He will raise up the lowly

Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

In most action movies, from Avengers Endgame to X-Men Apocalypse where Jean Grey unleashes the full extent of her godlike powers, there is a common use of a storytelling tool known as Deus ex Machina, which literally meant, the god from the machine. In Greek theatre, actors who play gods would be introduced to the stage and play by either being lowered from a crane like device or raised from a hidden platform below the stage, making a sudden, almost miraculous, appearance. The introduction of this figure is intended to turn the tide and change the inevitable outcome of the story line. A seemingly unsolvable problem in a story is suddenly or abruptly resolved by an unexpected and unlikely occurrence. This functions to resolve an otherwise irresolvable plot situation, to surprise the audience, to bring the tale to a happy ending. Some have accused this as a form of lazy storytelling, but for us Christians, the story of salvation in Scripture is precisely all about how God intervenes at the very last moment to transform the outcome from an otherwise certain defeat to undisputable victory.

The first reading taken from the last book of the Bible repeats this theme that undergirds every significant turning point in the bible. Just when all seemed lost and evil seemed to have triumphed over good without any chance of a “remontada”, God enters the scene and amazingly rewrites the final outcome of the story. The woman in labour, in her most vulnerable moment, is rescued from the clutches of the towering gargantuan planet swallowing dragon. The enemies of the people of God would cry foul and even accuse God of cheating, but the truth is that our sovereign all-powerful, all-knowing and all-Merciful God has already willed this ending right from the start. Don’t take my word for it. Just read Genesis 3: “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; He will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” Both the conflict and the ending have both been written. We often believe that any good player would keep his deck of cards to himself without revealing his trump card. But God has made no secret of His plans. He has revealed this through history and through the prophets. It is just us mortal who often doubt that He has the winning hand, often trusting in our own senses and resources rather than in His mighty power.

In the gospel, we have Mary singing her beautiful song of praise where she redirects all praise to God, famously stating that God “has looked upon His lowly handmaid.” In the Magnificat, she redirects all glory to God, acknowledging her "lowly" state while magnifying His power. By recognising that her greatness stems entirely from God's grace, she models for all of us a perfect, faithful surrender. Her song is an ode to the theme of Deus ex Machina - She sings of a total reversal of how we would expect the story to end if history was allowed to just run its natural course, but instead we have a God who scatters the proud and exalts the humble, filling the hungry while bringing down the mighty. Just like a writer bringing in a powerful outside force to save a story, God intervened in human history through Mary. It is a song about God stepping into human affairs to radically change the world's order and the tale of its ending.

For those who have grown used to seeing the world as it is instead of seeing it as should be, to those of us whose eyes have not been adjusted, the light which Mary’s song casts is blinding and disorienting. It moves the earth under our feet, it causes us to stumble from our prideful heights. Our eyes are still fixed on the way of power, success, wealth, and brutal self-exertion and self-magnification. Our feet are still planted on the sand of our own glory. But Mary’s little way sees clearly in this dawn of light, and deftly turns our attention heavenward. We look up not because we can’t imagine ourselves taking our eyes off her but we are looking in the direction which she is pointing us to. Think of her person, her humble existence, her glorious assumption, as a sign pointing to our final destination which is God. That even in death, at the end of our earthly pilgrimage which feels like a cul de sac, death is not a dead end but a radical transformation of life, as the priest prays during Masses for the dead, that at death “life is changed, not ended.”

But we get to witness this wondrous mystery even now. We don’t have to wait till we are dead before we get to see the wonder of how God intervenes in our lives. Think of the world in a story as being trapped in a hopeless, unsolvable situation. This "unsolvable problem" is human sin and death. Every one of your stories holds scars. Every life collects chapters we wish we could erase — moments when shame screamed louder than faith, when we questioned our worth, or when the future felt permanently closed. Yet grace has always whispered a different ending: “You’re not finished.” Society says, “If you mess up, you start over from zero.” But God says, “If you mess up, I’ll meet you at zero and start something new.” When we lose our way, God writes around our detours. When we fail, He folds failure into the fabric of redemption. When we give up, His pen doesn’t pause. It just turns the page.

