Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary - Mass during the Day
Today's Mass Readings
Today we celebrate the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Today’s feast and readings ask us to reflect upon the mystery of our bodies and our hope for resurrection in Christ.
It is very interesting, and indeed deeply significant, that the dogma of the assumption of Mary was infallibly proclaimed by Pope Pius XII in 1950. It remains the third of three such proclamations by any pope (the other two being the Immaculate Conception and papal infallibility itself). So this is a significant teaching. But why? Why did Pius declare this dogma at this time? The Assumption has been believed by many throughout the history of the Church; it’s certainly not a new teaching. It is indeed central to the faith, but one can surely think of more central teachings, the Creation and the Holy Trinity come to mind. The year of its definition gives us a further clue, I think, into the theological and spiritual import of this dogma. 1950 was only eight years after the end of World War II. The world had been ravaged by death. And veritably no one had been unaffected. Bodies had not only been killed in warfare, but had been obliterated in horrifyingly modern ways, even incinerated alive by the millions. It seemed to many that the hopes for universal brotherhood and peace promised by the 17th century Enlightenment were bankrupt.
Into this darkness is thrust the light of the dogma of the assumption. Mary is raised, body and soul, to heaven. God glorifies bodies. God thinks so much of bodies that He makes them holy, even the bodies of lowly peasant women. Mary has received the grace of the resurrection of Christ, and so might we. Our hope springs eternal in Christ and Mary’s assumption is a testament to that hope. This is not a hope that ignores or denigrates our bodies. This hope is not to found on some quest for secret knowledge or privileged insight, but rather in and through the very sufferings, shortcomings, and joys of our bodies, our mundane lives here on earth.
This hope remains anchored in Christ. As St. Paul tells us in the second reading, Christ’s resurrection is the reason for our own (1 Cor 15:21-23). The enduring fact that God thought so much of the lowly Mary, a fourteen-year-old, peasant woman, to make her a part of his plan for the salvation of the world is hope for each of us and our roles in God’s ongoing work of salvation for the world. That Mary would carry in her womb the savior of the world and be assumed, body and soul, into heaven is indeed hope for the potential of our broken, wounded, even sinful bodies to be instruments of God’s most important work on earth and to be glorified with Him for eternity. As Mary sings in Luke’s gospel: God “has lifted up the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty” (Lk 1:52-53). That is the power of this feast. That is the power of the proclamation of this dogma.
- Tim Gabrielli