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Weekly Reflection:
Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary
From Rev. Nathan Empsall, priest-in-charge
In several forms of the Eucharistic Prayer – including the one we’re currently using from Enriching Our Worship – there is a spot where the celebrant can add the names of saints with whom (not to whom) we pray:
EOW, Prayer 1:
Bring us into the everlasting heritage of your daughters and sons, that with [___________ and] all your saints, past, present, and yet to come, we may praise your Name for ever.
Book of Common Prayer, Prayer B:
In the fullness of time, put all things in subjection under your Christ, and bring us to that heavenly country where, with [ ___________ and] all your saints, we may enter the everlasting heritage of your sons and daughters; through Jesus Christ our Lord, the firstborn of all creation, the head of the Church, and the author of our salvation.
As far as I know, there are no set rules regarding the selection of saints for inclusion here. Commonly, churches will name their patron saints – in our case, St. Paul and St. James. It’s also normal, on a weekday, to add a saint whose feast day it is, and I suppose you could name all the saints of the week on a Sunday if one were so inclined. Priests who belong to special orders might also include the patron saint of their order, and I’ve even known priests – particularly Anglo-Catholic priests – who share very long lists of saints for whatever varying reasons.
Keen ears have noticed that I always add Paul, James, and Mary. At the Episcopal Church of St. Paul and St. James, the reasons for the first two are likely clear, but I have also been asked a time or two why I always include Mary. I have two reasons.
First, when I was in seminary, the public theologian and Lutheran pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber preached a sermon on campus, in which she reminded us that women are rarely featured in the Bible, and even less in the lectionary. When women do appear, she noted, they are often not even given names. Nadia urged us, as future preachers, to focus on the women whenever they appear in the lectionary readings.
Eight years later, her words still echo in my ears most weeks, and including a major figure like Mary in the liturgy alongside our male patron saints is one way to honor women’s central leadership in God’s kingdom, even when it’s not the focal point of the sermon.
Second, Mary is just plain awesome.
Many Roman Catholic Christians pray to Mary, and I think that perhaps her veneration within our sister denomination has led many non-Catholics to be Mary-wary. And that’s too bad, because Mary is contrary to so much of what we have heard: Rather than being submissive and weak, she is a phenomenal figure of love, social justice, and of resistance to authoritarianism.
This is not a meek young women who shows us how to submit, although yes, she does put God’s will above her own, and that is a good example for us all - but not one that should be twisted into patriarchy or submission to the wills of men on earth.
Mary’s submission to God’s will makes it clear what God’s will is: To lift up the poor, to center the oppressed, and to squelch greed and domination forever. Remember the words she sings to her sister Elizabeth to celebrate her pregnancy with Jesus:
My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has looked with favor on the lowly state of his servant....
He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones
and lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things
and sent the rich away empty.
Following this song, Mary walks the walk, making a forced journey to Bethlehem with her fiancé Joseph on the orders of the Roman Empire, whose census was seen as a mockery of Jewish religion, land, and culture. She then stands up to another oppressive politician, acting contrary to royal orders by fleeing Herod to Egypt as a political refugee rather than letting him take her son.
Mary, like Peter and like us all, makes mistakes, particularly when she urges Jesus to stop preaching and be with his biological family instead. Understandably, she saw the fully human side of him more than the fully God side – but she never doubted him, and stayed with him until the end, committed both to her love and to his dangerous, subversive, liberating mission. And she never let the oppressive powers that be stop her.
Yes, that is like a mother, but with faith strong enough, it is also like a true Christian. And I can’t think of anyone else I’d rather pray the Eucharistic prayer with each Sunday.
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