The Assumption of Our Lady

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 Mother 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 was 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 persoanl relationship with Jesus and in her participation in His redeeming work, 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 much more, she is, indeed, our very mother, whom – being given to us by Jesus as His ultimate bequest from the Cross -- we can be sure will be a most constant advocate and ever-watchful help to us who have been handed over to her spiritual solicitude and maternal care.  In that way we are most surely encouraged to have sure confidence and firm hope that if we prove to be faithful disciples of Jesus to the end, we can and will eventually follow Our Lord heavenward and share in His glory, just as she, our dear sister and revered 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 approved 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 cherished Him so dearly, nurtured Him so carefully, supported Him so selflessly; who had followed Him so faithfully and with such sympathy throughout His whole public ministry; who like Mary had shared the opprobrium heaped upon Him by so many, and who like Mary had experienced and appreciated His loneliness and abandonment standing below and beside Him as he died on the Cross?

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, conceivably, could long to see the glory of her Son more than His Mother; and, indeed, who deserve more fittingly than her, to share it?

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 yet, even that, 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 (1 Peter 4:14) 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;

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 all His endeavours and 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 He died, before her very eyes on the Cross; and even then, her sufferings for Him were not over, since she was further called to participate most intimately in the early trials and turmoil of His nascent 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, was raised to share with Him 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 praised God in the first outpouring of her soul, Mary then spoke words of ultimate comfort of her children, words which afford 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.                                                          

                                                                

19th Sunday in Ordinary time (Year B)

Nineteenth Sunday (Year B)

             (1^st. Kings 19:4-8; Ephesians 4:30 - 5:2; John 6:41-51)

No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draw him, and I will raise him on the last day.   It is written in the prophets: ‘They shall all be taught by God.’ Everyone who listens to my Father and learns from Him comes to Me.  Not that anyone has seen the Father except the One who is from God; He has seen the Father.   Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.

Those words indicate to us why, today, our Christian faith is unacceptable to many who are liberal-minded, because they speak of our having to listen humbly to One above and beyond us, One Who is totally outside of our control or supervision; and, what is not only unacceptable but also most objectionable, they even presume to speak of our responsibility before that mysterious One, to hear Him and respond appropriately:

No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draw him; everyone who listens to my Father and learns from Him come to Me.

Let us, however, who, as disciples of Jesus are fully aware of and, hopefully, responsive to the sublime mystery of divine holiness and love, reverently and gratefully consider the great blessing all of us, gathered here in love for worship, have received.

Today, you and I have come to Jesus: and Jesus tells us that -- in one way or another -- we have come because the Father Himself has drawn us; which means that, in the depths of our being, each of us has heard the Father, heard Him speaking to us personally; and, having learnt from what He said to us in the secret depths of our being, have come, at His behest, to Jesus.

            Everyone who listens to my Father and learns from him comes to Me.

Of course, someone could, especially in the old days, come to Church because of social pressures of one sort or another.  Even then, it could be said that the Father was behind it all, and that such was the one way He, in His wisdom, saw to be the best for us at that time and in our situation.  In such a case, however, we would not have fully learned from the Father, nor would we truly have come to Jesus, until we had progressed further and attained to personal faith, as Jesus says:

Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.

That is the first lesson for us today: coming to Church is only really meaningful and truly fulfilling in so far as we come with personal faith in and commitment to Jesus as our Lord and our Saviour; and if we have come to Church and to Jesus in that way then, Jesus Himself assures us, we have eternal life:

            Whoever believes has eternal life.

However, that is not everything; because eternal life, just like natural life, needs nourishment.  No normal mother and father, having given life to their child, would leave it without nourishment, because the life they have given has to develop, must grow.  Similarly, the eternal life given to us through faith in Jesus needs to grow, must develop, for such is the very nature of life: it has an innate drive towards fulfilment and perfection, and the only nourishment for such further development of eternal life within us is indicated by Jesus’ words:

I am the bread of life.

And yet, what does He really mean with those words?  Does He not bestow, can we not receive, blessings from Him whenever we pray to Him, study the Scriptures, or, perhaps, share in silent meditation, like many modern Christian groups who do not have the Eucharist?

Of course, when we do such things there can be no doubt that He does bestow on us many and rich blessings.  Nevertheless, He meant something more than that: for He spoke of eating the bread that He would give; eating in the way the Israelites ate manna in the desert when they had to go out to collect the manna before putting it on their plates, so to speak:

Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died; this is the bread  that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die.

Praying, reading and studying, God’s word, are all part, aspects, of our life of faith; and Jesus said that even those who come to Him with faith need also to eat His bread:

I am the bread of life.  This is the bread which comes down from heaven that one may eat it and not die.  I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever.

So, we live by faith, and to help our faith grow and produce its fruit we need to eat this living bread which Jesus gives.

