FEAST OF THE ASSUMPTION

Rev. 11: 19, 12: 1-6, 10,: I Cor. 15: 20-27, : Luke 1: 39-56

The Feast of the Assumption is one of the most important feasts of our Lady. Catholics believe that when her earthly life was finished, Mary was taken up, body and soul, into heavenly glory, where the Lord exalted her as Queen of Heaven. (ccc, # 966). This is the feast of Mary’s total liberation from death and decay, the consequences of original sin. Assumption- was a reward for Mary’s sacrificial cooperation in the divine plan of salvation. Her death was a transformation from this life to the next. She is the model Christian who heard the Word of God and lived it. She carried the life of God within her, celebrated the life of her Son on earth and is united to His life for all eternity.

When Pope Pius XII made the proclamation of the assumption on November 1, 1950, he put into words a belief held by the faithful since the first century. Way back in AD 325, the Council of Nicea spoke of the Assumption of Mary. Writing in AD 457, the Bishop of Jerusalem said that when Mary’s tomb was opened, it was "found empty. The apostles judged that her body had been taken into heaven.

According to a legend, when Blessed Virgin Mary died, Apostle Thomas was not around, and when he was informed of Mary’s death on his arrival back from India, he refused to believe it and demanded the grave to be opened and on opening found it to be empty, and only some flowers were found in its place. Tombs in early Israel were not hole in the ground, but caves and holes dug out in rock.

There is no mention of Mary’s assumption into heaven in the gospels. Yet, there is a line in the gospel reading for her feast that could be understood as alluding to it. In her prayer, she declares, ‘The Almighty has done great things for me’. In the context of Luke’s gospel, the ‘great things’ refers to God’s choice of her to become the mother of God’s Son. On this feast, we can include her Assumption into heaven as among the ‘great things’ God has done for her. Yet, the focus of Mary’s prayer is not on herself. It is rather on God and what God has done, not just for herself, but for all who turn to God in their need.

 Some non-Catholics accuse Catholics of worshipping Mary. We Catholics don’t worship or adore Mary because we worship only God, and Mary is not God. We venerate her, honour her, and love her as Jesus’ mother and our Heavenly Mother. If Jesus honored Mary, his mother, we also need to honor her. Honoring his mother pleases Jesus.

Mary herself gives the reason for her honor in her “Magnificat” recorded in Luke (1:48-49): 48: “For he has looked upon his handmaid’s lowliness; behold, from now on will all ages call me blessed. 49:The Mighty One has done great things for me, and Holy is his Name.”

God has honoured Mary in four ways, and we honour her because God honoured her:

a)    He chose her as the mother of His Son, Jesus Christ, the Messiah.

b)    In preparation for this role, God made her “Full
of grace” by her Immaculate Conception.

c)     He anointed her twice with His Holy Spirit: at the Annunciation and at Pentecost, making her the most

Spirit-filled among all women.

d)    God allowed her to participate actively in Christ’s suffering and death, suffering in soul all Jesus suffered in body.

Mary is our role model for all virtues, particularly love, fidelity, humility, obedience, and surrender to the will of
God and patience.

 

 Since Mary’s Assumption was a reward for her saintly life, this feast reminds us that we, too, must be pure and holy in body and soul, since our bodies will be glorified on the day of our resurrection. St. Paul tells us that our bodies are the temples of God because the Holy Spirit dwells within us. He also reminds us that our bodies are members of the Body of Christ.

We celebrate today by singing with Mary her great hymn of praise, the “Magnificat” (Lk 1:39-56). Apart from God’s favour Mary was but a lowly servant living in a “nowhere” town in the hill country of Galilee.  She was at the bottom of the social ladder.  Yet when God touched her womb, she became a queen, the mother of the King of kings.  To this day, she is honored millions of times a day as her “Hail Mary” is recited by humble Catholics throughout the world.  If you check it out, you will be amazed at the number of singing artists, both religious and secular, who have recorded her “Ave Maria.”  Truly all generations have and will always call her blessed.

It is always an inspiring thought in our moments of temptation and despair to remember that we have a powerful heavenly Mother, constantly interceding for us before her son, Jesus, in heaven. The feast of Mary’s assumption challenges us to imitate her self-sacrificing love, her indestructible faith and her perfect obedience.

Our prayers to Mary are the prayers of children asking their mother for help. We pray to Mary because she is our mother. When we were little and we fell down and scraped our knees, we called out to our mommies. When we got older, we stopped calling out to our moms in times of minor difficulties, but when major traumas hit, when a girl loses a baby, when a young man learns that he has cancer, it is usually Mom who is still the first person called upon for help. Jesus gave Mary to us to be our Mother from the cross telling, this is your mother. We recognise that it is Jesus’ life and power that saves us, but we also recognise that Mary was given to us at the foot of the cross as our mother.

If we have Mary with us, our prayers have a better chance of being answered soon, as it happened at the wedding at Cana. Let’s approach Jesus through Mary, because she gave Jesus to the world. I think after the Eucharist, Mary is the best gift that Jesus left for us. To Quote Pope Benedict XVI, “On this feast day, let us thank the Lord for the gift of the Mother, and let us pray to Mary to help us find the right path every day”.