The “Feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary” or “The Falling Asleep of Mary” is kept on August 15, in some fashion, by many churches. The Roman Catholics celebrate the “Assumption of Mary”, the Orthodox communities honor the “Dormition of Mary”. Much could be said about the various ideas surrounding the departure of Mary from her earthly life. However, when Aug 15 rolls around, the primary thing that leaps to my mind is an old sermon that was delivered by the late Canon John Andrew, in his retirement from the position of rector of St. Thomas Church in New York City. The message instilled in me, a Protestant, a greater appreciation for Marian devotion.
“Today we remember our manners” He intoned. “We pay our dues. We thank God for the gift to the world of the Mother of Christ whose departure for God we celebrate.”
I recall Father Andrew urging Christians to avoid two errors. On the one hand, it is “stingy” to pay her no respect at all: “She gave Christ birth, and bore him into the world of you and me. She taught him to talk. She taught him to say his prayers. I wonder if it was she who first taught him the ‘Our Father’? There was no thought in the early Church that by honoring Mary, spite would be done to her Son and Savior. Christ would lose no iota of worship for having his Mother honored in this way and it a gross begrudging to think otherwise.”
On the other hand, “What can make you uncomfortable, and rightly so, are the sentimental flights of fancy and the sugarcoating of the enthusiasts who took her role out of all proportion to her human state of creatureliness, and tinseled her with quasi-divinity. She must shudder at the attempt.”
“All we celebrate today is Heaven’s welcome of her when her earthly life was over.”
Amen.
(A transcript of this sermon from August 2013 is available at St Thomas’ sermon archive).