At the time of its proclamation (in 1950) there was a great and varied reaction around the world. Some theologians responded with learned considerations, both dogmatic and historical. Some liberal theologians protested the dogma and felt seriously embarrassed. Outsiders felt this as an example of the Church's medieval mentality. It caused tremendous concern in ecumenical circles. Some Catholics blushed and changed the subject. Others managed to avoid thinking about it at all. And some were content; they booked another trip to Lourdes. Hardly anyone understood the profound implications of this dogma as an expression out of the unconscious or dream language of the Church. But Carl Jung, the Swiss Protestant psychiatrist, responded promptly saying that the proclamation of Mary's bodily assumption into heaven was the most important religious event since the Reformation. Jung, with his deep respect for the symbolic life, with his skillful and creative imagination, could hear and see the symbol that the Pope was offering humankind. He indicated that this was the beginning of a new age - and that NOW things would begin to happen.
Two foundational truths resonate with me. First, to use Mueller-Nelson's words,
"Mary, the archetypal feminine, queen of the earthy, dark, unconscious and frightfully fruitful - who had been left to the darkness where all that is feminine is feared or honored, served or oppressed - symbolically or literally - was now being raised into the light of new understanding." Finally, what folk religions and human intuition knew to be true for millennia - namely that the feminine virtues of waiting, nourishing, simmering, baking, brewing and birthing are integral to health and happiness - was now being honored, celebrated, and trusted in public. It was now out in the light of reality. Even finally out of the closet. It is abundantly clear that while institutional religion did not grasp what this new age of the sacred feminine would bring into being, it is not coincidence that both the birth of rock and roll and the civil rights movements of the 50's and 60's took shape and form not long afterwards. As Bono noted in his Rolling Stone tribute to Elvis Presley: Coretta Scott King recognized that Elvis looked, acted, sounded and incarnated America's embrace of radical equality and liberation when a Southern white boy wore mascara, put on the pink, and shook his booty with his mixture of Black blues and White country music. The genesis of the movements for saving Mother Nature as well as second-wave feminism came of age during this time, too.." So, on this feast day we give thanks for the ever emerging presence of the sacred feminine in real time.
Second, while "even the Church," writes Mueller-Nelson "has reduced its response to only a caution and wariness toward apparitions rather than consider the message and meaning at the heart of such phenomena, apparitions continue to be reported and continue to catch the attention of many." It is NOT a literal Mary who keeps appearing, of course, but her spiritual presence who keeps encouraging, and birthing the presence of Christ within and among us. The Assumption of Mary into the heavens celebrates the integration of the feminine with the male, the Alpha with the Omega, the holiness of nature, the fecund vitality of the sacred in creation, the renewal of grassroots movements for liberation that refuse to die despite Christofascism in our generation, and the creative mystery of mysticism at the heart of all love and compassion.
credits:
1) mosaic by members of Christ City Church, Memphis, TN: https://prayerandverse.com/2018/12/24/our-souls-magnify-the-lord/
2) assumption of mary https://www.pinterest.com/cottingham0971/assumption-of-mary/
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