ASSUMPTION OF MARY

Nowhere in the Gospels is there any reference to the assumption of Mary’s body into heaven after her death.  However, this death without burial, which is what the assumption is all about, has been the belief of our fellow Catholics from the earliest centuries of the Christian era. Some historians go out on a limb and write that the Assumption may well have been the first feast in honour of the mother of Jesus. They point to the very early 5th. Century. If you crack open your Encyclopaedia, you will find the Assumption was spoken of in 325 at the Council of Nicea. Also a gentleman saint named Epiphanius referred to the phenomenon in 431. And in 457 the Bishop of Jerusalem dashed off this statement for the record: “Mary died surrounded by the Apostles. Her tomb, when opened afterwards, was found empty. So, the apostles judged her body had been taken to heaven.” So, when Pope Pius XII on 1st. November 1950 proclaimed the doctrine of the Assumption as an article of our faith, he was simply giving the stamp of approval to a teaching that had been taught, observed, and held sacred for at least 17 hundred years.

British novelist Graham Greene was commissioned to write an essay on the Assumption in the Time-Life magazine of 30th. October 1950. Graham Greene wrote that the general heresy of our time is the “insignificance and the unimportance of the individual.”  How true in India, as any train crash will testify to the cheapening of human life, to the criminal negligence and callous treatment of the human body. Graham Greene went on to say that the definition of the Assumption foreshadows the resurrection of each one of us. “Thus,” said Mr. Greene, “it affirms the importance of every single person and proclaims with special clarity the Christian answer to death.”

My dear friends, our Blessed Mother’s Assumption tells us what God can do with the human body, your body and mine. It tells you that your body is marked out for and pointing in the direction of the Resurrection; that your body has power and potential and stamped with the sacred, and demands respectful treatment. In a word, the Assumption joyfully tells the Catholic faithful that down the road salvation is waiting for each mother’s child of us.  Heavy studdHH     eeee  mmmHeavy stuff !

Let me tell you something lighter.  Some of the small towns in “la bella Italia”, Italy for you, are celebrating today’s feast with a charming twist. The ceremony is called “L’Incinata”, which literally means bowing procession.  The town’s people carry a statue  of Mary down the principal street with gyrating excitement. From the other end of town comes another happy group of movers and shakers carrying a status of her Son, Jesus. He is coming to rendezvous with Mary. Under a gorgeous canopy of flowers and branches the two groups are joined. Jesus and his Mother bow to each other solemnly. The “I’Incinata” ! Then the dancing villagers carry Mary and her Son side by side to the church. The Lord is leading his mother to her throne in heaven.

God did not want Mary to be under the control of Satan for a microsecond. And so He gave her the extraordinary gift of the Immaculate Conception. Nor did He want Mary’s body to be even remotely touched by the corruption of death. If it was in our own power to do so, would anyone of us here do less for those we love ?

Today’s ancient feast teaches us to  accept gladly the advice of W.B. Yeats to “walk proud, open eyed and laughing to the tomb.” For the death of Mary reminds us, in the words of Wilfrid Sheed, that “old age and death are equally natural and simply the next thing to do.” And like the dearest woman we came to honour today, we will not be delaying in our respective tombs in any event.  Our God honours his promises, he reverses the order of this world, he will not disappoint us but will do great things for us.  Whatever happened to Jesus and Mary must happen to us.

PRAYER (adapted from Jan Berry)

Exuberant Spirit of God,

bursting with the brightness of flame

into the coldness of our lives

to warm us with a passion for

justice and beauty,

sweeping us out of the dusty corners

of our apathy

to breathe vitality into our

struggles for change,

speaking words that leap over

barriers of mistrust

to convey messages of truth and

new understanding.

Exuberant Spirit of God,

flame, wind, speech,

burn, breath, speak in us,

as you did once

in the Virgin Mary.

In Honor of the Assumption

O Immaculate Virgin, Mother of God and Mother of men.

We believe with all the fervor of our faith in your triumphal Assumption, both in body and soul, into heaven, where you are acclaimed as Queen by all the choirs of angels and all the legions of saints; and we unite with them to praise and bless the Lord who has exalted you above all other pure creatures, and to offer you the tribute of our devotion and our love.

We know that your gaze, which on earth watched over the humble and suffering humanity of Jesus, is filled in heaven with the vision of that Humanity glorified, and with the vision of Uncreated Wisdom; and that the joy of your soul in the direct contemplation of the adorable Trinity causes your heart to throb with overwhelming tenderness.

And we, poor sinners, whose body weighs down the flight of the soul, beg you to purify our hearts, so that, while we remain here below, we may learn to see God, and God alone, in the beauties of His creatures.

We trust that your merciful eyes may deign to glance down upon our miseries and our sorrows, upon our struggles and our weaknesses; that your countenance may smile upon our joys and our victories; that you may hear the voice of Jesus saying to you of each one of us, as He once said to you of His beloved disciple: behold thy son.

And we who call upon you as our Mother, like John, take you as the guide, strength, and consolation of our mortal life.

We are inspired by the certainty that your eyes which wept over the earth, watered by the Blood of Jesus, are yet turned toward this world, held in the clutch of wars, persecutions, and oppression of the just and the weak.

And from the shadows of this vale of tears, we seek in your heavenly assistance and tender mercy comfort for our aching hearts and help in the trials of the Church and of our fatherland.

We believe, finally, that in the glory where you reign, clothed with the sun and crowned with the stars, you are, after Jesus, the joy and gladness of all the angels and of all the saints.

And from this earth, over which we tread as pilgrims, comforted by our faith in the future resurrection, we look to you, our life, our sweetness, and our hope; draw us onward with the sweetness of your voice, that one day, after our exile, you may show us Jesus, the blessed Fruit of your womb, O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary.