The Assumption of Our Lady           

 (Revelation 11:19; 12:1-6, 10; 1 Corinthians 15:20-27; Luke 1: 39-56)  

Let us hear first of all the official, dogmatic teaching of the Church about Our Lady’s Assumption which we joyfully celebrate today.  The dogma proclaimed by Pope Pius XII in 1950 is quoted in our modern Catholic Catechism and reads 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.

The Catechism goes on to 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.

That means that Mary’s Assumption was not achieved of her own power neither was it due to her own merits: it is a gift, a unique share in the power of Jesus’ resurrection, given her thanks to the merits of Jesus Who -- though human in body and soul -- was divine in His Person, the very Son of God made flesh, Who alone could win the victory over sin and death for the whole of mankind.  Having won that victory in the flesh and blood He received from Mary, the Assumption is the expression of Mary’s unique participation in her Son’s triumph and her unique sharing in the redemption He won for all mankind. 

The Assumption is supremely significant because Mary, though the Mother of God, totally unique in her relationship with Jesus and in her share in His work of redemption, nevertheless, remained one with us, one of us, totally human in her body, soul, and personality: Mary of Nazareth our glory indeed, but also our sister.  And consequently, being thus our full sister, her Assumption is a sign of hope for all of us, a sign that we too might aspire, in the Spirit, to share with her in Jesus’ redemptive Resurrection.

Jesus wanted very much to underline the oneness between us and Mary, His Mother, as we can learn from His somewhat startling response to her on a very public occasion:

His brothers and His mother came, and standing outside they sent to Him, calling Him.  And a multitude was sitting around Him; and they said to Him, "Look, Your mother and Your brothers are outside seeking You."  But He answered them, saying, "Who is My mother, or My brothers?"  And He looked around in a circle at those who sat about Him, and said, "Here are My mother and My brothers!  For whoever does the will of God is My brother and My sister and mother." (Mark 3:31-35)

Evidently, He willed to make it clear for subsequent generations that Mary was no goddess, nor was she ever to be thought of as being other than one of us.  And yet, as St. John tells us, Jesus -- with what were almost His very last words as He hung, dying, on the Cross -- chose to give supreme emphasis to the reverence and love that all who would be His disciples should have for her:

Now there stood by the cross of Jesus His mother, and His mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.  When Jesus therefore saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing by, He said to His mother, "Woman, behold your son!"  Then He said to the disciple, "Behold your mother!" (John 19:25-27)

Therefore, when Mary, the Mother of Jesus, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory, it was not simply for Mary herself, for she is our sister whom we might hope to follow; and also, since Mary is our mother too, we can be sure that she will be a constant advocate and most powerful help to us who have been handed over, so to speak, into her maternal care.  In that way we are led to have sure confidence and firm hope that if we are faithful disciples of Jesus to the end, we can and will eventually follow Our Lord heavenward and share in His glory, as she, our sister and our mother, has already done.

The dogma of the Assumption was, as I said, promulgated in 1950 by Pope Pius XII.  It was nothing new; it had been loved, meditated and celebrated in the Church from the earliest times.  It was at the beginning of the 5^thC. that what had been traditionally celebrated as her Dormition or sleeping in earthly death, became rather the celebration of her “birthday”, her birth into heavenly life, that is, her Assumption.  There are apocryphal stories written early in the history of the Church telling of the death of Mary, how her body was buried under the tree of life, and how she was translated into heaven.  Some scholars think these stories arose after the feast started to be celebrated; others, however, think the first of the apocryphal tales go back to the earliest times, and that there was probably an immemorial veneration of the tomb of Mary in Jerusalem by early Jewish converts to Christianity.

Such stories however, although picturesque, sometimes moving, or even instructive, are not the basis of our present faith which rests securely on the ancient devotion and worship of the Church, in accordance with the teaching of the Scriptures and under the perennial guidance of the Spirit.

Whenever the body of a disciple of Jesus and child of the Church is brought into church the night before burial we read the Gospel passage which goes:

Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.  In My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. (John 14:1-2)

There, at the Last Supper, Jesus was speaking to His sorrowing disciples in order to comfort them in their distress at the thought of His imminent Passion and Death.  Think how Jesus must have willed above all to comfort His Mother in her distress; surely, first and foremost, He would want and will to prepare a place for her!