If you believe that all of this is impossible, remember that the Assumption of our Lady is the ultimate example of how all this is possible. It shows God rescuing Mary from the normal rules of human death and decay by a direct, divine act. In a sense, it is the ultimate "divine intervention" and the climax of Mary's life story. No Marvel hero is going to turn up to save the day because there is none. But God will. Lord willing, the rest of us will receive our full triumph - and the full effect of Christ's victory over death - when our own souls are reunited with our glorified bodies at the end of time.

Proclaiming the Glory of God

Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Today’s feast does not sit well with Protestants. It will be no surprise that those for whom the bible is paramount, for whom nothing can be said without clear biblical justification, the doctrine of the Assumption is not something they are easy with. We use the gospel reading on the Visitation, because there is nothing in the gospels that describes the Assumption in the way that the Visitation is described. Elsewhere, Psalm 132, where the Blessed Virgin is interpreted as the “Ark of God” that is taken into heaven, is cited. Along with similar interpretations of Genesis 3:15, 1 Corinthians 15:54, and Revelation 12:1-2, this hardly amounts to an explicit expression of the dogma of the Assumption; on their own, they are not a ringing endorsement. So, why is this gospel passage selected for today? How do we draw a trajectory from the Visitation to that of the Assumption?

We know so little of Mary even from the few scriptural references to her. How could the Church, therefore, make this leaping conjecture to speak of her as the most honoured and glorified creature of God, exalted above all creation, and uniquely sharing the privilege of incorruptibility of her Son at the end of her earthly sojourn? I would like to propose that the answer to all these questions is found in the great hymn of Mary, the Magnificat, described by Pope Benedict XVI as a “marvelous canticle (that) mirrors the entire soul, the entire personality of Mary. We can say that this hymn of hers is a portrait of Mary, a true icon in which we can see her exactly as she is.”

The Blessed Virgin Mary confesses in the inspired hymn, guided by the Holy Spirit, that the source of her “greatness” and “blessedness” is not found in any personal merit but in God. She does not exalt herself as others are prone of doing but immediately the greatness of God when she hears of Elizabeth’s praise of her and the child within her womb. Just as the Magnificat is a song that glorifies and exalts God, today’s feast of the Assumption is an Opus Magnum to God who raises her up to share in His heavenly glory. 

The erudite Pope Benedict continues to explain: “Mary wanted God to be great in the world, great in her life and present among us all. She was not afraid that God might be a “rival” in our life, that with his greatness he might encroach on our freedom, our vital space. She knew that if God is great, we too are great. Our life is not oppressed but raised and expanded: it is precisely then that it becomes great in the splendour of God. The fact that our first parents thought the contrary was the core of original sin. They feared that if God were too great, he would take something away from their life. They thought that they could set God aside to make room for themselves.”

But this is not the case of Mary. She understood that her lowliness and littleness was the perfect occasion for God to exhibit His power and greatness. This was no virtue-signaling stemming from a misguided sense of false humility. Although what God had done and was doing in her life was radically new, because nothing like the Incarnation had ever happened or could ever be conceived, it was not a radical departure from what God had done in history and will continue to do until the end of time. The Assumption is precisely the best testimony and proof of what the Lord has promised to do in scripture and what Mary had sung in this song of praise. 

The difficulty of Protestants and other detractors in accepting the dogma of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary is that they often confuse this event with the Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ. At a superficial level, one could say that the Ascension is recorded in the gospels while Mary’s Assumption isn’t. If the Bible was the only record of revelation, this would be irrefutable proof that the belief in the Assumption is untenable. Case closed. Full stop. But for us Catholics, the deposit of faith is not only found in written Sacred Scripture but also in oral Sacred Tradition, the former affirming the validity of the latter. Although there is no record of the life and death of Mary after the death, resurrection and Ascension of her Son, Sacred Tradition provides us with the source material to fill in the blanks. While the relics and tombs of the apostles were venerated from the earlier centuries, Mary left no first relic  of her physical body. But we honour the place where she was buried and just like her Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the tomb is empty. There is no body because as the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches: "Finally the Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all stain of original sin, when the course of her earthly life was finished, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, and exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things, so that she might be the more fully conformed to her Son, the Lord of lords and conqueror of sin and death."The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin is a singular participation in her Son's Resurrection and an anticipation of the resurrection of other Christians.”"

So, the real fundamental difference between the Ascension of our Lord and the Assumption of our Lady would be their respective causes. The Ascension of Christ was by His own power. Only Christ has ascended to Heaven. In the Gospel of St. John, Jesus told Nicodemus, ”No one has ascended into Heaven but he who descended from Heaven, the Son of man” (John 3:13). But the Glorification of Mary’s body and her Assumption was not by her own power, however. It was by the decision and act of God. So, to deny that it is impossible for Mary to be assumed into heaven both body and soul, is a direct affront to the sovereignty and power of God - to assert that God is powerless to do so.

Although the Assumption of Mary and the Ascension of the Lord are two different events, both of them indicate a way of elevation for us, human and spiritual, to which we are all called. The beauty of these callings is that they invite interior growth, renovation and transformation in our lives. Furthermore, these celebrations of our Church remind us that “death” is not the end of our human story. Death is just a transition to the true life with God, life eternal in the fullness of God’s love.

 

At the end of Mary’s life on earth, Mary is taken up to heaven in body and soul. She, who never knew sin, was assumed into heaven and never experienced corruption. Mary, as the new Eve, fulfilled God’s plan from the beginning of creation. Mary always lived perfectly in the will of God. The handmaid of the Lord has laid down for us the perfect model of discipleship that we may follow. We are called to live in the will of God and we don’t have to do this alone. She is there to help us.

The Second Pascha

Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Today, Roman Catholics throughout the world celebrate the great Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Our brothers and sisters from the Eastern Christian tradition, on the other hand, celebrate the event as the Dormition, or falling-asleep, of the Holy Theotokos, the Mother of God. From ancient times, this event has been regarded by Orthodox Christians in the light of a second Pascha, or a second Easter. Thus, the Assumption finds its true glorious meaning in the revealing radiance of the Easter dawning sun.

The Resurrection of Christ, the Holy Pascha, is THE pivotal turning point in the story of humanity’s salvation. With His resurrection, Jesus Christ trampled upon the gates of Hades, released its prisoners from the clutches of death and the devil, and opened for us the gates of paradise, which was originally intended for man - the crown of all creation, and which became closed to us because of the sin of pride and disobedience to God on the part of our ancestors. What man lost through Adam, he has regained through the second Adam. God Himself chose to come down to earth, became incarnate in the form of man, and once again opened to us the gates of paradise, having manifested - instead of pride - the greatest humility, instead of disobedience - complete obedience even unto death on the cross, and instead of sin, He - the most pure and absolutely sinless - took upon Himself the burden of all the sins of the world. With these three qualities - humility, obedience and purity of nature - the Lord showed us the highest example of what man can be like, of what he should be like, and of what the Creator intended him to be.

However, we may well be tempted to think that only God incarnate could be such an ideal man, while a mere mortal could never attain such perfection. But to show us the error of such thinking, we have before us the Mother of God, who is the highest example of the attainment of such perfection, and who teaches us with her entire life, her death and her Assumption that man can attain perfection precisely by means of these three qualities - humility, obedience to the will of God, and moral purity. Her Assumption is evidence and proof of such a life. Mary is indeed the first fruit of the new humanity, the creature in whom the mystery of Christ – His Incarnation, death, Resurrection and Ascension into Heaven – has already fully taken effect, redeeming her from death and conveying her, body and soul, to the Kingdom of immortal life. In the Assumption of Our Lady, it is these three qualities of hers which are commemorated - humility, obedience and purity, - which have elevated her, a mere mortal, above all earthly creatures and above the entire heavenly host.

As in all other feasts of Mary, we do less to honour her but in reality worship the Sovereign Lord who fulfilled His plan of salvation through His humble maid, the most supremely perfect among His creatures. In this area, the Fathers of the Church have often used the method of scriptural typology to speak of Mary’s relation to Christ. Typology is a special kind of symbolism. When we say that someone is a type of Christ, we are saying that a person in the Old Testament behaves in a way that corresponds to Jesus’ character or actions in the New Testament. For example, in the second reading, Paul describes Adam as a type of Christ. Though death entered this world through the first Adam’s disobedience, eternal life was made accessible again through the obedience of the second Adam, Jesus Christ himself.