We might well notice here a subtle change in the new translation of Mass: at Communion, instead of the words, ‘May the Body/Blood of Christ bring me to everlasting life’, we have, ‘May the Body/Blood of Christ keep me safe for eternal life’. There can be no doubt; the Eucharist is not to be imagined as some magical bolt from the blue in its effect on our life, but as a sublime and mutual commitment of life and love for the protection, nourishment, and development of eternal life and love in us.

 What, then, does “eating” mean here?  It means -- first of all and quite literally -- eating and chewing, because the word He uses is the normal word for those actions; and, of course, the Israelites in the desert did actually eat the manna:

Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert; whoever eats this bread, will live forever.

Now, we all know that there is a difference between eating and just receiving into our mouth; indeed, even food taken into our stomach has not really been eaten if we do not digest it and find nourishment from it.  So it is with this Bread of Jesus: we need to prepare before eating, so as to eat It with dispositions that will enable us to receive fullest nourishment from It, for this is that food of which the prophet Isaiah spoke:

The Lord of Hosts will prepare a lavish banquet for all peoples on this mountain, a banquet of aged wine, choice pieces with marrow, and refined, aged wine.  And on this mountain He will swallow up death for all time … and it will be said in that day, ‘Behold, this is the Lord for Whom we have waited that He might save us, let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation.’  (Isaiah 25:6-9)

This is food not just to be received, but to be lovingly savoured, to be religiously chewed, and spiritually digested.  What then are those dispositions?

This Jesus makes clear when He tells us that His gift of Bread will actually be His Flesh, given up, offered, to His Father, for a special purpose:

            The bread that I will give is My flesh for the life of the world.

The Eucharistic Flesh of Jesus we approach in Holy Communion is given, He tells us, “for the life of the world”; given, that is, in sacrifice for the life of the world, to save mankind from sin.  Surely, therefore, we can now begin to understand more clearly what should be our attitude of mind and heart as we approach the Lord in Holy Communion.

First of all, we must approach in all humility, knowing that we are not bestowing any favour upon Him when we draw near to receive Him; for we need to be freed, cleansed, by Him, from our past sins and enduring weakness, protected from surrounding dangers and possibly imminent trials; moreover, loving Him as yet imperfectly, we also want and indeed need – so desperately -- to love Him more.  Wherefore, our second attitude of mind and heart should be one of longing, longing to give ourselves, with Him, in sacrifice, and one of trust, that, by His Spirit we might be able to walk faithfully and perseveringly in His ways: seeking to do what pleases Him in all things, while carefully avoiding sin and firmly rejecting self.  Only with such dispositions can we approach and receive fruitfully Him Who said:

I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is My flesh for the life of the world.

Those lessons, learnt from today’s Gospel, are confirmed by St. Paul who told us in the second reading that we are called to:

Walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling aroma.

That we might walk humbly along Christ’s way, offering ourselves for sacrifice with Him, is precisely why the Eucharistic Food is given us: for, as you heard in the first reading, this Bread is given to enable us to make a journey which far exceeds our own native powers:

The angel of the LORD came back the second time, and touched him and said, "Arise, and eat, because the journey is too great for you." So he arose and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights as far as Horeb, the mountain of God.

Horeb was the mountain of God’s self-revelation to Moses and the People of Israel in the desert.  Now, our journey, too, is one corresponding to forty days and forty nights of struggle and endeavour leading to the sublime height where God is to be seen face to face in all His heavenly glory; however, it corresponds not so much to the journey of Elijah, as to the forty days and forty nights Jesus Our Lord spent in the desert confounding the words and rejecting the person of Satan.  After that epic conflict Satan retired temporarily while Jesus proclaimed the Good News of the Gospel and laid the foundations of His Church.  Then, apparently contesting the definitive nature of Jesus’ previous victory, Satan once more entered the lists for an ultimate struggle with Jesus where he pitted his dire threat of earthly suffering and death against Jesus’ supreme promise of eternal life.  Jesus took up Satan’s gauntlet, and, by rising from the suffering and death of the Cross in the power of the Holy Spirit, He totally destroyed the Devil’s earthly power, before finally ascending in bodily glory to heaven in manifest fulfilment and vindication of His promise and firmly establishing the foundations of God’s Kingdom here on earth through the subsequent Gift of His Spirit to all His faithful disciples.

So, our journey in the strength of Jesus’ Eucharistic food is meant to lead us, in the power of His most Holy Spirit, to triumph over sin and suffering in our lives, before passing -- with Jesus -- through death to our final triumph over Satan.  Thereupon, we will be guided to the heavenly home where God the Father has prepared a festal gathering for His Son, and where Jesus -- having prepared many rooms -- gives welcome and rest to all who will have persevered in His Name.  Ultimately, He will lead all His faithful and triumphant disciples into the glorious Presence of Him Who will embrace us as His true children in Jesus and show Himself to be the One true Father of us all and Supreme Source of all that is good by inviting us to take our place at His heavenly banquet celebrating the ultimate and most sublime Eucharist: by the Spirit, sharing in and partaking of Jesus’ eternal happiness and glorious beatitude before the Father.