Summary: The earliest artistic representations of Mary show her as a figure far from human with a face that is frozen in an icon-like gaze. Gradually over time, under the influence of Greek and Roman art, and then the Renaissance with its veneration of the human form she takes on a more motherly and sometimes more regal appearance. In more modern times this woman favored by God is sometimes seen in art more realistically as a Palestinian girl, and even more boldly as a teen ager in jeans and a sweater. Artists often have a way of entering into the realm of theology, and certainly theologians have influenced the vision of artists. Of all the figures and women in human history, Mary, the Mother of God has certainly intrigued them both. In the first reading today, we hear of a mighty woman/warrior ready to do battle with a dragon. This image inspired by the author of the Book of Revelation provides a fresh new image of the Virgin Mary, and I wish some artists might take up the challenge. Mary as Warrior would be quite an image. Like so many other forward looking works of art, it might well be shunned by the pious and even condemned by puritanical self-appointed critics. But I wonder, if the Sacred Scriptures can write about it, why can’t we think about it and even paint it. Imagine, Mary as a warrior! She might look like Joan of Arc. It does cause some conflict with the meek and mild, the sweet gentle mother look so favored in some ages, but I don’t think that is what we need these days in the face of so much evil. The author of the Book of Revelation provides us with a woman who is armed and ready to do battle with evil. This dragon in the vision of John is a symbol of evil power in this world. It stands for all the oppression and abused power that holds people in poverty and in ignorance. It stands for all injustice that empowers greed and the evil that greed perpetuates. In John’s Revelation, it is this woman who comes from the New Jerusalem to defeat it. This woman in John’s vision is the Arc of the Covenant with which Israel was able to do battle with every enemy and emerge victorious. I like thinking of Mary as a Warrior. I propose that all of you consider what your image of this Virgin might be – so that again she might excite our imaginations and provide us with an example of what a woman can do. She has done so in the past. Her weapons are always prayer, fasting, and sacrifice. Time and time again these weapons have overcome the mighty and pulled them down from their thrones. I wonder how it is that the evil of an oppressive Communist empire finally collapsed on itself almost without one shot being fired by men. Could it not possibly be that countless prayers in her name were stronger than bombs and sabers, warheads and tanks? Behind all that fluffy lace and golden pillows, their hides the strength of mother, the strength of prayer, and the promise of victory from a loud voice in heaven that says: “Now have salvation and power come, the reign of our God and the authority of his Anointed One.” This is what we celebrate today: God’s affirmation of a woman, God’s affirmation that there is power in a mother’s love to defeat every evil and right every wrong, to pull down the mighty from their thrones and lift up the lowly. The Assumption is not just God’s exaltation of faithfulness and discipleship, but our own as well. Holy Mary, Mother of God, --- how does the rest of it go? Say it.
