Mary assumed into Heaven, take us by the hand
August 13, 2024 at 3:28 p.m.
Every year, we celebrate Mother’s Day on the first Sunday of May. And whether our moms are living or deceased, we remember them in special ways. One day a year, however, is not enough time to consider all that our mothers have done for us. I think it is fairly safe to say that most of us think of our moms much more than on just a single day.
The same is true for us in the Catholic Church. We have many celebrations of Mary, the Mother of God and our Mother, but two of them are so special, so important, so solemn that they are identified as Holy Days of Obligation: one, on December 8, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, and the other on August 15, the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Mother into Heaven.
One of the most important things any mother does for her children is to teach them about life and to teach them what it means to love. So it is with Mary, the Mother of Jesus.
St. Luke’s Gospel tells the story of the Holy Family’s visit to Jerusalem and how Jesus wandered away from Mary and Joseph and became lost in the temple. For most children --- and parents --- this would be a terrifying experience. Not for Jesus. When Mary and Joseph found Jesus, he was sitting with the religious leaders and teachers, engaged in conversation and questions. After a gentle “scolding” by his mother --- a teachable moment --- St. Luke observes that Jesus went back home with Mary and Joseph and “grew in wisdom, stature and grace.”
As Jesus’ mother, Mary taught him and as the Mother of the Church, she teaches us as well. Hers was a life of humility and total openness to the Word of God and the Word made Flesh. Hers was a life of unconditional love for God and for her own Son. Hers was a life of discipleship, following Jesus to the very end, to the Cross, where life’s sorrows pierced her very heart.
In all of these things, she teaches us in the Church. And the Church, which we often refer to as our “Holy Mother,” teaches us to follow her example.
The Solemn Feast of the Assumption, celebrated throughout the Catholic world on August 15 is, at the same time, the patronal feast of our Diocese and the name of our cathedral. This great feast, this holy day, reminds us that Mary was taken up, body and soul, into heaven to enjoy the glory of God with her own Son who himself had ascended --- she was to enjoy “full and perfect communion with God” (Pope Benedict XVI, Homily for the Assumption, August 15, 2010).
The Assumption of Mary is a defined dogma and doctrine of the Church, to be believed by all the faithful. In defining it as such on Nov. 1, 1950, Pope Pius XII declared that:
The revered Mother of God, from all eternity joined in a hidden way with Jesus Christ in one and the same decree of predestination, immaculate in her conception, a most perfect virgin in her divine motherhood, the noble associate of the divine Redeemer who has won a complete triumph over sin and its consequences, finally obtained, as the supreme culmination of her privileges, that she should be preserved free from the corruption of the tomb and that, like her own Son, having overcome death, she might be taken up body and soul to the glory of Heaven where, as Queen, she sits in splendor at the right hand of her Son, the immortal King of the Ages" (Pope Pius XII, apostolic constitution Munificentissimus Deus, n. 40, 1950).
That is what Holy Mother the Church teaches. But what do we learn from our Mother Mary and our Mother the Church from her experience this day and about this day? As Bishop, I propose three things.
Life is an opportunity for each and every one of us to discern and see God’s presence in all its moments, including the difficult ones. God is with us. Blessed are those who hear his word and observe it.
Death is not simply for the corruption of our bodies but it is the passageway to greater glory. Although we --- our bodies --- will not enjoy the same privilege as Jesus at the Ascension or Mary at the Assumption, our souls are destined to share their glory. As the late Pope Benedict XVI reminded us, this feast of the Assumption “means that God knows and loves the whole of the human being, what we are. And God welcomes into his eternity what is developing and becoming now, in our life made up of suffering and love, of hope, joy and sorrow. The whole of man, the whole of his life, taken by God and purified in him, receives eternity” (Pope Benedict XVI, Homily for the Assumption, August 15, 2010).
Finally, the Assumption enables us to tell the full story, the full Gospel that salvation is for all people of faith, male and female, and for the whole person, body and soul.
Our Holy Father Pope Francis has observed that our Blessed Mother:
…shows us that Heaven is within reach, if we too do not give in to sin, if we praise God in humility and serve others generously. She, our Mother, takes us by the hand, she accompanies us to glory, she invites us to rejoice as we think of heaven” (Pope Francis, Homily for the Assumption, August 15, 2022).
