St. Mary Parish, Manchester at 210 West Main Street, Manchester, MI 48158 US - Homily for the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (August 15, 2008)

We have gathered here today to celebrate a great and joyous feast. We have together come as Gods’ redeemed family to celebrate the ancient Catholic belief that our heavenly Mother, the holy virgin of Nazareth, Mary, is in heaven. The Church teaches us that the Blessed Virgin Mary was taken up into heaven in her body and in her soul all at once. This feast is a feast of hope and joyful expectation for all Christians, all the spiritual children of Mary. What has occurred in the body and soul of the Mother of God will one day happen to us.

The prayers of the Mass for the Church’s great holy days always reveals to its members what is believed by the Church and forms a part of the sacred deposit of faith. In a few minutes, in the Preface of the Mass, which is that prayer just prior to the Holy, Holy we will hear what this solemn feast is all about. Let me read for you the Preface for the Mass of the Assumption:

Father, all powerful and ever-living God,
we do well always and everywhere to give you thanks
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Today the virgin Mother of God was taken up into heaven
to be the beginning and the pattern of the Church
in its perfection,
and a sign of hope and comfort for your people
on their pilgrim way.

You would not allow decay to touch her body,
for she had given birth to your Son, the Lord of all life,
in the glory of the incarnation.

In our joy we sing to your glory
with all the choirs of angels.

The ancient belief of the Church, going all the way back to apostolic times, is that when the Virgin Mary died she was placed in a tomb. Soon afterward the tomb was found empty. The apostles were a witness to the virgin’s empty tomb. In the very early centuries of the Church a feast of Mary was being celebrated to mark this event. The feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary is the oldest Marian feast of the Church.
As the Church would continue to grow in it’s understanding of the unique role of Mary in the salvation of the world and as the Church would come to understand her Immaculate Conception God would reveal to Father’s of the Church the mystery of what happened to the Mother of God after her death. Because Mary was spared the effects of original sin, which are the corruption of the body, upon her death Mary immediately experienced the resurrection that is promised to all faithful Christians on the Last Day, the day of the return of Christ in glory. Mary did not have to wait for the end of time to occur in order for her body to be joined to her soul and then enter heaven.

The term ‘assumption’ is an important one regarding Mary’s entrance into heaven body and soul. The assumption of Mary means that God took her up into heaven. It was he who raised her, it was he who glorified her body, and it was he by his power as God who took her into heaven, body and soul. This can be contrasted to the ‘ascension’ of Mary’s divine Son, the risen Lord, who on the fortieth day after his resurrection ascended into heaven by his own power as the second member of the Most Blessed Trinity.
What is the significance of Mary’s assumption for us? As the Preface of the Mass reminds us that it is “the beginning and the pattern of the Church in its perfection, and a sign of hope and comfort for your people on their pilgrim way.” Mary is the first child of Adam and Eve to be redeemed by Christ and to share in the full effects of the redemption. We, then, who are the redeemed children of the heavenly Father will follow her one day into heaven, not only in our souls but in the totality of our humanity, body and soul, for this is what is means to be a human being created in God’s image and likeness.

Mary, our mother in heaven, through her glorious assumption, is encouraging us and reminding us from her place in heaven of where our focus should be placed in this life, on eternity and not on fleeting passions and pleasures that falsely promise paradise on earth. Mary, our mother, from her physical presence in heaven is spurring us onto to victory. The Virgin Mary is our comfort amidst life’s difficulties, and from her place in heaven she loves us and protects us from the snares of the devil. Our Blessed Lady wants nothing more than for each and every one of us to be with her sharing in the glory of the resurrection of her Son.

Dear friends in Christ, we need this feast of Mary, which allows us to stop from the hectic routine of our lives and to meditate on eternity. We need the feast of the Assumption, which affords us the time to reflect upon our mortality, which is a result of original sin. We need this sacred feast of Mary to remind those of us who dwell in this valley of tears of the promise of the redemption of our body and soul won for us by Christ and bestowed upon us as members of his Church.

And finally, dear friends, we need this feast of the Virgin’s Assumption so that we do not take heaven for granted and so that we will be spiritually awakened to our responsibilities to strive for personal holiness in this life by the constant and lifelong process of the purification of our souls through the sacraments of the Church.

O Blessed Virgin Mary, help us to love Jesus as you did with your entire being, body and soul, so that even now we can share a glimpse of the glory that awaits us and in which you already share.

I would like to conclude this homily with the words of the twelfth century hymn written to honor the Virgin Mary, and which are most fitting for us to hear on this holy day. The hymn is titled “Ave Regina Caelorum”:

Hail, O Queen of the heavens.
Hail, O Lady of the angels.
Hail, root of Jesse,
and the portal from which the world’s true Light is risen.
Rejoice, O glorious Virgin,
O fairest of all creatures.
Farewell, O most lovely one;
pray for us to Christ, our Savior.

Amen.