Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Rv 11:19a; 12:1-6a, 10ab; 1 Cor 15:20-27; Lk 1:39-56

Today, we celebrate one of the great solemnities in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Assumption. This special day commemorates the fact that after Mary’s earthly life, she was taken body and soul into heaven to be with her resurrected Son and adore the Most Holy Trinity forever. It is a remarkable truth that she now enjoys her body and soul united in heaven, anticipating the day when all the faithful will rise and dwell with God in a new bodily form.

In today’s gospel reading, we hear the story of Mary’s visit to Elizabeth. Luke describes a visit that left both the visitor and the one visited greatly blessed. Elizabeth addresses Mary as ‘the mother of my Lord’. She recognized that in welcoming Mary she was welcoming the Lord whom Mary was carrying. Elizabeth was aware that the Lord was visiting her through Mary, and so she declared Mary blessed. That is why we, too, honour Mary. We recognize that it was through her that the Lord visited us. Later on, in Luke’s gospel, the crowds come to say of the adult Jesus, ‘God has visited his people’. The really significant visitation is God’s visiting us in the person of Jesus, and it was through Mary that this visitation came about. We honour Mary because she was the gate through whom the Lord came to us. That is why, as she sings in her Magnificat, all generations have called her blessed.

Because she is the gate through whom the Lord first came to us, Mary has a unique relationship with the Lord. It is because of that special relationship with the Lord that she shares uniquely in his risen and glorious life before everybody else. That is what we celebrate today on this feast of the Assumption.

This feast is not only about Mary. It is also about ourselves. What Mary has become, we hope to be. The great things that God has done for Mary are a pointer to the great things that God wants to do for all of us. The doctrine of Mary’s bodily assumption into heaven brings home to us that our bodies are destined to be gloriously changed after death. How this will happen is utterly mysterious.

Recognizing that the Lord comes among us in embodied ways inspires us to be concerned about the welfare of people’s bodies. When in today’s gospel reading Mary sings of God as one who exalts the lowly and fills the hungry with good things, she acknowledges God as one who is deeply concerned about people’s bodies, about their physical well-being. Today’s feast calls on us to make that concern of God our own, and to give expression to God’s concern in the way we relate to others, especially to those who are broken in body or spirit.

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.

And she is not the only one called blessed.  Each of us, being her sons and daughters, is also called blessed because we are special children of the Queen of heaven and earth.  Any low self-esteem problems we might have will evaporate if we drink in this truth about ourselves.

“The Almighty has done great things for me and holy is his name.  He has mercy on those who fear him in every generation.”

 

May the assumed Mary intercede for us with her Son Jesus to do the works she did so that finally, we shall, assisted by Mary, one day reach Jesus, and enjoy the joys of heaven.