The Feast of the Assumption - August 15

To-day, in the Catholic traditions of the Christian Church, is a major feast day.

It is the Feast of the Assumption or, in terms of the Orthodox tradition, the Dormition.

An editorial note: 

The Editor was raised in the Roman Catholic tradition

in a time when feasts and fasts were solemnly kept.

In fact, the picture above, is the same picture

that hung in the home of the Editor's grandmother

for a lifetime.

In the post-Vatican II era, the Editor came to look at many things about her faith.

One of them was attitudes to Mary, the Mother of Jesus.

To get an idea of teaching on Mary, please go

here and here.

The Editor's thoughts are that much of the beliefs and doctrines that have sprung up around Mary - and the doctrine of the Assumption is not the only one - have their derivation in a male dominated religious structure in which, for the most part, women were very much down the human hierarchy.  The Eastern tradition may be different because it has a married priesthood.  

While there are claims that the doctrine of the Assumption goes back to the earliest days of Christianity, this is doubtful.  All sorts of ideas have sprung up around the purity of Mary and the fact that she had to be pure and without any stain of sin (including Original Sin) to be the mother of Jesus. From this idea, we get the other doctrine of the Immaculate Conception. 

In The Editor's view, these two doctrines are evidence of "facts" being conjured up to fit faith.  

What The Editor does find significant though is how often these types of thought processes take-over and all but eliminate the very humanity of people like Jesus and his mother, Mary.  And it is their very humanity that makes them so significant in the human story.