Did She or Didn't She?

Today is the  feast day of Jesus’ mother, Mary. From very early in the life of the Church, Mary has been called “virgin.” How that happened is a long story for another day. It includes reading history backwards, translations from one language to another, and more.

This day is celebrated in the Roman Catholic Church as the Feast of the Assumption, (which I’ll come back to) and in the Anglican Tradition, as simply the Feast Day of St. Mary the Virgin. Mary has at least six other feast days, not all of which are celebrated in Anglicanism. Here are the six principal ones:

The Purification of Mary (2/2), Annunciation (3/25), Visitation (5/31), Nativity of Mary (9/8), Immaculate Conception (12/8), and Our Lady of Guadalupe (12/12). But, the Feast of the Assumption is the principal day in the U.S. So, what does it celebrate?

The Assumption is a belief held by the Romans, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and most Anglo-Catholics in Anglicanism that says at the end of her life, Mary was bodily taken directly to heaven. Catholics leave open whether or not she died before being taken; Eastern Orthodox teach she died first. 

The Roman Church teaches that there are certain dogmatic beliefs of the Church, i.e., things all must believe. All but one of these have been the result of actions of Church Councils. In 1870, the first Vatican Council declared the pope to be infallible when he teaches ex cathedra, literally from his chair or throne under special circumstances. Not every thing the pope says is infallible; only those teachings that he declares to be so. (Perhaps that’s another posting saved for another day.)  The first time, and so far, only time a pope has proclaimed an infallible teaching after this became a dogma was in 1950 when Pope Pius XII defined the Assumption of Mary as being an article of faith for Catholics. What does “article of faith” mean?

Here’s what Pius said: “Hence, if anyone, which God forbid, should dare willfully to deny or call into doubt that which We have defined, let him know that he has fallen away completely from the divine and Catholic Faith.”

In other words, there is no more room for debate, disagreement or dissention. The matter is closed, and if you don’t accept this teaching, you are not Catholic. That, of course, is an excommunicating act and, hence a damning act. His declaration of this dogma was not his invention. Many in the Church had long believed and taught that Mary had been assumed at the end of her life. Pius just formalized it.

So, what about you, must you hold this belief to be a good Anglican? In a word, no. You may believe it, that is, our faith and practice permits you to believe it, but does not compel you to believe it. Why then do we celebrate it as a feast day? Like many of our feast days, it’s a hold over from our pre-Reformation practices. However, note well, we don’t call it the Assumption. It just becomes another special day to honor Mary as Jesus’ mother. 

Peace,  Jerry