The Assumption of Our Lady (2022)
(Revelation 11:19; 12:1-6, 10; 1 Corinthians 15:20-27; Luke 1: 39-56)
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The official, dogmatic, teaching of Mother Church about Our Lady’s Assumption, which we joyfully celebrate today, was proclaimed by Pope Pius XII in 1950 and is quoted in our modern Catholic Catechism as follows:
The Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all stain of original sin,
when the course of her earthly life was finished, was taken up body and soul
into heavenly glory, and exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things, so that
she might be the more fully conformed to her Son, the Lord of lords and conqueror
of sin and death,
That text combines both the Assumption of Our Blessed Lady and her Coronation as Queen of Heaven together in one long sentence, which the Catechism then goes on to distinguish and explain:
The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin is a singular participation in her Son’s Resurrection and an anticipation of the resurrection of other Christians.
Having duly and dutifully won that victory over sin and death in the flesh and blood He received from Immaculate Mary, the Assumption became the most fitting expression of Mary’s unique participation and sharing in her Son’s triumph won for all mankind. And today I want to propose to you that, while Mary’s Assumption is indeed a unique participation in her Son’s triumph, it is not intentionally exclusive; on the contrary, it is of sublime significance for all women.
Mary’s exaltation and coronation as Queen of Heaven is based on her totally unique motherhood of, love for, and co-operation with, her Son in His sacrificial life and death on earth; she alone was, is, and ever remains, exclusively, Queen and Mother. But her Assumption, I believe, is not totally based on her uniquely-gifted personal sinlessness, but also on her femininity, in the sense that it contains a message and offers a transcendent inspiration and aspiration for the whole of Christian womanhood.
Once Jesus, God made man, had risen from the dead and ascended into heaven for our salvation, there could be no rational doubt for believers that the whole of mankind … men and women, both formed in the image and likeness of God as human beings… would, granted God’s goodness and mercy, be both allowed to participate in that glory. However, given humanity’s enduring frailty and occasional sinfulness and indeed perverseness, there can be little doubt that it could soon have been irrationally bandied about and secretly whispered that Jesus had gone to heaven because He was God; and that men also might indeed possibly go there too, having ‘already gone there’, so to speak, in and with Jesus as man. But what about women, not having that direct sexual relationship?
I like, therefore, to think that today’s great feast has also the purpose and function of recalling and heralding the native dignity and glory of God’s original plan for humanity as a whole, and that the Assumption proclaims Mary’s peerless expression of the wondrous beauty of feminine humanity as intended in God’s original creation, now redeemed by Christ, and ultimately glorified by the most Holy Spirit.
Think of Mary hearing the angel Gabriel’s greeting, so religiously and calmly satisfying herself about his personal integrity and authority, then going on to question him humbly yet pertinently about the meaning of his message for herself; before most courageously committing herself -- unconditionally and unhesitatingly -- to God’s purpose, for His glory alone. And this she did despite being aware the possibility (remote but real) of her being put to death by the religious authorities of her time, and knowing most certainly that she would have to endure the public contempt of all who did not know her intimately, most especially those women who knew her only well enough to be able to gossip about her at the well and the ‘shops’ in Nazareth!
Peerlessly full, brave, and spiritually beautiful, womanhood; framed and presented in a physical presence of appropriate perfection, that is what Mary’s Assumption manifests.
There are many today, however, who think that Mary’s expression of womanhood treasured for so long by the Church is not enough; modern women want power more than spiritual beauty and courage: total power over their eggs (!) and total freedom in the exercise of their physical and sexual being; in the Church they want the diaconate now, and who knows, perhaps the priesthood next. And later, who hasn’t heard of the ludicrous Pope Joan? Foolish? Yes, indeed, for now; but who could possibly have imagined today’s horrors afflicting Mother Church throughout the West, abortion, abuse, sexual disorientation and pride, some 40 or 50 years ago?
This mentality -- ruled by secular logic, not inspired by Catholic faith -- has no appreciation whatsoever of the beauty and power of complementarity. For them, if one person or group has something another does not have, that is prejudice, and, as such, it is ethically wrong according to the standards of those who worship words discoursing about equality, freedom, and fairness, but will not subject themselves to serve God’s revealed will concerning what is right and wrong, good and bad, for the humanity He made.
And yet, dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, our faith in God -- His very own Personal Being, and His creation in all its wonderful diversity -- proclaims the sublime and indeed ultimate beauty and power of complementarity, which not only requires and demands, but actually, and quite uniquely, evokes those two most sublime virtues of Love and Humility which are the hallmarks of all Catholic faith and life.
Those who look at Mary’s most easily recognizable beauty and glory, but find that insufficient -- for their taste -- without the addition of power and authority, will inevitably come to look upon Christ Himself and see less and less recognizable beauty there, only questionable Power ever more! For the present, they simply skip over His more forceful word, such as 'Let the dead bury their dead, but you, follow Me' and concentrate, often over-emotionally, on His teaching on mutual love and forgiveness. Mary’s whole being has always and in every way, physically, spiritually, and theologically, served to protect the fullness of the glory of her Son and Lord, and to help our right appreciation of it and our true love for His Person.
Mary as shown forth in her Assumption is and always has been the ideal of Christian womanhood: beautiful and glorious, humble, and heaven bound with and for her Son and as our Mother: a beauty not excogitated and worked out by human pride, but one created by God for His own glory and our great blessing; a beauty most perfectly redeemed by Christ and then totally polished like an incomparable gem by the Most Holy Spirit of both Father and Son in the complementarity of Their eternal Unity of Being.
