This past Saturday, August 15th, the Church remembered Jesus’ mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary. Mary plays a large part in the story of salvation as the Gospel writers tell it. Whether in the manger, or at the Jesus’ first miracle at a wedding at Cana of Galilee or at the foot of the cross, as salvation happens Mary is there. Mary is at the heart of the disciples and at the heart of what it means to be a disciple. 

When I lived in Virginia I was told, "When somebody asks you where you're from, they're asking where your grandparents were born." What they know in Virginia is that your family matters. Individuals cannot be understood in isolation from what has gone before. You can only understand somebody as a part of a family. Each family has its own parameters, and in each of our families, patterns develop as demons and blessings ricochet across the generations.

And so in families, it can seem that no matter how many times the deck is shuffled, the same hand turns up. The great Orthodox theologian, Fr. Alexander Schmemann once said that the spiritual life consists in “how we deal with what we’ve been dealt.” 

The Bible knows this and over and over again it tells the fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, family destiny and the blessings and curses we inherit. Two of the gospels recount the genealogy of Christ. Duke’s Stanley Hauerwas is fond of saying that the project of modernity is to produce a people who believe that they should have no story except the story that they had when they had no story. Modern people like to believe that they are blank slates save for what we write ourselves. But who teaches us to write? Where do we get a sense of what is worth writing and what’s not? In spite of modern obliviousness to all that’s gone before, being human continues to be a tenaciously family affair. 

Over and over again, the Scriptures relate the stories of families, complete with all of their tragedies and appalling crimes. Scripture tells these stories because these are the stories life has to tell. This is the truth of what it means to be human. No pain stings as deeply as that wound inflicted by someone to whom you were looking for love. These wounds reverberate through the years and the generations. I love the recent ad from an insurance company that shows the insurance company providing a tongue-in-cheek support group for new homeowners to keep them from becoming their parents. Using examples like not knowing how to silence a cell phone or hovering over the handyman who’s trying to finish his work, the ad pokes fun at parents’ habits—and the way their habits become our habits over time.

We can blithely assume that we act alone in all we do, yet life is a good deal more complicated. Which means that when we struggle against sin and the besetting issues of our lives it is never just about ourselves. We are struggling with all that’s gone before and our struggle will have consequences going forward.

When we inherit burdens in our lives, our struggle with those burdens is a struggle with all that has gone before; but at the same time our struggle will rebound down the generations that come after. 

A wise Orthodox priest has pointed out that there is a saying at the monasteries of Mt. Athos in Greece, “A monk heals his family for seven generations.”

The priest said when he first heard this, he wondered, “In which direction?” He came to the conclusion that the answer is: in every direction. He said, “We are always healing the family tree as we embrace the path of salvation, whether we are a monk or layman. Our lives are just that connected.”

When the Virgin Mary sings her praise to God, upon learning that she is carrying the Christ child, she says, “All generations will call me blessed.”

Mary is echoing God’s promise to Abraham, “In you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen. 12:3). God’s promise of salvation is being fulfilled in Mary’s faithfulness..

“All generations” means those who come after Mary and “All generations” means those who have gone before. The salvation of the human race, always and everywhere takes place in Jesus, the child of Mary. Her faithfulness changes all of our destinies and makes things possible that would not have been without her. Her faithfulness also displaces the weight we carry from all that has gone before.

She is the “Theotokos,” the “Birthgiver of God.” And Mary is exalted in the bosom of Abraham.

From the earliest days of the Church, Christians have sung Mary’s song as our song:

My soul doth magnify the Lord.

And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior.

For he hath regarded the lowliness of his handmaiden.

For behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.

   

And we have added:

O higher than the cherubim,

more glorious than the seraphim,

lead their praises, alleluia.

O Mary, bearer of the Word,

most gracious, magnify the Lord!

Where are we from? We’re from Mary.

Andrew +