Reflection for Feast of the Assumption with Fr Robin Gibbons

Assumption of Our Lady by Theophanes the Greek (1392)

The Assumption (or for Eastern Catholics the Dormition) of the Virgin Mary takes place this Thursday, 15 August.

There is still some wonderful iconography of the Assumption of our Lady in medieval English Churches for not every single piece of art was destroyed during the Reformation and Commonwealth period. Some of the most exquisite images remain almost as fresh as the day they were finely painted in the many manuscripts we still have in our great libraries. Other statues or fragments of medieval glass remain as testament to careful removal and storage by those who loved the image.

Some of these objects portray Mary at the moment of her death, her ‘dormition’, falling asleep whilst others depict her being taken to her tomb on a bier by the apostles or in that moment of assumption, unveiled with flowing hair (very common in English depictions of the Virgin) surrounded by an aureole of light and angels.

One last subject connected with the feast is her coronation in heaven by her son, the reception into glory by the Lord of all.

In the Eastern tradition of iconography, the subject matter is directly linked to two themes, the dormition, falling asleep in death and the resurrection of her soul by Christ who often appears above the bier where the body of the virgin lies, holding a small white clothed figure, a baby, her soul. Around her are the apostles and as in a normal Byzantine funeral one of them is censing the body. In this tradition we see a careful statement being made; that Mary herself entered death but rises through the saving and loving gift of her Son, glorified and eternal. It is clear that in this theological image Mary embraces death as we do, but is then taken into glory as we hope to be.

What does this feast and images of her give to us? Firstly that in our faith the Mother of God is intimately connected with salvation through the death and resurrection of her Son. Secondly in popular piety a deep love of Mary has always been a hallmark of the ancient Churches of East and West. She is one of us and speaks for all those poor and little ones so loved by God to who the ‘kingdom’ of heaven belongs. She is the antithesis of wealth, power and prestige, because of her humility and loving mercy she is the first of the saints, a powerful link to our own relationship with the Lord Jesus.

Fr Robin Gibbons is an Eastern Rite Chaplain for the Melkite Greek Catholics in Britain.