Isaiah 61:1-11, Galatians 4:4-7. Luke 1:39-56.
The Feast of St. Mary the Virgin.
Pope John Paul II arrived in Lourdes yesterday. It is said that
the Pope has a special devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary,
and that he is convinced that her intercessions played a vital
role in his recovery from the assassination attempt. That's
as may be. I also visited Lourdes, in 1999. More about that
later.
It is August 15th. In the Orthodox Churches this day is called
â "The Dormition (i.e. the falling asleep) of Mary".
The Roman Catholic Church names it, "The Assumption"
- reflecting Roman dogma that Mary bodily ascended into heaven.
We, in our reserved Anglican way, name this day â "The
Feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary".
I began my ministry in Pittsfield on St. Mary's Day 1984, and
in Cambridge on St. Mary’s Day 2000. That was partly so
that I would not forget the date, and partly, because I, as
do many of you, have a special attachment to Mary.
Medieval European Cathedrals have "Lady Chapels",
Chapels dedicated to "Our Lady" - a sure sign of her
popularity.
My home Cathedral in Bristol, U.K. has not one, but two "Lady
Chapels", two Chapels dedicated to Mary.
St. Stephen's in Pittsfield, MA has but one Chapel, named by
Bishop Wissemann as "The Chapel of the Holy Apostles".
I caused a wee statue of Mary to be placed in that Chapel, and
I asked the Bishop if we could rename it "The Lady Chapel".
Bishop Wissemann replied in his usual un-loquacious way: "No".
I tried again. "Maybe the Chapel of the Holy Apostles and
their Mother" â"No" said our friend Andrew Wissemann.
The Roman Church, in the 19th Century promulgated two dogmas
about Mary. One was that she was bodily assumed into heaven
- "The Assumption", and the other that she was born
without trace of original sin - "The Immaculate Conception".
(Do remember this, that the so called doctrine of the Immaculate
Conception is not the same as the faith which we proclaim in
the Creeds, that Jesus was born of a Virgin Mother.)
The effect of these Roman dogmas is that they remove Mary a
few steps away from we mortal sinners, and a few dangerous steps
towards a tacit deification of Mary.
Of course, those Papal promulgations about Mary were a long
time in the works. I recommend Henry Adams' "Mont S. Michel
and Chartres" for profound reading on this. Adams points
out that Chartres is in fact more about Mary than it is about
Jesus. It is a virtual shrine to her. If you have been there
you will know that it is indeed a lovely shrine. But according
to Adams "Chartres cathedral is the court of the Queen
of Heaven,"
Adams has a great deal to say about the medieval cult of the
Virgin Mary. He reflects on that era of three great earthly
Queens Eleanor of Aquitaine, Blanche of Castile and Marie of
Champagne , and points out that if the King of the Day was stern,
and reluctant to grant justice, he was most susceptible to the
pleadings of his mother, the Queen Mother. So the stern King
Jesus might not be moved by the pleas of his earthly subjects,
but he can always be moved by his mother, Mary. I quote from
a paper on Adams book which I found on the internet:
Why did the Virgin seem more real and immediate to the people
who built Chartres than did the members of the Trinity? It was
because thirteenth century man felt that the Virgin was one
of them, that she shared their joys and sorrows, accepted their
human weaknesses, and forgave their sins because she understood
human frailty. She was their best hope for eternal salvation.
Adams' recounting of the Miracles of the Virgin illustrates
this point. The Virgin is forever stepping between man
and God, protecting the former from the wrath of the latter.
"The Virgin embarrassed the Trinity; and perhaps
this is the reason why men loved and adored her with a passion
such as no other deity has ever inspired . . . Mary concentrated
in herself the whole rebellion of man against fate; the whole
protest against divine law. "Nor did Mary reserve
her favor for only the select of society. "So
often did she show compassion for the outcasts and the sinners
that the self-righteous frequently had cause to complain. Thus,
the Miracles point to the source of Mary’s power. "She
cared not a straw for conventional morality, and she had no
notion of letting her friends be punished, to the tenth or any
other generation, for the sins of their ancestors and the peccadilloes
of Eve."
(Source http://www.wetzoollamb.net/jfpp/joan/essays/adams.html
See extract below
It was this exalted view of Mary which led to the 19th Century
Roman Doctrines of the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption.
It was also an exalted view of Mary which led the Protestant
Reformers to the essential Gospel understanding that the exaltation
of Mary had led to a diminution of the person and work of Jesus.
The Reformers were clear that Jesus, and Jesus alone could save,
be the source of all grace, and the sole mediator between God
and humans. The Protestant view of Mary has been that her sole
role is to point to Jesus, taking their Marian text from the
story of the changing of water into wine, where Mary says "whatever
he (Jesus) tells you, do it".
There is a great strength and necessity in this Reformed understanding
of the Gospel. Jesus of Nazareth, the Word made flesh, is the
way, the truth and the life, and nothing we say about Mary should
lead us away from that saving truth.
But there is weakness in the Reformed view. It reduces Mary
to a passive, docile role in the mystery of salvation. She becomes
little more than a convenient body to bear a baby. That has
had a disastrous effect in historic Western culture, seeing
woman as nothing more than convenient bodies, to work, to bear
children, and to be made love to. But as we see the little glimpses
of Mary in the Gospels we see a much more active woman. She
chastises Jesus, she mis-understand him, she challenges him,
she becomes numbered with the Apostles.