And where would that place be?  The disciples were distressed that Jesus was going to be taken from them, and so Jesus promised:

If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. (John 14:3)

Who more than Mary longed to be where Jesus was?  Who had persevered so faithfully as Mary at the foot of the Cross and throughout His whole life and ministry?

Again, Jesus prayed most solemnly at the Last Supper:

Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. (John 17:24)

Now, who could conceivably long to see the glory of her Son more than His Mother?  Who, more than Mary, could conceivably deserve to see the glory of her Son?

However, all such considerations are included in, and embraced by, these other words of Jesus:

If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honour. (John 12:26)

Mary’s whole life with her Son was, indeed, a life of total and whole-hearted love and service, given directly and personally to Jesus from the moment of His conception.  And even that, however, is not the sum total of Mary’s commitment to and sharing with Jesus throughout her life on earth, for, just as St. Peter, writing to the early Christians threatened with persecution by the Roman State, said:

If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you (1 Pet 4:14);

so too we are told of Mary that she was blessed with the Spirit of glory and of God resting on her from the beginning of her motherhood, that is, she was blessed with the ability, and called to embrace the opportunity, to share with her Son in His sufferings.  This was made clear to her in the Temple at Jerusalem, when, together with St. Joseph -- and with her heart surely filled with ecstatic joy and gratitude to God – she was presenting her Son to the Lord, a Temple priest, Simeon by name, approached them, and, we are told :

Simeon blessed them, and said to Mary His mother, "Behold, this Child is destined for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign which will be spoken against (yes, a sword will pierce through your own soul also), that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed." (Luke 2:34-35)

Yes, Mary would follow her Son unswervingly to the end, until, standing at the foot of His Cross she watched Him die.  Even thus, her sufferings for Him were not over, since she participated most intimately in the early sufferings of His Church.

The fact is that Jesus, in all that He did, carried with Him and worked in and through, the flesh and blood that Mary had uniquely given Him.  She was so intimately one with Him in all that He did, in and through His sacred humanity; and that is why she alone has been so uniquely honoured by the Father that she is now where Jesus is, in heaven!.  Jesus, bearing Mary’s flesh, died, was buried, and rose again; therefore, Mary too, in her flesh died, was buried, and then -- thanks to her Son’s Personal holiness and Divine majesty -- knowing no corruption just as she had known no sin, she was raised to share with Him in His heavenly glory.

People of God, let us, therefore, rejoice on the occasion of this solemn feast, and repeat with heartfelt joy the words of Mary herself:

My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour; for He has looked with favour on His lowly servant.  From this day all generations will call me blessed: the Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is His name. (Luke 1:46-49)

Having thus praised God in the first outpouring of her soul’s gratitude, Mary then spoke words for the comfort of her children, words which should give us both confidence and courage as we strive to serve and follow Jesus our Lord and Saviour:

He has mercy on those who fear Him in every generation.

The Assumption of Mary is still for us, in this the third millennium, a source of inspiration and of hope; for the arm of the Lord is not shortened, His mercy and love are eternal.  What was given to Mary was given her uniquely indeed, but not exclusively, for it was intended also for us, ‘those who fear Him from generation to generation’.  Let us, therefore, as her children, treasure and take to heart the words Elizabeth used to characterize our mother:

Blessed is she who believed, for there will be a fulfilment of those things which were told her from the Lord                                                                

 

Eighteenth Sunday, Year (A)

(Isaiah 55:1-3; Romans 8:35, 37-39; Matthew 14:13-21)

In the ancient world of the Gospel’s beginning Christians were mocked by the learning of Greece and persecuted by the power of Rome for proclaiming an exclusive, unique, God, Who had taken on human flesh: in which He suffered and died on the Cross before rising from the dead.  And today Christians -- above all Catholics -- are mocked and reviled for proclaiming this Jesus as the Way, the Truth, and the Life for human beings, whereas so many acclaimed philosophers, scientists, and scholars of this world repeat Pilate’s question, ‘What is Truth?’

Now, today’s Mass readings are a most pertinent guide for our situation as Catholic Christians living in an alien society and facing an increasingly hostile world for which the only acceptable criteria for human living are the morals of political correctness and the success engendered by money or guaranteed by popularity.