If Adam is a type of Christ, Eve is a type of Mary. The Fathers of the Church often spoke of Mary as the new Eve. St John Chrysostom, the great Doctor of the East spoke of how the garden of Eden was closed forever to our parents through the disobedience of Adam and Eve, but now the gates of Paradise, Heaven has been opened to the one who showed perfect obedience, Mary, the Mother of God and Our Beloved Mother. Where Eve listened to the deceptive voice of the serpent, a fallen angel, which caused humanity’s fall, Mary listened to the revealing and liberating Word of God, communicated through an angel of God, and became the instrument of bringing man’s cause of salvation into the world, her son our Lord Jesus. As a result of the fall, the serpent would constantly strike at the heel of the children of Eve but the ancient serpent, now a dragon in the Book of Apocalypse, will be deprived of victory over the Lady who defeats the foe of the Church. Death and pain became the fate of our first mother because of the folly of sin, eternal life would be the prize won for our Blessed Mother because of her faithfulness to the will of God.

One may be tempted to ask: Isn’t the story of the Paschal Mystery, Christ’s death and resurrection sufficient? The answer is ‘Yes.’ But as the story of Adam is incomplete without the mention of Eve, the story of the new Adam would be similarly incomplete without speaking of His new counterpart. If Jesus, the new Adam, is the primary cause of humanity’s salvation, then Mary, the new Eve, is the primary representative of redeemed humanity in displaying the effect of Jesus’ redemptive work. If the old Eve followed the old Adam into exile after the Fall, the new Eve followed the new Adam in suffering, in the Passion, and so too in definitive joy of the resurrection. Christ is the first fruits but His risen flesh is inseparable from that of His earthly Mother, Mary. In Mary all humanity is involved in the Assumption to God, and together with her all creation, whose groans and sufferings, St Paul tells us, are the birth-pangs of the new humanity.

Mary’s Assumption shows the Way – it is Christ who has saved her from the moment of her conception in her mother’s womb and it is Christ whose redemption has preserved her body from corruption and now leads her to heaven. The Mother leads us to her Son, the Second Pascha casts further light on the first, the fidelity, humility and purity of the New Eve reflects the perfect model of the New Adam. Mary shows us the way to heaven through her Assumption.

Today, as we raise our eyes above and through our imagination try to behold the splendour of this wondrous event of our Blessed Mother being assumed body and soul into heaven into the welcoming arms of the Holy Trinity in the presence of the angelic hosts and saintly choir, our vision looks beyond the person of Mary. The Assumption provides us with a glimpse of our future glory, our final home, the holy beatitude of heaven. Pope Benedict speaks to us of the power of this feast as one which “impels us to lift our gaze to Heaven; not to a heaven consisting of abstract ideas or even an imaginary heaven created by art, but the Heaven of true reality which is God himself. God is Heaven. He is our destination, the destination and the eternal dwelling place from which we come and for which we are striving.”

The Ark of the New Covenant

Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

In the first reading, we are presented with that climactic confrontation between two seemingly poorly matched opponents. In one corner we have the cosmically enormous dragon that is able to sweep away the constellations and galaxies with its tail and in the other corner, a picture of abject haplessness and vulnerability, a pregnant woman in labour, notwithstanding that she is adorned with the sun, crowned with stars and is standing on the moon. If you were a bettor in the audience, you would put your every dollar on the lizard rather than the latter. This scene is so captivating that we often pay little attention or ignore entirely the paragraph that introduces this scene. Let me reread it if you have missed it: “The sanctuary of God in heaven opened and the ark of the covenant could be seen inside it.”

This line seems unconnected with what follows and yet it is the very clue which introduces the following scene of the battle. The note that the “sanctuary of God in heaven opened” is a summary of the Book of Apocalypse - this is the awaited moment of revelation, a glimpse of hidden heavenly realities in the midst of the turmoil and chaos we are experiencing in this world. What is being revealed to us? It is the ark of the covenant! But what has the ark to do with the lady in the next scene? More importantly, what has the ark to do with today’s feast of our Lady, the Blessed Virgin Mary and her Assumption?

Before we answer this burning question, let us now turn to the Gospel. In telling us the story of Jesus Christ, Luke presents Mary as our role model, the first Christian. But he drops hints to indicate something more. Mary is overshadowed by the power of the Holy Spirit when she conceives Jesus. Elizabeth questions, “Why should I be honoured with a visit from the mother of my Lord?” Mary stays in the hill country of Judah for three months. In the Old Testament, one item is overshadowed by the cloud of God’s Spirit. It is the Ark of the Covenant. Elizabeth’s question echoes that of King David when he hesitated to bring the ark into Jerusalem, “How can the ark of the Lord come to me?” and so, he leaves the ark for three months in the hill country of Judah.

