Thus we need to understand the song of Mary threefold, for she didn’t sing it
only for herself, but for us all, so that we should sing it after her.” The festival
of the Visitation was brought into church tradition by the Franciscans during
the 13th century, initially for 2 July, but since 1969 the date was changed in
parts of the Catholic Church to May 31st, since it needed to be before the
birth date of John. Anglicans, Lutherans and ‘Old Catholics’ kept it for 2 July.
In Germany traditionally it is a date which was to predict the weather: if it
rains on Mary’s Day, it would bring rain for a fortnight.
The other festival of Mary, the Assumption of Mary, is on August 15th. It is
widely celebrated in Catholic parts of Europe, especially in Spain, Belgium
and France. It surprises us as holiday makers, when we all over sudden find
shops closed or public transport missing. It is also much more controversial,
for it is seen as making a difference between Roman Catholics and other
denominations. While Jesus himself ascended into Heaven, Mary is thought
to have been received there in the flesh. There is no biblical reference to
such an event, but the festival was already known to the church in the 5th
century, and medieval faith saw in Mary an intercessor. When during the 20 th
century the church lost influence, Pope Pius XII declared the Assumption of
Mary as an article of faith. He wanted to connect there with old traditions, but
also emphasised with it the difference to other denominations. For
ecumenical Christians this festival was a disappointment. Important for the
Catholic Church was that Mary was bodily taken into Heaven. As the body
loses its importance by death, with all its weakness and strength, if the body
is taken into Heaven it would be made perfect. Mary, by being made perfect,
was seen as the ‘First Redeemed’. The festival should remind us of the
promise of God that we all can be redeemed, and can hope for this
redemption.
Where about should we find the place to which both Jesus and Mary
ascended?
It isn’t anywhere up there, although that was an idea in Antiquity, that the
Gods resided in heavens above. Already St Luke sees the sphere of God as
a place of the ‘utmost other’. Heaven is concealed to human eyes, a secret
place, where we can sometimes experience God’s presence when we turn to
Him, maybe during prayer or at a moment of happiness, in a good
conversation, by listening to music, every time unexpected, not taken for
granted. The disciples seeing Jesus disappear looked up, but experienced a
change of perspective, like an astronaut does when looking down on the
earth from above and sees it as beautiful and vulnerable, and as a whole, a
place which unites all mankind. For the disciples the entrance to the invisible
world closed, they were being brought ‘back to earth’, but they had been
changed by seeing a place where infinity met the earth.
BW
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