Throughout her life, Mary shows us what it means to be faithful to God. And at the end of that life we see the glorious vision of the faithfulness of God. Having proved herself faithful above all others, Mary was granted unusual treatment at the time of her departing from this mortal life. The body that bore the Incarnate Word would not molder in an earthly grave.

Our theology, our belief in Jesus' genuine, real humanity requires that we not picture Mary as standing completely outside of human life, utterly unlike us. And so, many well meaning people, discourage perceptions that remove her from human reality.

But our abiding knowledge of God and our experience of him, never requires us to insist that he does not or cannot pour out special grace and special treatment upon one so blessed in her favor with God.

While Anglicans are shy about dogmatic reliance on the Assumption, we can still maintain that this is reasonable and holy hope, this is a sound and godly doctrine, this is a grace-filled insight into the characteristic nature of God, that Mary was taken up into heaven, body and soul, with the love and care of God and the sweetness and tenderness of the well-beloved Son through the power of that intimately known Spirit, and to the general rejoicing of the whole company of heaven.

We quietly maintain that she no less than old Simeon, departed in peace, but that this departure partook of special peace, a peace that passes our understanding, but does not go beyond our conception, that she was set free from the constraints of this mortal life in a special way. Other, more ordinary understandings of Mary's death are possible and are held by believing Christians.

But rather than seeming more likely to us, an ordinary death and burial seems less likely, somehow at odds with what we believe about God.

In his dying moment on the cross, our Lord provided for the care of his mother for her mortal life to come with a special consideration. We find it likely that her showed a similar regard, took special care of her for the life to come. That he who did not forget her in the hour of his death, is unlikely to have forgotten her in the hour of hers.

We are led to an expectation that an assumption is precisely how the God of love would have treated her who cooperated with the Spirit to beget the Son according to the will of the Father.

When we get too theologically precise, controversy erupts. Questions that cannot yet be answered arise. I don't know that they are necessary questions or critical to our life and faith.

I doubt we can every fully comprehend all the implications of the Incarnation: it's design and preparation, its implementation and its consequences.

We can, and many do, delve deeply into the nuances of the theological structure of our faith, but there is also a realm for a simple, untroubled joy in rejoicing and celebrating the heart of the mystery without examining each sinew and ligament.

Faced with questions that cannot be fully and finally answered at this stage, we can be content with straightforward and more manageable questions: how does our general knowledge of Mary and her way of life and her responses to God and the movement of grace in her life, and the moment of grace at her end, how does all of that help us in our lives?

Popular devotion can veer off into self-comfort or even self-delusion, superstition and narrow-mindedness. But examples of abuse of popular devotion should not put us off the enjoyment of and participation in the heart-warming and sustaining and helpful devotions much beloved by the people of God, even if they do sometimes blur the crisp edges of a strict and rigorous theology.

We believe that Mary was set free from the constraints of this mortal life in a special way and unique way, in virtue of being the singular person she was, highly favored and full of grace.

But in our contemplation of her being set free, taken into God's own presence and love in a favored and miraculous way, we gather encouragement about how we might set free from the constraints we face now, regardless of the hour of our death.

The eyes of our faith and the imaginations of our hearts are opened to expect and believe that he will take us as well to himself, in a special and grace-filled and also fairly miraculous way, each and every day as we turn to him in faith and trust, in contrition and communion.

An Assumption at the end of a life like Mary's is so more reassuring, it is so illuminating it shows so clearly what we mean by God being unchangeable, without variation. As Christ is the image of the invisible God, this act at the conclusion of Mary's life is the image of God's absolute faithfulness. Eternal, enduring, unchangeable.

After the role she played in the birth and life and death and resurrection of our Lord, she was then set aside, overlooked, no longer regarded with that special esteem that merited that original angelic declaration, hail O highly favored one.

Such an insight about the constancy of God: God does not cast aside or forget or overlook after the purpose has been fulfilled. God does not use and then cast aside, move on to the next. God does not draw near for a fiery moment, and when that aspect of his plan is come to fulfillment moves away. He never drifts aside after the encounter, continuing to care in only a vague, off-hand way.

The Assumption at the end of that life that so very early, so many hears before had produced the Incarnation is vision and the reality of God keeping faith with his people, his highly favored ones, those who have responded to his will and word. The Assumption is the proof that his loving care surrounds us on every side, and will not abandon you, will not let you fall, that his love reaches to the heavens and his faithfulness to the clouds.

We hear that someone we once loved or knew or cared for years ago has moved or died or has been promoted or done well or is in desperate circumstances, and we may feel a vague twinge, as we become so dimly aware again of their role they once played in our life and hope, ah yes but that was all so very long ago. You were part of my lief once, an important part and I was grateful for a moment." Or for a very long time. God's faithfulness is longer.

Once we are beloved by God, it is forever, without any diminishment, once we have been drawn into him, into sharing in his purpose drawn into cooperating with his love we never decline or fade in his eyes, we never move to the edge or off the screen.

Called by God, loved by God, used by God, Mary was never left by God. The Assumption is the final proof that God never forgets his love or ours.