Friday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time; The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Revelation 11:19–12:10 (NRSVCE)

19 Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple; and there were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail. 1 A great portent appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. 2 She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pangs, in the agony of giving birth. 3 Then another portent appeared in heaven: a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads. 4 His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. Then the dragon stood before the woman who was about to bear a child, so that he might devour her child as soon as it was born. 5 And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron. But her child was snatched away and taken to God and to his throne; 6 and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, so that there she can be nourished for one thousand two hundred sixty days. 10 Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, proclaiming, “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Messiah, for the accuser of our comrades has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God.

Psalm 45:10–16 (NRSVCE)

10 Hear, O daughter, consider and incline your ear; forget your people and your father’s house, 11 and the king will desire your beauty. Since he is your lord, bow to him; 12 the people of Tyre will seek your favor with gifts, the richest of the people 13 with all kinds of wealth. The princess is decked in her chamber with gold-woven robes; 16 In the place of ancestors you, O king, shall have sons; you will make them princes in all the earth.

1 Corinthians 15:20–27 (NRSVCE)

20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died.21 For since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human being; 22 for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ. 23 But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. 24 Then comes the end, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, after he has destroyed every ruler and every authority and power. 25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death. 27 For “God has put all things in subjection under his feet.” But when it says, “All things are put in subjection,” it is plain that this does not include the one who put all things in subjection under him.

Luke 1:39–56 (NRSVCE)

39 In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, 40 where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. 41 When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit 42 and exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. 43 And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? 44 For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy. 45 And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.” 46 And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, 47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, 48 for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed; 49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name. 50 His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. 51 He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. 52 He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; 53 he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty. 54 He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, 55 according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever.” 56 And Mary remained with her about three months and then returned to her home.

“Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen.

What does it mean to be Anglo-Catholic?

There are a whole host of answers that one might give to this question and I expect that there would also be a whole host of answers from the St Nic’s congregation if we asked why we came to this church.

For some people, it might be because the church is theologically Anglo-Catholic, rather than Evangelical, middle-of-the-road, charismatic, or Roman Catholic, etc.; for some people it might be because of style of the worship, the music, the liturgy, the beauty of holiness, rather than any anglo-catholic theology per se; for some people, it might be because this is their parish church, maybe they were baptised here, married here, and so on, and they would come to their parish church whatever the expression of worship. There could be other reasons as to why someone might come here but those are some.

Just as there are all sorts of reasons as to why someone might come to St Nics, there are also all sorts of reasons as to why someone might be anglo-catholic. Someone might be anglo-catholic because, following Jesus’s pray for the unity of his disciples, they want to make every effort to be a part of the majority global church, the Roman Catholic Church, but perhaps they disagree with Rome on female ordination, or same-sex marriage, or papal infalibility, or the dogmas of Mary, or some other issue. Some anglo-catholics actually see themselves as a part of the Roman Church, with the Church of England being the Catholic Church in this country, a branch of the Roman stem so to speak. Some anglo-catholics are further away from Rome on the Anglican spectrum but might see themselves as reformed book of common prayer Christians, with perhaps a belief that Jesus is present in the eucharist but that the eucharist is not a sacrifice, as an example.

There are all sorts of reasons why someone might be anglo-catholic, these are just some brief examples.

For me, there are roughly three reasons why I’m anglo-catholic. The desire for Church unity; the orderliness and quiet, reflective beauty of the liturgy; and the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Feasts celebrating the death of the Blessed Virgin have been at least as early as the 5th century, and possibly as early as the 4th century in Antioch, however, the feast was celebrated on a variety of different dates in different locations. But, by the end of the 8th century, the feast of the Assumption or Mary was universally observed in the West on the 15th of August.

In 863 Nicholas I made the feast of the Assumption of Mary equal to those of Easter, Christmas, and Whitsunday. In the C of E the feast disappeared from the BCP in 1549, and has not been officially restored. It has been retained, however, in the Oxford University Calendar, and is now observed in many places. In a number of Provinces of the Anglican Communion, the 15th of August is kept as the principal feast of the BVM, though without reference to the Assumption.

So, the blessed virgin Mary, who had played a significant role in the church’s worship and liturgical calendar for a long time, suddenly disappeared at the Reformation, or near enough disappeared, and in most evangelical churches, the idea of having a feast day for Mary would be anathema. All this made me wonder why Mary had been so important in the church for so long. What, if anything was I missing? There are lots of things that I could say, but essentially, Mary has helped me understand how, broadly speaking, on a Catholic view, salvation is something which we are growing into. It’s not so much the evangelical, you’re either in or your out, saved, unsaved, believer, unbeliever, sort of thing, but we are in the process of being saved. We are learning how to love. Equally, Mary helped me understand how sacrifice, on a broad catholic view, isn’t a demand for legal justice for justice’s sake, but is a love unto the end.

Yesterday was the feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the mother of our Lord, and today we offer a Mass for that feast. Do we believe in the immaculate conception or the assumption of Mary? Well, the good thing about being Anglo-Catholic is that you can believe it if you want to but you certainly don’t have to!

It is interesting to note that the only dogma that has been proclaimed as infallible doctrine by the pope since the doctrine of papal infallibility was established at the counsel of vatican 1 is the dogma of the Assumption of Mary. It is also a good insight into the Roman understanding of papal infallibility which, whilst I personally find difficult, just as I find the idea of biblical infallibility difficult, is nonetheless a doctrine which is often caricatured by its opponents.

It was in answer to repeated demands to the Popes from 1870 onwards, that in 1946, Pope Pius XII sent an encyclical to all his bishops asking them the following: “We earnestly beg you to inform us about the devotion of your clergy and people (taking into account their faith and piety) toward the Assumption of the most Blessed Virgin Mary. More especially We wish to know if you, Venerable Brethren, with your learning and prudence consider that the bodily Assumption of the Immaculate Blessed Virgin can be proposed and defined as a dogma of faith, and whether in addition to your own wishes this is desired by your clergy and people.” Following the almost unanimously positive response, it was on the 1st of Nov. 1950 that Pope Pius defined the doctrine of the assumption of Mary.

The understanding of the doctrine of papal infallibility isn’t that anything the pope says is infallible but it is really the doctrine that God guides his church and that the pope is the person who puts the rubber stamp on what the church believes, so to speak.

This is a bit of a detour but what I’m trying to do is show a way of how we need to take the time to understand things we find difficult to accept so we can speak of them generously and ask what we might learn from them, even if still disagreeing. If we think something that a whole group of people believe sounds completely stupid it’s quite likely that we haven’t understood it fully. Even when we take the time to understand it, we might well still disagree, but we might disagree better. And even better, learn about something that matters to the other person.

Lastly, a reminder to speak to Donald if you’re interested in coming on pilgrimmage to the shrine of our Lady in Walsingham next year. You could be really into marian devotion or sceptical about it, but it will be a good time either way!

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen.