Assumption Celebration!
Today is a day of hope! Today is a day of celebration!
St. Francis Xavier, one of St. Ignatius’ friends and followers, went all over the world to spread the gospel. So in the 1500s when St. Francis Xavier arrived in Goa, India to evangelize and to his surprise he found a Catholic Church already present. And the name of the Church was named after Mary, it was called, in their language, the “Immaculate Conception”. And our tradition tells us that St. Thomas the Apostle went out preached the good news and eventually arrived in India. So what St. Francis Xavier found was veneration of Mary that dates all the way back to the apostles!
And then in 180, St. Irenaeus wrote, “the knot of Eve’s disobedience was loosed by the obedience of Mary. For what the virgin Eve had bound fast through unbelief, this did the virgin Mary set free through faith.”
And around 400, St Peter Chrysologus writes, “Truly blessed is she who was greater than the heavens, stronger than the earth, vaster than the globe. For she alone contained within herself that God whom the world cannot contain; she bore him who bears the world; she gave birth to her Father; she nursed him who nurtures every living thing.”
One of the things I like the most about Catholicism is just how incarnational we are. We celebrate the incarnation; we celebrate the fact that Jesus was not only God but he was also truly man. We celebrate that Mary is truly the mother of Jesus. She is not a goddess, but she was a creature like us.
She was a creature like us, a human like us, and was assumed into heaven in both body and soul.
This is our hope. Everytime we pray the creed we say: “I look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.” Because of Mary’s special role as Jesus’ mother, she was the first to experience the union of both body and soul raised up into heaven, into the “life of the world to come.” And that should bring us joy! It should make us ecstatic!
One of ours, a creature has did it! It’s as if James Harden landed a 3 at the buzzer. It’s as if JJ Watt has just caught the game winning touchdown pass. It’s as if Jose Altuve hitting a grand slam to win the game. It’s like all this, but more! Mary, is like us, human, a creature, and through the grace of God, she has reached eternal life in heaven, both body and soul! Her humility, her obedience, her responsiveness to the grace of God made it possible!
I would like end a reflection from some of the mystic saints. The mystics in their prayer, often reflected on the life of Mary and some of them wrote down their reflection. I invited you to reflect with me for a minute now.
Immediately after Mary's death…
Our Lord had entered Heaven, conducting the pure soul of His Mother at His right hand. And presenting her before the throne of the Divinity, He said:
“Eternal Father, it is right that to My Mother be given the reward of a Mother. And since during all her life and in all her works she was as like to Me as it is possible for a creature to be, let her also be like to Me in glory and on the throne of Our Majesty.”
This decree was approved by the Father and the Holy Spirit. And Mary’s soul was immediately raised to the right hand of her divine Son and placed beside the throne of the Holy Trinity.
Later, after the funeral, the Lord descended in a dazzling beam of light to the tomb of the Blessed Virgin, accompanied by Mary’s soul and by innumerable angels. Then the holy soul of the Mother of God penetrated into her body in the sepulcher, reanimated it, and rose up again united to it, utterly radiant, gloriously attired, and indescribably beautiful.
Now amid celestial music a magnificent triumphant procession ascended from the tomb to Heaven. First came the rejoicing angels and saints, and then Christ the King with His Immaculate Mother at His side, while the souls of all the blessed in Heaven gladly welcomed and praised their new Queen and the whole universe seemed to be chanting exultantly:
“Who is this that cometh up from the desert, flowing with delights, leaning upon her Beloved?”
At the throne of the Holy Trinity the three Divine Persons received and welcomed Mary in a mystical embrace of eternal love, after she had bowed before Them in deep humility and reverence. She was attired in a marvelous sparkling robe that trailed behind her and scintillated with multicolored iridescence.
(from "The Life of Mary as Seen by the Mystics")
Through the grace of God, Mary has done it! Let us celebrate with joy this day!
