Today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Assumption of Our Blessed Lady into
heaven. This wonderful Feast of Mary cannot be taken in isolation, for it is the culmination of Mary’s life here on earth and must be seen in conjunction with her Immaculate
Conception — Her Presentation in the Temple — The Annunciation — The Visitation — The Nativity — Our Blessed Lord’s life — His Public Ministry — His Crucifixion,
Resurrection and His Ascension into heaven. All these things, in a word — Mary’s life, leads us to this great Feast of the Assumption. Mary was with Jesus from the very
beginning and stayed with Him right up to the end. She was beside Him in all the joyful and sorrowful moments of His life. She brought Him into the world in a stable. When He was a newborn baby she took Him to Egypt to save Him from Herod’s killers. She brought Him back to Nazareth and took care of Him as He grew up. She sought Him in sorrow when thought lost, when He was about His Fathers business in the Temple at Jerusalem. During His Public Ministry she sometimes feared for His safety and sanity. She accompanied Him all the way to Calvary staying with Him until He died.
She sorrowed as He lay in her arms after death and rejoiced at His Resurrection too. It is therefore right and fitting that such love and devotion should be rewarded with a share in His risen glory. That is what we are celebrating today on this great Feast — a Mother sharing in the triumph of her Son.
And it gives us great encouragement. After all, Mary was just a human being, albeit, a very special one. What she has attained, all of us are meant to attain. As our spiritual mother, she wants nothing less for us. It is precisely because of where she is now; with God, that she can and does help us.
Sacred Scripture tells us nothing about the place, year, day, or circumstance of the Assumption. No literal interpretation of an explicit text can be cited in favour of the
doctrine either: but it is based; as Pope Pius XII said, on “Sacred Writings”. “We must
remember especially,” he wrote, “that since the second century. The Virgin Mary has been designated by the holy fathers as the ‘New Eve’, who, although subject to the ‘New Adam’ is most intimately associated with Him in the struggle against the
infernal foe, which is foretold in the Book of Genesis (3:15), and would finally result in that most complete victory over sin and death which are always mentioned
together in the writings of Saint Paul. Consequently, just as the glorious
Resurrection of Christ was an essential part and the final sign of this victory, so the struggle which was common to the Blessed Virgin Mary and her divine Son would be brought to a close by the glorification of her virginal body: for the same apostle says: “When this mortal nature wears its immortality the sayings of scripture will come true; ‘death is swallowed up in victory.”’ (1 Cor 15:54)
On November 1st 1950, nearly two thousand years after the event, Pope Pius XII
defined as a truth revealed by God, that when the course of her life on earth had finished; Our Lady was taken up body and soul into heaven. This was the conclusion after writing in 1946, to the bishops of the whole Church asking them whether they thought That Our Lady’s Assumption could be defined as a dogma of the Faith and if they and their people wanted it to be so defined. It had already been believed for many centuries. Almost
unanimously the bishop’s replied in the affirmative to both questions; thus, showing that this was the common doctrine of the ordinary teaching authority of the Church and the common belief of the people.“This common consent,” the Pope wrote, “Is in itself an absolutely certain proof, which admits no error, that the privilege in question is a truth revealed by God and contained in the deposit of Faith which Christ entrusted to the Church to be faithfully guarded and infallibly proclaimed”. That which had been believed for centuries was now accepted by the Church as truth, and a revelation of God, and contained in her tradition from the beginning. “She who kept her maidenhood inviolate in childbirth, had to maintain the integrity of her body even after death — so she who carried the Creator as a babe in her arms was assumed into heaven body and soul — Mother restored to her Son; as He came down to her, so she was taken up…” The bride whom the Father had betrothed to Himself was now to live as Queen in the bridal chamber of heaven: she who beheld her Son on the Cross, who then felt in her heart the sword of sorrow she had been spared at His birth, now
beheld Him seated with His Father” (Saint John Damascene) (d749).
She was of course most intimately united to her Son and as ever shared His lot. Hence, it seems all but impossible to see her who conceived Christ… as separated from Him, if not in soul, yet in body, after her life was over. Seeing that by preserving her from the corruption of the tomb, He could give her such great honour, we must believe that He actually did so.
