Written by O God, you have taken to yourself the blessed Virgin Mary, mother of your incarnate Son: Grant that we, who have been redeemed by his Blood, may share with her the glory of your eternal kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
William Wordsworth (who was born on April 7, 1770) was an English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834), helped to launch what is known historically as the Romantic Age in English Literature. A devout Christian, his poetic interests, unlike Coleridge, never led him to rebel against his Christian heritage. Indeed, he remarked in 1812 that as a faithful churchman he was willing to shed his blood for the established Church of England. Wordsworth was Poet Laureate of England from 1843 until his death from pleurisy on April 23, 1850.
In 1822, Wordsworth wrote a sonnet called “The Virgin” in which, as an Anglican (and to the disgust of many a Protestant), he called Our Lord’s Mother “our tainted nature’s solitary boast.” “The Virgin” is a poem from Part II of Wordsworth’s Ecclesiastical Sonnets and is a beautiful tribute to Saint Mary the Virgin.
The place and mission of the Blessed Virgin in the “Catholic” world (and even in the traditional Anglican world where in the venerable 1662 Book of Common Prayer she is called “Our Lady” the “pure Virgin,” i.e., sinless) is a puzzlement to most all modern evangelical Protestants. Yet Martin Luther (1483-1546) himself, the “Father” of the sixteenth-century Protestant Reformation, held her always in high esteem. Her appropriate place in our hearts is expressed well in her incomparable Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55) – which since the inception of the first (1549) Book of Common Prayer takes pride of place in the daily Anglican service of Evening Prayer – the song in which the ever-blessed Virgin proclaims: “All generations shall call me blessed. For he that is mighty hath magnified me: and holy is his Name” (v. 48).
Reminded of Our Calling
If current events in our utterly morally and socially broken nation and world show us how corrupt we can become, the great Feast of Saint Mary the Virgin (August 15th) – or the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary as it is called in the Roman Catholic Church (and The Dormition (“falling asleep”) of the Mother of God in the Easter Orthodox tradition) – reminds us of the exalted heights to which the Triune God beckons us.
At a time when the depths of depravity to which humanity can fall are so dramatically on display, the radiance of the grace filled humanity of Saint Mary the Virgin shines out even more magnificently, cutting through the darkness of sin and offering a beacon of hope.
The world as a whole and the United States (in particular) are right now in a heap of unprecedented trouble and chaos. COVID-19 hysteria, social anarchy, massive increases in violent crime, racial unrest, historic levels of political discord, a crippling national and world debt (rising at a meteoric rate), the destruction of the nuclear family, and the sweeping away of Judeo-Christian moral principles from the public square, all compete to bring Western Civilization to the brink. The vast majority in the world (including many of whom have boldly in the past claimed to be followers of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior) would seem to have little attention left to pay to the Major Feast of Saint Mary the Virgin (the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary).
Yet celebrating the feast of our Blessed Mother amid such worldly trouble lays out for us the great confrontation, at once cosmic in its dimensions and present in every human heart, between grace and sin.
The power of sin is clear enough these days for those in a state of grace to see and hear. I am reminded of the words of Jesus (Mark 8:18): “Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear?” Indeed, we “Christians” should see and hear it all around us and in every form of media. The dire (evil) problems of the world today represent an existential crisis all true regenerate Christians must confront, respond to, and live with.
We now face, once again in human history, the terrible destruction wrought by sin. And that causes us, in turn, to come to terms with our fallen nature, a reckoning that in better times sounded deceptively gentle, but which now overwhelms us with its full force. While it is not historically “Catholic” belief (as in vindicated in the Anglican Thirty-nine Articles of Religion) that the Original Sin caused the total corruption of human nature, still, we have fallen, and fallen hard. Thus, Article IX (Of Original or Birth Sin) accurately states that “man is very far gone from original righteousness, and is of his own nature inclined to evil.”
The Sacrament of Holy Baptism removes the “stain” of Original Sin, restores a Christian to grace and makes us the adopted sons and daughters of our heavenly Father. But our inclination towards sin remains. It still entices us, even seduces us if we are not vigilant. And when we are not sober and give in, the results can be terrifying and devastating: “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith” (1 Peter 5:8-9a).
Beloved, the darkness we see and hear all around us will not soon (if ever) dissipate, and yet there is a pure light shining into the darkness right now. At a time when the depths of depravity to which humanity can fall are so dramatically on display, the radiance of the grace filled humanity of Saint Mary the Virgin shines out even more magnificently, cutting through the darkness of sin and offering a beacon of hope.
If current cataclysmic moral and social behavior and events show us how corrupt we can become, the example of the Blessed Virgin Mary – “our nature’s solitary boast” – reminds us of the exalted heights to which the Triune God is calling His true sons and daughters. And it reminds us of His power to fulfill His promise to enrich and empower each one of us with His gifts of grace (Ephesians 4:7).
Sharing in the Triumph
The sublime beauty of Wordsworth’s description of Our Lady, the pure Virgin, as “our nature’s solitary boast” is self-explanatory. Saint Mary the Virgin stands as the crown jewel of God’s creation (the moral example par excellence), and as the model of what He can do in the lives of all those willing to be unconditionally filled with His grace (Luke 1:28). The Original Sin was a sin of pride and a sin of the flesh, and in Blessed Mary God displays His power to triumph over our pride and destructive self-indulgence.
The key to sharing in the triumph experienced by Saint Mary the Virgin – which is the victory of her divine Son – is to become completely humble and submissive before the LORD God, perhaps not as difficult a thing to do when we have sincerely contemplated the humiliating societal sins to which each one of us to a significant extent have been accomplices.
The great German Lutheran theologian and pastor, Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-45), who refused to capitulate to the National Socialists’ evil dictates and racial hatred, and who died a Martyr’s death at the hands of the Gestapo in a Nazi prison, just days before the end of World War II, famously said that there is no such thing as “cheap grace.” Brothers and sisters, there will be no quick resolution to the current and ever-increasing crises in the world around us. But grace will triumph, because Christ is risen, the Lord is risen indeed, and He has conquered sin and death.
“Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith”
1 Peter 5:8-9a
May the radiant beauty of Faith and personal moral character lived out by Saint Mary the Virgin be a deep source of hope and strength to us in these dark days. And may we never fail to look to her example of perfect obedience to the will of God the Father as we confront sin and its consequences, striving to draw all of Mother Church’s wounded and scattered children closer to her Son: “Let it be to me [us] according to (God’s) word” (Luke 1:38).
On August 15th of each year Anglicans (and others in the Church Universal) honor Saint Mary the Virgin in a special way, she who in Faith freely and humbly accepted God’s most remarkable invitation, as the person through whom the One who is both perfectly human and perfectly divine was conceived and born (see Luke 1:30-33). Therefore, what we can surely believe is that she who stood in the most intimate relationship with the incarnate Son of God on earth must, of all the human race, have the highest place of honor in the eternal life of God.
O God, you have taken to yourself the blessed Virgin Mary, mother of your incarnate Son: Grant that we, who have been redeemed by his Blood, may share with her the glory of your eternal kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
