Thomas, Missing Again!

This Sunday we celebrate the Feast of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. It’s a feast celebrated on the same date by Christians all over the world, Orthodox as well as Catholics. But it has very special ties to the Christians of Southern India. Why?

The oldest accounts we have of the end of Mary’s life say that she died peacefully and was buried by the apostles. Well, eleven of them anyway. Thomas arrived three days after the funeral. When they opened Mary’s tomb so he could pay his respects, her body was not there. In some accounts they find her burial clothes. In others Mary, knowing Thomas’ tendency to be a skeptic, dropped the sash of her robe to him from heaven to show clearly what had happened to her. So, the Gospel of John doesn’t recount where Thomas was on the night of the Resurrection, but do we know where he went this time?

One thing that is known for sure about Christianity in Southern India is that it is truly ancient, dating to the earliest years and possibly the apostles themselves. One name that is still used for Christians in Hindi is Nasrani, which is derived from the Aramaic word for Nazarites and is the earliest name for Jesus’ followers.  Ancient tradition says that it was the Apostle Thomas who first brought the gospel there, and that he was martyred at what is present-day Mylapore, India and that the cathedral there is built over his tomb. Added to that, many of those early accounts of Mary’s death and Assumption recount that Thomas was absent because he was returning from spreading the gospel in Goa, India. It turns out historically that both Mylapore and Goa conducted a great deal of trade with ancient Rome.

So what actually happened at the end of Mary’s life? There is no account in Sacred Scripture. The earliest accounts we have date to the late 300’s. In his statement proclaiming the dogma of the Assumption in 1950, Pope Pius XII only says that “the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory.” One of my theology professors from the old days would probably have ended a two hour lecture about this with his usual shrug and say, “We don’t know. We weren’t there.”

But then he also taught us that whether Thomas missed the Virgin Mary’s funeral because his flight from Goa was late, as interesting as it is to ponder, is not the point of all this. The point is what the accounts that say Mary died, was buried, raised bodily from the dead and assumed into heaven say about the power of Jesus’ resurrection to reach through all of space and time to enfold his mother. The point is what the accounts that say that she has already experienced the fullness of the resurrection say about the power of God’s love for us, and what will eventually happen to our own tombs.

Meanwhile the ancient stories stitch us together with the Indian Catholics in Louisville who celebrate the Holy Qurbana at Holy Family Church, a rite of the liturgy that traces its roots to ancient Syria. Just as the Latin Rite that we celebrate traces its roots to ancient Rome. Those Indian Catholics who, if it is possible to find turmeric leaves in Louisville, might be making patoleo in celebration this weekend.

-Fr Lou