In Isaiah’s time, as you heard in the first reading, things were much the same: the success many people looked for in life was that of having ‘good things to eat and rich food to enjoy’, whilst worship of the most popular god from the local pantheon was the obvious way to walk easy together with plenty of comforting companions.  But what did Isaiah proclaim in the name of the God of Israel:

            Pay attention, come to me; listen, and your soul will live.

Leave your bawling, easy, and lusty, companions crowding to worship popular idols, turn aside and listen to Israel’s God speaking in the depths of your heart, hearken to the one true God Who alone can give true success to your life,  success which consists not in amassing the things of earthly life -- things which for the most part clumber as much as they sustain bodily existence -- but in embracing real life itself: soul-life, transcendent and eternal life; far above and beyond what is merely earthly.

Today, our alien society and hostile world, along with their proclamation of success and popularity as the only criteria for a worth-while life, also assert that there is no god greater than mankind itself, there is nothing ‘higher’ than human thought and aspirations.  And that is where the terror of secularism shows itself, since those who find themselves unsatisfied with occasional helpings of success or a padding of popularity are warned to like it or lump it since there is nothing else on offer … jump on to the band-wagon or else be left behind in your loneliness: there is no God Who wants to speak with you personally; there is nothing special about you that cannot be seen and appreciated by society around you; the only message for you is society’s message, in which the peer-pressure of schooldays is undisguisedly perpetuated and fulfilled.

Isaiah spoke of the God of Israel Whom no man could ever see and survive; a God, therefore, unseen indeed but not unknown, since He had been active in Israel’s history for over a thousand years; indeed, it was He Who had made Israel into a nation.  In our second reading, however, this true but unseen God has taken on human flesh, becoming incarnate in Jesus Christ; and, it is on His behalf that St. Paul offers for our aspirations not a pottage of worldly success or social popularity, but that supreme blessing for the human heart and mind, which is the abiding love of the God Who made us and the Lord Who saves us:

Nothing can come between us and the love of Christ …. Nothing can ever come between us and the love of God made visible in Christ Jesus our Lord.

St. Paul offers us there a shield, a helmet of salvation, for our present situation:

Even if we are troubled or worried, or being persecuted, or lacking food or clothes or being threatened or even attacked …. These are (but) trials through which we triumph, by the power of Him who loved us.

From that you can appreciate why the spirits that rule our modern world and technological society are ever more hostile to Jesus: for He exercises power they will not acknowledge, because it is greater than anything they themselves can muster.  Moreover, it is a power He exercises through people who appear to be nothing: because they fear, obey, and love, the God Who speaks with them in the depths of their conscience, Who mysteriously touches them in their daily experience of life, and Who has Personally triumphed over all the torments of the Cross and found life eternal.

Yes, People of God, we are increasingly regarded as aliens in today’s world and modern society because we are a peculiar People of Faith: faith in the God of conscience and Love; the God Who rules in our minds and hearts and reigns from the Cross.

However there is something that makes us yet more mysterious and suspicious to secular influences around us, for our Faith in God and Love for our Saviour is imbued with an unbounded Hope which springs up confidently within us from the Gospel proclamation you heard:

Jesus said to His disciples: There is no need for them (the hungry) to go: give them something to eat yourselves.  He took the five loaves and two fish, raised His eyes to heaven and said the blessing.  And breaking the loaves He handed them to His disciples who gave them to the crowds.  They all ate as much as they wanted, and they collected the scraps; remaining, twelve baskets full.  Those who ate numbered about five thousand men, to say nothing of women and children.

There, of course, we see foreshadowed the Holy Eucharist in Mother Church, that sacrificial offering and sacramental banquet we are now in the process of celebrating.   Holy Mass is, indeed, the source of our Hope, since here Jesus’ Self-sacrifice is our offering to the Father, and His Holy Spirit is the abiding, sacramental Gift of the Father and bequest of the Son, through Whom God’s life and power are at work in Mother Church and in our individual lives.  And not in our lives only since Jesus’ disciples gathered up 12 baskets full of food left over, food suitable and sufficient for all God’s People (symbolically the 12 tribes of Israel) throughout time.  And the divine life and power nourished by such food can neither be negated by human weakness nor thwarted by our sinfulness, because the Spirit is unfailingly able to raise up children of Mother Church who will not bend the knee to Satan; children whose Faith, Hope, and Love allow the Spirit to form them in the likeness of the Jesus Who said:

In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.  (John 16:33)