August 15, Sunday

Assumption of Mary

Mary’s Song Is Also Ours

Today we rejoice for one of us who has reached her destination. It is Mary’s great feast, the feast of her Easter, Our Lady’s Assumption. On earth she went the way of Jesus, she lived the beatitudes wholeheartedly, and now she shares in Jesus’ glory. The Assumption is for us a sign of hope. It reminds us that we too are called to share with her in Jesus’ victory if we are willing to share with her in the humble faith and service of the poor and the lowly in the kingdom of God. Let us celebrate!

First Reading: Revelation 11:19a; 12:1,3-6a,10

The doors of God’s Temple in Heaven flew open, and the Ark of his Covenant was clearly seen surrounded by flashes of lightning, loud shouts, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and a fierce hailstorm.

A great Sign appeared in Heaven: a Woman dressed all in sunlight, standing on the moon, and crowned with Twelve Stars. She was giving birth to a Child and cried out in the pain of childbirth.

And then another Sign alongside the first: a huge and fiery Dragon! It had seven heads and ten horns, a crown on each of the seven heads. With one flick of its tail it knocked a third of the Stars from the sky and dumped them on earth. The Dragon crouched before the Woman in childbirth, poised to eat up the Child when it came.

The Woman gave birth to a Son who will shepherd all nations with an iron rod. Her Son was seized and placed safely before God on his Throne. The Woman herself escaped to the desert to a place of safety prepared by God, all comforts provided her for 1,260 days.

Then I heard a strong voice out of Heaven saying,

Salvation and power are established!
Kingdom of our God, authority of his Messiah!

Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 15:20-27a

The truth is that Christ has been raised up, the first in a long legacy of those who are going to leave the cemeteries.

There is a nice symmetry in this: Death initially came by a man, and resurrection from death came by a man. Everybody dies in Adam; everybody comes alive in Christ. But we have to wait our turn: Christ is first, then those with him at his Coming, the grand consummation when, after crushing the opposition, he hands over his kingdom to God the Father. He won’t let up until the last enemy is down—and the very last enemy is death! As the psalmist said, “He laid them low, one and all; he walked all over them.” When Scripture says that “he walked all over them,” it’s obvious that he couldn’t at the same time be walked on.

Gospel: Luke 1:39-56

Mary didn’t waste a minute. She got up and traveled to a town in Judah in the hill country, straight to Zachariah’s house, and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby in her womb leaped. She was filled with the Holy Spirit, and sang out exuberantly,

You’re so blessed among women,
and the babe in your womb, also blessed!
And why am I so blessed that
the mother of my Lord visits me?
The moment the sound of your
greeting entered my ears,
The babe in my womb
skipped like a lamb for sheer joy.
Blessed woman, who believed what God said,
believed every word would come true!

And Mary said,

I’m bursting with God-news;
I’m dancing the song of my Savior God.
God took one good look at me, and look what happened—
I’m the most fortunate woman on earth!
What God has done for me will never be forgotten,
the God whose very name is holy, set apart from all others.
His mercy flows in wave after wave
on those who are in awe before him.
He bared his arm and showed his strength,
scattered the bluffing braggarts.
He knocked tyrants off their high horses,
pulled victims out of the mud.
The starving poor sat down to a banquet;
the callous rich were left out in the cold.
He embraced his chosen child, Israel;
he remembered and piled on the mercies, piled them high.
It’s exactly what he promised,
beginning with Abraham and right up to now.

Mary stayed with Elizabeth for three months and then went back to her own home.

Prayer

Lord our God,
you took Mary up into heaven
with her body as well as with her soul,
to share in the definitive triumph over death
of Jesus, your Son,
because on earth she humbly served your plans
as the first of those who believe.
Grant us her attitude
of trusting openness to your will,
that you may overcome evil and death in us
and lead us safely with Mary
into your everlasting joy.
We ask you this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Reflection:

The Almighty has done great things for me

On 1 November 1950, Pope Pius XII promulgated the dogma: “The immaculate Mother of God, always virgin, at the end of the earthly life, was assumed to the heavenly glory in soul and body.” In the account of the Acts of the Apostles, when Jesus entered into the glory of the Father, the disciples returned to Jerusalem joyful and happy, not because Jesus was gone, but because Jesus is now in a condition in which he is always close and always in the midst of the community of his disciples. In the same way, Blessed Mother has not abandoned the community, the Church after her life on this earth. She simply changed the way of being with us. ‘Heavenly glory’ is not a place but the new condition where our Mother has entered from this world into the world of God. She is always near to the believing community. What had happened to Jesus, has happened to Mary. And so happens also with every one of us who enters the world of God when we finish our pilgrimage on earth. Every child of God, at the time of death, is immediately received with the whole of his or her person into the world of God. The Assumption of Mary brings us this joyful God-news: Death is not a thing to be afraid of; rather it is the glorious moment of our entry into the world of God. This solemnity of the Blessed Mother presents to us our destiny – a live in the World of God together with Jesus and Mary, Our Mother. That is why the joyous cry of our Mother becomes our own prayer of thanksgiving: “The Almighty has done great things for me.” This expression: ‘great things’ is used in the bible to present the extraordinary interventions of God, the one who is able to defeat death. On this day, together with Mary, we thank God, for ‘He has shown the strength of his arm’—only his arm could bring down the monster of death. ‘He has scattered the arrogant’—the arrogant are those create a world of death. God of life has scattered them and made them disappear. The Church invites us to join Our Mother in her proclamation of salvation. The ancient world, the world of death is defeated. The Lord’s powerful arm has created a new world in which death is eliminated and we too are promised to be received into the Heavenly Glory.

Video available on Youtube: The Almighty has done great things for me