And Mary keeps popping up, because of our studious neglect of
the feminine nature of God. If God is always and only Father,
if Jesus is always and only Son, and if the Holy Spirit is always
and only "He" then we shall begin to believe that
God is solely male and masculine.
And if God is solely male and masculine, than people will begin
to see the feminine as that which is not God, but can influence
God. Hence the emergence of Mary as the wily female who can
outsmart God.
The biblical record gives us enough strands to begin an appreciation
of the essential femininity of God - who is like a Mother, and
who comes to us in the feminine form of the Holy Spirit. Oh
how I would love to explore that with you today!
In 1999 I went from Bordeaux to Lourdes. I had a heavy cold.
My host was a cynical Frenchman, who opined that maybe the Virgin
would cure me of that cold.
I was surprised by the sanctity of the shrine at Lourdes, that
place where young Bernadette saw visions of Mary. I bathed in
the icy cold waters where those who seek healing also bathe.
I prayed as I bathed, not that my cold would disappear (they
usually do after a few days!), but that I would be delivered
from fear.
When I returned to Gare St. Jean in Bordeaux, the first words
from my host were "well, did Mary heal you?" I
responded with some annoyance, and I still do not know from
where these words came: "No", I said, "I still
have a cold. But I do not think that Lourdes represents miraculous
healing. I stands for a feisty peasant woman (Bernadette), who
refused to be silenced by the male hierarchy!"
Well, that was about Bernadette, not Mary. But on this 15th
August, I hold before you Mary, the Mother of God, as an icon
of all the women of faith, past, present and yet to come, who
refuse to be silenced by the male powers that be, whether they
are of the State or of the Church.
Woman of God, sing with Mary, of the God who scatters the proud
in the imagination of their hearts, brings down the powerful
from their thrones, and lifts up the lowly.
(Quotation Source http://www.wetzoollamb.net/jfpp/joan/essays/adams.html)
)
Chartres and the Virgin are Adams' main concern He sees
the Virgin apart from the organized Church, ruling in her own
right, challenging even the power of God, Christ and the Holy
Spirit. Men built Chartres for the Virgin, not for God
primarily. The builders and architects took their orders
directly from the Virgin, in Adams' view. They violated
their own professional beliefs at the request of the Virgin;
She was the living supervisor of the construction of her abode.
Adams removes the Virgin from an isolated sacrosanct
niche and sees her as a personally active force in architectural
creation. She becomes not a religious figure, but a living
source of power. Chartres cathedral is the court of the
Queen of Heaven, a court similar to the earthly courts of the
time, though exceeding all in magnificence and beauty.
How did the Virgin become such a living force in this area?
What concept of the Virgin existed then that no longer
exists in isolated instances, such as at Lourdes? It is
the force of Woman that is expressed by the Virgin of Chartres,
and the examination of this force leads Adams to other aspects
of thirteenth century life and though. The Three Queens
- Eleanor of Aquitaine, Blanche of Castile, Marie of Champagne
- “ exerted a force on this period along lines similar to that
of the Virgin of Sorrow. The Courts of Love, the literature
of the period represented in Aucassins et Nicolette, Robin et
Marion, and the Roman de la Rose are all essentially dominated
by the same feminine spirit. "The art always leads to the
woman.â"22 It is the prevalent
feminine taste that gave this period its power to accomplish
wonders in architecture; all of the work, from the graceful
flèche to the stained glass and the flying buttresses, was
a work of love for the Virgin and what she represented. Woman
predominated in the taste of the time.
The Virgin of Chartres is "gracious and gentle."23
She surrounds herself only with light and joy. Absent
from her surroundings are all the "hints of fear, punishment,
or damnation"24 prevalent in much
of the religious expression of other eras. "The Virgin
of Chartres was the greatest of all Queens, but also the most
womanly of women."25 She
"was absolute; she could be stern; she was not above being
angry; but she still was a woman, who loved grace, beauty, ornament
- her toilette, robes, jewels . . . she was the greatest artist,
as she was the greatest philosopher and musician and theologist..
. .â"26 It was for the pleasure
of this Queen that the resources of generations were devoted.
Adams studies the various aspects of the architecture
of Chartres within this background. The rose windows,
the unusual arrangement of the apses, the legendary windows
are minutely discussed from this point of reference - that they
were planned and executed to please the personal tastes of the
Queen of Heaven. Men knew her tastes, and responded to
them.
Why did the Virgin seem more real and immediate to the people
who built Chartres than did the members of the Trinity? It was
because thirteenth century man felt that the Virgin was one
of them, that she shared their joys and sorrows, accepted their
human weaknesses, and forgave their sins because she understood
human frailty. She was their best hope for eternal salvation.
Adams' recounting of the Miracles of the Virgin illustrates
this point. The Virgin is forever stepping between man
and God, protecting the former from the wrath of the latter.
"The Virgin embarrassed the Trinity; and perhaps
this is the reason why men loved and adored her with a passion
such as no other deity has ever inspired . . . Mary concentrated
in herself the whole rebellion of man against fate; the whole
protest against divine law."27 Nor
did Mary reserve her favor for only the select of society. So
often did she show compassion for the outcasts and the sinners
that the self-righteous frequently had cause to complain. Thus,
the Miracles point to the source of Mary's power. "She
cared not a straw for conventional morality, and she had no
notion of letting her friends be punished, to the tenth or any
other generation, for the sins of their ancestors and the peccadilloes
of Eve."