For many centuries August 15th, the Feast of the Assumption, has been Our Lady’s day par excellence. By the fourth century the Emperor Maurice ordered it to be kept
throughout the Empire. Saint Aldhelm, the first bishop of Sherborne, Dorset, wrote in 690 that ‘The Feast of the Assumption was kept in England in the middle of August; and King Alfred the Great made August 15th a general holiday in the ninth century.’ Such is the great esteem the Mother of God, and our heavenly Queen and Mother is held. What greater honour could God give to the Virgin Mary at the end of her life, than to raise her body and soul into HIs heavenly kingdom and crown her Queen.
The Church in her readings today celebrates the Feast by contemplating,
“In the heavens, a great sign”: a woman, “The handmaid of the Lord,” has given birth to, “The ruler of all nations’, and is there, “clothed with the sun, and with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.”
In Mary we anticipate all that will happen when the end comes, when Christ, “raised from the dead” — “Hands over the kingdom to His Father, when He has destroyed every sovereignty and every authority and power.” Along with Mary, the community of the faithful gives thanks for the marvels accomplished by the love of God which is : “From age to age, to those who fear Him.” Meanwhile, Mary continues her work still, by her ceaseless prayer and petition to the heavenly Father in union with her Son Jesus Christ. Her motherly love makes her care for her Son’s brethren still on their earthly
pilgrimage, still involved in dangers and difficulties, until they shall be brought to the happiness of their Father. For this reason the Blessed Virgin is called upon in the Church under the titles of Advocate, Auxiliartrix, Adjudtrix, and Mediatrix: and this in no way derogates from the dignity and efficacy of Christ — the sole mediator. Mary is more
worthy of more veneration than any of the saints in whose company she praises God, for she alone was called to be His Mother. If she is honoured as the Church wills, it can only lead to a greater love and glorification of the Eternal Trinity. Mary is a sign of hope for the entire Christian people. The mercy of God and the grace of the risen Christ are seen to
perfection in her” (Constitution on the Church)
Today on this Feast we give thanks as we see and hear of Mary’s participation in the Annunciation and the Visitation. The angel says to Mary: And behold, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age…for nothing is impossible to God.” Then, “Mary set out and travelled to the hill country in haste to a town of Judah.” This was not because she doubted the word of the angel but because she wanted to share her cousins joy as soon as she could and perhaps help her in what ever way
needed. The evangelist doesn’t tell us the name of the town in Judah where Mary
hastened, just that she hastened.
“Virgin Mary, bearer of joyous news, You run over the mountains of Judah, and at your passage creation awakes: the One whom the universe cannot contain dwells within you, the old world makes ready for Spring! The root of Jesse will flower the tree of life will give its fruit! Sing and rejoice, Virgin Mary, The Lord has visited His people. Elizabeth runs to meet her joy, she greets you, full of grace. Truth takes root in the earth, and John leaps for joy. Daughter of Abraham, Mother of the Messiah; we call you Blessed.” (La suit le jour 1973).
The canticle attributed to Mary in today’s Gospel, when visiting Elizabeth, reveals the depths of her soul and her faith, and perfect submission to the Word of God, and also the mission entrusted to her. This song, full of biblical reminiscences, speaks of the humble servant of `God as an ideal image of the poor, the beloved of God. The ‘Magnificat’
communicates so lyrically a very pure vision of God seen through the personal experiences of Mary —Mary declares: “From now on will all ages call me Blessed,” but she does not remain in self-contemplation, on the contrary, rather, she marvels at the works of God: “Holy is His name” acting out of such love which is “from age to age for those who fear Him.” In the same way the Church adds its voice to Mary’s and all the saints and angels singing of the justice of God: “The power of His right arm” which in so many ways manifests His unfailing faithfulness, His paradoxical power and His surprising choices: “He is mindful of His love, of His promises made to our father’s…… He has raised the lowly to high places; the hungry He has fed, while He sends the rich
empty away…. He upholds the weak and those who fall.” Is it any wonder then, that this beloved canticle of Mary begins [which on this great Feast we should echo with Mary]
“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, and my Spirit exalts in God my
Saviour” Happy Feast day.
