First Reading: Revelation 11:19 and Revelation 12:1-6,10
Psalm: Ps. 45:10-12,16
Epistle: 1 Corinthians 15:20-27
Gospel: Luke 1:39-56

Christ has been raised from the dead,
the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.—¨

How like, how unlike?

Today we are celebrating the Dormition and Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. We celebrate that moment in Mary’s life where her earthly body died, followed three days later by the the Lord’s taking of her, body and soul into heaven. This was Mary’s moment of resurrection.

The question before us, or perhaps better, the confusion, is about Mary. Is Mary like us? Is Mary unlike us, different or set apart from us? Is there any way we can relate to Mary except from giving her due honor as the mother of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ? Does the mere fact that we honor her thus prove that she is unlike us.

Difficult to define:

All of this is very difficult to define, hard to understand. Looking at our first reading from Revelation, it is easy to draw parallels with Mary, the heavens opened and the ark of His covenant could be seen in the temple. A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet.

The problem is that this is much too simple an explanation. It is also fraught with the danger of misunderstanding.

What is key is that we see God as having opened heaven to us. The heavens opened and the ark of His covenant could be seen. The seeing of the ark, as our class of first communicants can tell you, is our ability to be in the presence of the Lord. We come here to greet Him each week. We receive him each week. We are not separate from Him, but in a relationship with Him that is personal and intimate.

Artists have made the woman represented in Revelation into Mary, its an easy parallel. Look at her depictions, with a crown of stars, etc. But the woman depicted in Revelation, with the crown of twelve stars, is all of us. We are the totality of what she represents, the chosen people, the tribes of Israel which gave birth to the Messiah, and all of us who now follow Him.—¨

See how difficult it is to get a clear picture of Mary. How easy it is to make her so unlike us, different and apart from us. We cannot see ourselves in Jesus’ presence, but its easy to put Mary there. It is impossible to see ourselves as the bearers of the Messiah, but it is easy to see Mary as bearing the Messiah. Shouldn’t we give up and just concede that Mary is too different from us?

Church errors (make her so unlike us):

Certainly, the Roman Catholic Church has done more that its share to contribute to differentiating Mary from us. There are Roman Catholic believers who wish to make Mary equal to Christ, calling her co-redemptrix and mediatrix of all graces. This means that Jesus was not enough, that without Mary, God would have accomplished nothing. It also means that Mary herself can grant all graces. There is a petition with Rome to solemnly declare this as an absolute truth. This is supported by 550 bishops and 42 cardinals. The Popes have even used such terminology. They have even raised certain traditions and honors given to Mary to the level of dogma.

Do you know what a dogma is? It is an established belief to be held by all believers that is authoritative, not to be disputed, doubted, or diverged from. Dogma is a fundamental element of religion, and any divergence from a dogma means that a person no longer accepts the given religion as his or her own. Our dogmas include everything in the creeds, the fact that we must believe that Jesus is the Son of God, the second person of the Holy Trinity, and that He is both man and God.

Now do not get it wrong. We honor, cherish, and esteem Mary, her role as the God bearer, we seek her intercession before her Son in heaven, and we place our trust in her prayers for us. We honor every tradition in her regard, but we do not separate her from us by defining dogmas or by entering into heresy by calling her co-redemptrix and mediatrix of all graces. Rather we rightly understand Mary.

Do you think that we in the Holy Polish National Catholic Church, as well as our brothers and sisters of the Orthodox and Oriental Churches better understand Mary and the fact that she is more like us than unlike us? You would be right.

People’s errors (make her so unlike us):

People too have created error and misunderstanding about Mary. Do the names Fatima, Lourdes, LaSalette, Medugorje, Garabandal, and others sound familiar. They are alleged apparitions of Mary, where she shows up in some out-of-the-way place to give secret messages.

Our Roman Catholic brothers have deemed some of these and others genuine. While their laws do not require that people believe in them, they do state that the reports of individual believers apparitions are worthy of Church-wide belief. They have an entire apparatus set up for judging apparitions.

Do you see how Mary can be made so separate from us, as she floats above a tree or causes the sun to spin around?

Again, we must always honor, cherish, and esteem Mary in her role as the God bearer. We seek her intercession before her Son in heaven. We honor every tradition in her regard, but we do not separate her from us by defining her as a floating spirit come to give us new or secret messages of impending doom. We rightly understand that Mary, whom we love and trust, is more like us than unlike us.

What are we celebrating (Mary, herbs, flowers)?

Today we bring herbs, vegetables and flowers to the Church. We ask Mary to intercede with her Son to bless these gifts of the earth. Interesting, that Mary would understand our need for sustenance and flavor in life. Can you see her cooking with these vegetables and herbs? Can you see her bringing cut flowers into her home in Nazareth? Interesting that Mary, who stands before her Son, interceding for us, would somehow know our hearts and minds. It sounds like she is a lot like us.

Today we honor Mary’s passing from life, her entombment. Do you think that as she was passing from this life to the next she passed with faith in the resurrection of her Son? She did indeed! She would have no awareness of what the Lord would do for her in three days, but she did trust that He would fulfill His promise, that because she believed in Him she would be raised from the dead. She died like us and was raised as we will be raised. It sounds like she is a lot like us.

Today we celebrate the fact that Mary is very much like us. She is like us in life, in the choices we have to make, and in death. She is like us, for we too shall be raised from the dead.

How like us:

How like us is Mary. How much Mary trusted. How she saw that the salvation of the world, the blessings and graces the world was to receive, the fulfillment of all of God’s promises, were to be found in her Son.

Yes, Mary is like us. Like us, Mary plays an essential and vital role in the history of salvation. Her witness was exactly like ours is to be. If Mary did it, we too can do it. We have that same call to bear witness, to play a vital role in the history of salvation.

God asked Mary, she said yes. When we are asked, what will we say? She traveled to see Elizabeth, and then got on that donkey and went to Bethlehem, then on to Egypt trusting in God’s word to her. Will we trust in God’s word to us? She pointed to her Son at Cana and said listen to Him, do as He says. Do we do that? Do we point others to Jesus, telling them to listen to Him and to do as He says? Mary stood witness on the road to Calvary and before the life giving Cross. Are we ready to bear the difficult Calvary road, and to witness to the life that the Holy Cross gives?

She is like us:

The totality of Mary is in her humanity, her likeness to us. She is humanity cooperating with God to bring about the Kingdom of God. Mary’s role and yes is essential, and that makes her like us. It also glorifies and magnifies her.

Jesus is here, and we are in the presence of the Ark of the Covenant, nothing will separate us from Him. Mary witnessed the reality of Jesus present to us. She not only saw, but saw with faith His birth, death, resurrection, the coming of the Holy Spirit, and the resurrection of the body.

All of what Jesus taught, did, and promised can be seen through Mary’s faith and witness. Because she is like us, she is our example. Our faith and witness must be like hers. We are like Mary, Mary is like us. She has been treated no differently than we will be treated. God did not take one woman and did not make His new covenant with her alone. His covenant is with all of us.

Look to Mary! Pray, asking her to interceded for you. Ask her to help you in saying yes to God, in trusting Him, in following Him, in pointing to Him, in witnessing to Him. She will do it because as the perfect mother she does it for all of her children. Honor, cherish, and love Mary. Love her for her yes, her life, her death, and her resurrection. Love her and resolve to follow in her footsteps so that what she has experienced, what she has been given we may also experience and receive. Amen.