SOLEMNITY OF THE ASSUMPTION OF MARY
First Reading - Apocalypse 11:19,12:1-6,10
Second Reading - 1 Corinthians 15:20-26
Gospel - Luke 1:39-56
Miss Holycheek, the Catholic Sunday school teacher, had just finished explaining the Feast of the Assumption to her class. “Now,” she said, “let all those children who want to go to Heaven to see their Heavenly Mother raise their hands.” All the children raised their hands except little Marie in the front row. “Don’t you want to go to Heaven, Marie?” asked Miss Holycheek. “I can’t,” said Marie tearfully. “My mother told me to come straight home after Sunday school.”
Dear friends, this joke brings a smile to our faces, just as the Feast of the Assumption of our Blessed Mother does. It’s because the feast confirms that just as our Blessed Mother was taken up to Heaven with her body and soul, so will we be rewarded with this gift in the end. The readings of the day shed light on the reasons for and confirmation of the Assumption of our Blessed Mother into Heaven and give us assurance of the gift of heaven.
In the first reading, the author of Revelation describes the “woman” in this narrative. The image of the woman is interpreted in the following manner by many biblical scholars: there are three possibilities: 1. She is the old Israel, the nation from whom the Messiah came. Much in this passage suggests the old Israel waiting for the birth of the Messiah. The Old Testament background supports this. According to this view, the seer is taking up and partly Christianizing earlier pictures of Israel waiting for the coming of the Messiah. 2. The woman is the Church, the new Israel, the mother of the faithful. This is supported by Revelation 12:17, which speaks of other children belonging to the woman who “keep the commandments of God and bear testimony to Jesus.” 3. The woman is the Blessed Virgin Mary: An interpretation popular among medieval expositors, and revived in a somewhat more sophisticated form in recent Catholic exegesis (and clearly accepted by the choice of this passage for this feast), equates the woman with the Blessed Virgin Mary. There may be no need to choose among these three interpretations. For Mary is the daughter of Zion, the quintessential expression of the old Israel as the community of faith and obedience awaiting the coming of the Messiah, the community in which the Messiah is born. But she is also the quintessential expression of the new Israel (the Church), of those who “believe” and are justified on the grounds of their faith, of those who obey His word and who suffer for the testimony of Jesus.
The second reading, taken from 1 Corinthians, is Paul’s defense of the resurrection of the dead, an apt selection on the feast of our Heavenly Mother’s Assumption into Heaven. According to Dr. Brant Pitre, what Paul is saying here is just as everyone who is in Adam (part of the mystical body of Adam) dies because of Adam’s sin, so too in Christ, everyone who is part of the Mystical Body of Christ will be made alive through the power of His Resurrection. And Christ is the first fruits of that resurrection. Just like the Jews in the temple in the spring would chop down the first sheaf of grain, and they’d bring it and offer it up to God as the first fruits of the harvest, but then later on, they would go and gather the rest of the grain in the fullness of the harvest, so too, Christ is the first fruits of the Resurrection of the dead. In Genesis 3:15, there’s a famous prophecy called the Protoevangelium, or the First Gospel. It’s in the words of God to the serpent, which He curses after the first transgression of Adam when He says these words: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed.” Just as Christ is the one man, the new Adam, through whom salvation comes into the world, so too Mary is the new Eve, the one woman who is in herself the beginning of the new creation. If Christ is the new Adam and Mary is the new Eve, then just as Christ experiences the gift of the Resurrection and the glory of the life to come before everyone else as a sign of the beginning of the new creation, so too, in Mary’s bodily Assumption, in the fact that her body and soul are incorruptible and assumed into Heaven, it means that Mary, as the new Eve, gets to experience now what we will all experience in the Resurrection at the end of time. She is an eschatological sign of the fact that the resurrection of the body isn’t just for Jesus; it’s also for other human beings. It isn’t just for the God-Man; it’s for ordinary human beings.
The Gospel presents the most lovely song of Mary: the Magnificat. In the Magnificat, the song of Mary given in today’s Gospel, Mary acknowledges that “the Almighty has done great things” for her. Besides honoring her as Jesus’ mother, God has blessed her with the gift of bodily Assumption. God, who has “lifted up” His “lowly servant” Mary, lifts up all the lowly, not only because they are faithful, but also because God is faithful to the promise of Divine mercy. Thus, the Feast of the Assumption celebrates the mercy of God, or the victory of God’s mercy as expressed in Mary’s Magnificat. As the new Eve, Mary shares intimately in the fruit of the redemption and so is assumed body and soul into Heaven.
Dear friends, Mary’s Assumption gives us the assurance and hope of our own resurrection and our life in Heaven on the day of our Last Judgment. It is a sign to us that someday, through God’s grace and our good life, we too will join the Blessed Mother in giving glory to God. It points the way for all followers of Christ who imitate Mary’s fidelity and obedience to God’s will.
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 temples of God because the Holy Spirit dwells within us. He also reminds us that our bodies are members (parts) of the Body of Christ.
This feast also gives us the message of total liberation. Jesus tells us in John 8:34 that everyone who sins is a slave of sin, and St. Paul reminds us (Galatians 5:1) that since Christ has set us free, we should be slaves of sin no more. Thus, the Assumption encourages us to work with God to be liberated from the bondage of evil: from impure, unjust, and uncharitable thoughts and habits, and from the bonds of jealousy, envy, and hatred.
Finally, 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.
Therefore, on this feast day of our Heavenly Mother, let us offer ourselves on the altar and pray for her special care and loving protection in helping us lead a purer and holier life.
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