O Mary, Queen of the Assumption, continue to take us, your children, by the hand, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
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Every year, we celebrate Mother’s Day on the first Sunday of May. And whether our moms are living or deceased, we remember them in special ways. One day a year, however, is not enough time to consider all that our mothers have done for us. I think it is fairly safe to say that most of us think of our moms much more than on just a single day.
The same is true for us in the Catholic Church. We have many celebrations of Mary, the Mother of God and our Mother, but two of them are so special, so important, so solemn that they are identified as Holy Days of Obligation: one, on December 8, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, and the other on August 15, the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Mother into Heaven.
One of the most important things any mother does for her children is to teach them about life and to teach them what it means to love. So it is with Mary, the Mother of Jesus.
St. Luke’s Gospel tells the story of the Holy Family’s visit to Jerusalem and how Jesus wandered away from Mary and Joseph and became lost in the temple. For most children --- and parents --- this would be a terrifying experience. Not for Jesus. When Mary and Joseph found Jesus, he was sitting with the religious leaders and teachers, engaged in conversation and questions. After a gentle “scolding” by his mother --- a teachable moment --- St. Luke observes that Jesus went back home with Mary and Joseph and “grew in wisdom, stature and grace.”
As Jesus’ mother, Mary taught him and as the Mother of the Church, she teaches us as well. Hers was a life of humility and total openness to the Word of God and the Word made Flesh. Hers was a life of unconditional love for God and for her own Son. Hers was a life of discipleship, following Jesus to the very end, to the Cross, where life’s sorrows pierced her very heart.
In all of these things, she teaches us in the Church. And the Church, which we often refer to as our “Holy Mother,” teaches us to follow her example.
The Solemn Feast of the Assumption, celebrated throughout the Catholic world on August 15 is, at the same time, the patronal feast of our Diocese and the name of our cathedral. This great feast, this holy day, reminds us that Mary was taken up, body and soul, into heaven to enjoy the glory of God with her own Son who himself had ascended --- she was to enjoy “full and perfect communion with God” (Pope Benedict XVI, Homily for the Assumption, August 15, 2010).
The Assumption of Mary is a defined dogma and doctrine of the Church, to be believed by all the faithful. In defining it as such on Nov. 1, 1950, Pope Pius XII declared that:
The revered Mother of God, from all eternity joined in a hidden way with Jesus Christ in one and the same decree of predestination, immaculate in her conception, a most perfect virgin in her divine motherhood, the noble associate of the divine Redeemer who has won a complete triumph over sin and its consequences, finally obtained, as the supreme culmination of her privileges, that she should be preserved free from the corruption of the tomb and that, like her own Son, having overcome death, she might be taken up body and soul to the glory of Heaven where, as Queen, she sits in splendor at the right hand of her Son, the immortal King of the Ages" (Pope Pius XII, apostolic constitution Munificentissimus Deus, n. 40, 1950).
That is what Holy Mother the Church teaches. But what do we learn from our Mother Mary and our Mother the Church from her experience this day and about this day? As Bishop, I propose three things.
Life is an opportunity for each and every one of us to discern and see God’s presence in all its moments, including the difficult ones. God is with us. Blessed are those who hear his word and observe it.
Death is not simply for the corruption of our bodies but it is the passageway to greater glory. Although we --- our bodies --- will not enjoy the same privilege as Jesus at the Ascension or Mary at the Assumption, our souls are destined to share their glory. As the late Pope Benedict XVI reminded us, this feast of the Assumption “means that God knows and loves the whole of the human being, what we are. And God welcomes into his eternity what is developing and becoming now, in our life made up of suffering and love, of hope, joy and sorrow. The whole of man, the whole of his life, taken by God and purified in him, receives eternity” (Pope Benedict XVI, Homily for the Assumption, August 15, 2010).
Finally, the Assumption enables us to tell the full story, the full Gospel that salvation is for all people of faith, male and female, and for the whole person, body and soul.
Our Holy Father Pope Francis has observed that our Blessed Mother:
…shows us that Heaven is within reach, if we too do not give in to sin, if we praise God in humility and serve others generously. She, our Mother, takes us by the hand, she accompanies us to glory, she invites us to rejoice as we think of heaven” (Pope Francis, Homily for the Assumption, August 15, 2022).
O Mary, Queen of the Assumption, continue to take us, your children, by the hand, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.