, we would have to reject it as an illusion of the devil.\u201d The Akathistos<\/em> avoids becoming such an illusion by always placing Mary in a subordinate role to Jesus Christ, our God and Savior. Thus, she is the tendril, not the bud; the soil, not the fruit; the table, not the meal; and the rock, not the living water that springs from it.<\/p>\n

Having so sweetly depicted the Mother of God, even a former Evangelical like myself finds no difficulty in joining the ancient Church, as together we sing:<\/p>\n

Hail, O you, through whom Joy will shine forth!
\nHail, O you, through whom the curse will disappear!
\nHail, O Restoration of the Fallen Adam!
\nHail, O Redemption of the Tears of Eve!
\nHail, O Peak above the reach of human thought!
\nHail, O Depth even beyond the sight of angels!
\nHail, O you who have become a Kingly Throne!
\nHail, O you who carry Him Who Carries All!
\nHail, O Star who manifest the Sun!
\nHail, O Womb of the Divine Incarnation!
\nHail, O you through whom creation is renewed!
\nHail, O you through whom the Creator becomes a Babe!
\nHail, O Bride and Maiden ever-pure!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

My favorite image of Mary is the one found in the Catechism, which calls her \u201can eschatological icon of the Church.\u201d Mary\u2019s relationship to the Church is at once complex and beautiful. As the first Christian \u2013 she believed in him from the moment of her fiat \u2013 she is a daughter of the Church, the mother of all Christians. But as the Theotokos<\/em>, the God-bearer, she is mother of the Church\u2019s Head, and therefore Mother of the Church, his Body. These divergent yet complementary roles are reconciled into one reality in the Eucharist. The Second Vatican Council called the Eucharist \u201cthe source and summit of the faith.\u201d To the extent that the Church is Eucharistic, the Church will be Marian. The German writer Carl Feckes summarizes the Eucharistic nexus of Mariology and ecclesiology:<\/p>\n

\u201cAs Mary bore the earthly Christ, so the Church bears the Eucharistic Christ. As the whole life of Mary is centered upon bringing up and protecting Christ, so again the deep life and solicitude of the Church are centered on the Holy Eucharist. As Mary gives the earthly Christ to the world and from this Gift are born the children of God, so also the Eucharistic Flesh and Blood made present by the Church form the living children of God. As Mary offered up Christ together with Himself at the foot of the cross, so the whole Church, at every Mass, offers His sacrifice with Himself to the heavenly Father.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Feckes could have gone on to note that as Mary reigns with the Risen Christ in Heaven, so the whole Church will reign with Him there in the final consummation of the Kingdom. To put it all in other words: Mary was what the Church is now, and Mary now is what the Church will be. When we take our eyes off Mary, we can tend to forget where the Church comes from and the purpose for which it presently labors here below. We also forget where and with whom our destiny lays.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From my new book, Forty Days, Forty Graces, available in print and Kindle versions at Amazon. At the center of salvation history stands a simple Jewish peasant girl. As the Old Testament began with the story of Eve, the New Testament begins with the story of Mary, the New Eve, mother of the New Adam. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2957,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mary"],"yoast_head":"\nOn The Feast of the Assumption<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"From my new book, Forty Days, Forty Graces, available in print and Kindle versions at Amazon. 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