Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Today's Mass Readings

Today is the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Such an important feast. It appears to me to be significant that although this dogma was believed by Christians, including Martin Luther after he left the Catholic Church, since the beginning, and is evidenced even before the medieval period, it was only in 1950, less than a decade after the end of World War II, that it was solemnly defined by the Pope. In a decade that had witnessed such a denial of the body, especially through the Holocaust, the Assumption stands out as hope to us all that we too may achieve the resurrection of the dead, as well as our transformed and glorified bodies. As today’s second reading from the First Letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians makes clear, such a resurrection hope is founded in Jesus’ own resurrection from the dead. We see in today’s first reading from the Book of Revelation, however, Mary in heaven, both as the Ark of the Covenant and as the Queen Mother in heaven. She is the new Ark of the Covenant, in that like the old ark, she too held within her womb the Word of God, the Bread from Heaven, and the true High Priesthood, but not in the form of the old (10 commandments, manna, staff of the high priest), but rather in the form of Jesus Himself. In today’s Gospel reading, Mary takes the same path King David took with the old Ark of the Covenant, to Judah, where both remained for 3 months. As Queen of heaven, Mary intercedes on behalf of us, her children, as Revelation 12:17 (not in today’s reading, but in the surrounding context) makes clear, all of us who keep God’s commandments and bear witness to Jesus are Mary’s children.

But more than this, the Feast of the Assumption is a feast celebrating not only what God did for Mary as the firstfruits of the resurrection, but also what God promises to do for us. In Mary we see already what God has in store for us. Jesus has conquered death. Mary lives on in heaven, as will we in the end. The Feast of the Assumption is a family feast, where we celebrate the love of God our Father, for Mary our spiritual mother, with the hope that we will join them in heaven as one large family. We can catch a glimpse of this mystery here and now, at today’s Mass, and at every Mass, where we both anticipate the heavenly banquet, and actually participate in it through each Eucharist. Let us rejoice then as we come together as an earthly family linked to the heavenly family of God.

- Jeff Morrow