Sermon

16th August  26

The last we hear of Mary, the mother of Jesus, in the Bible is a brief reference to her being with the apostles immediately after the resurrection of Jesus.  However, various legends, in many cases dating back to the 2nd Century, enable us to complete her story.  They are not scripture, and we should not treat them as such.  They tell of Mary’s death a few years after that of her son.  We hear of the surviving apostles gathering around her death bed (in some cases being transported great distances to be there) and, subsequently witnessing her Assumption, as she is carried by angels, body and soul into heaven, to be crowned as Queen.

If you ever go to Prato in Tuscany, you will see an impressive external pulpit on the west front of the Cathedral overlooking a great public square.  If you time your visit right on one of (I think) five special occasions each year, you will see it in use.  Not as you might expect for a great preacher to deliver a moving sermon, but rather for the public display of an important relic, brought out from its place in a reliquary kept in a Chapel just inside the west door.

The relic is the sacra cintola, meaning holy girdle, and is supposedly the belt which Mary was wearing as her body was being carried by angels up to heaven.  According to the legend, as she was going up, she remembered how St Thomas had doubted the resurrection of Jesus.  This time she didn’t want him to have any doubt.  So, she slipped off her belt and dropped it into Thomas’ hands as proof of her assumption.  There is even a detailed provenance, telling how it allegedly got from St Thomas to Prato Cathedral.

Even for me, this is rather over the top!  I think that we are safer sticking to what scripture teaches us about Mary, and why she has a key role in God’s plan for us.  For Mary is the guarantee of the humanity of Jesus.  Again, there are a lot of lovely legends about her conception, birth, childhood, and betrothal.  But let’s stick to the New Testament record where we read of the Angel Gabriel appearing to this young woman.  He tells her that she is to become the mother of Jesus.  Although frightened, she accepts God’s will: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it unto me according to thy word”.

The Christmas story is about Jesus being fully God and fully human.  Mary’s role proves that humanity of Jesus.  And because Jesus is fully human, we can follow where he has led: through death, to resurrection, to a place in heaven.  All the many legends about Mary from before and after the New Testament accounts may or may not be historically accurate: that doesn’t matter.  What matters is her key role in guaranteeing that humanity of Jesus, and thus our hope of heaven for ourselves and our departed loved ones.

Amen