RBWords

     These words are taken from the gospel scripture for this feast and form the opening lines from the Canticle of Mary, better known as "the Magnificat."  I think they sum up the essence of the Catholic and Orthodox theology about the Mother of God.  She was gifted with a relationship to God that no other human person has ever enjoyed.  The dogma of the Assumption of Mary was infallibly proclaimed as a truth of the faith only in 1950 by Pope Pius XII after he consulted with bishops and others around the world to discover that this truth was universal in the church.  It holds that Mary was "assumed" into heaven at the time of her death without the judgment that we all must undergo at the end of time.  

      The intimacy that Mary has with God is based primarily on her role as mother of Jesus.  Eastern tradition refers to her as Theotokos, meaning "God bearer."  It is hard to imagine a more intimate relationship that that of offspring to mother.  From this privilege and from the little we know of Mary from the pages of the gospels has come a vast tradition.  The feast of the Assumption dates from the 5th century and became official in the 9th century.  But its celebration reflected older traditions from the 3rd and 4th centuries.  Another aspect of the older tradition held that a woman became a full member of the husband's family after marriage only when she bore a child.  This "spousal" theology has carried over into much of the theology of the great mystics.

     Mary of Nazareth has many titles in Catholic devotion, but nothing will exceed the title of "Mother" to Jesus and, by extension, Mother of the Church.  AMEN