It’s easy to miss the parallel between the Ark of the Old Covenant as the dwelling place of God, and Mary as the new dwelling place of God. You see the Ark of the Covenant, strange as it may be, is a type or a prefiguration of Mary. God loved His people and wanted to be close to them. He chose to do so in a very special way and so God instructed Moses to build a tabernacle. Within the tabernacle he was to place an ark made of acacia wood covered with gold inside and out, and within it was placed a golden jar holding the manna, Aaron’s rod that budded, and the stone tablets of the covenant. In the Ark of the Old Covenant, God came to His people with a spiritual presence, but in Mary, the Ark of the New Covenant, God comes to dwell with His people not only spiritually but physically, in the womb of a Jewish girl.

Notice the amazing parallels: In the ark was the law of God inscribed in stone; in Mary’s womb was the Word of God in the flesh. In the ark was the urn of manna, the bread from heaven that kept God’s people alive in the wilderness; in Mary’s womb is the Bread of Life come down from heaven that brings Eternal Life. In the ark was the rod of Aaron, the proof of true priesthood; in Mary’s womb is the true High Priest. No wonder St. Gregory the Wonder Worker said that Mary is truly an ark—"gold within and gold without, and she has received in her womb all the treasures of the sanctuary."

You can clearly see how the Ark of the Covenant is tied to Mary’s role and identity, but it still doesn’t answer the question: what has this to do with her Assumption? The Temple, the sacred place of Israel’s worship and the dwelling place of God, is no longer. When the Temple was destroyed, the Ark of the Covenant was lost. By the time of the Third Temple, Herod’s Temple, the building was merely an empty shell and the inner chamber called the Holy of Holies where the ark used to be housed was now vacant. But there is a new dwelling place of God. Scripture affirms that Jesus is the New Temple—the place where God and humans meet is Jesus (John 1:14; 2:22). Jesus, after His resurrection, ascended into heaven. The Lord sits in heaven “at the right hand of the Father.” But the Temple would not be complete, it would only be a hollow shell of a building, without its most defining content - the ark of the covenant.

The Virgin Mary, the new Ark of the Covenant, could not be separated from the dwelling place of the Most High. Just as Israel longed to carry the Ark to the holy city, where it could be placed in the temple, the new Ark must be taken to the presence of God. She who bore the presence of God into the world, would herself be taken into His presence once and for all.

So, the scene described in the first paragraph of our first reading is not just an editorial prelude to the battle scene between the dragon and the mysterious lady. The former scene provides the necessary interpretation for the latter. Mary, the woman adorned with the Sun, crowned with stars and standing on a moon is an apocalypse, a revelation, of that very ark of the covenant which is now brought up to the sanctuary of heaven.

As the Ark of the New Covenant assumes its rightful place in heaven, we celebrate that Christ has given us victory over death. Before we receive the bread from heaven from the hands of the priest who acts in the person of Christ once again, we will declare together that we believe in the resurrection of our bodies and our life in the world to come. What assurance can we have that this is true? Well, Mary, the New Ark of the Covenant is proof of this. It is not only her spiritual soul which is taken up to heaven but her body too - for that same body was the tabernacle which contained not just symbols or representations of God. The tabernacle of her womb contained God Himself. As St Augustine rightly sang her praises: “Him whom the heavens cannot contain, the womb of one woman bore.” For that reason, it is not hyperbole, that Mary, the new Ark of the Covenant, is larger than the heavens.

Love has won

Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

There is a popular adage to describe the beginning and end of life: “from the womb to the tomb.” As poignant and insightful as this statement may be, it is inaccurate. Our faith allows us to broaden our vision and to recognise that human life begins with God, we were already part of His grand plan before we were formed in our mother’s womb, and we are destined not to end our lives in the tomb but to be united with Him at the end of our earthly sojourn. Mary’s life is proof of this. She, whose womb is greater than the heavens because it contained the Lord Creator of heaven and earth and “bore” Him to this world, could not be contained in an earthly tomb at the end of her earthly journey. Heaven welcomed her eagerly and joyously for she had accomplished what the heavens could not.

The story of Mary did not begin in the womb of St Anne, her mother. She was already prefigured in the pages of the Old Testament because her creation was already part of God’s design for humankind’s redemption. In the Book of Genesis, we see her coming being announced in the text known as the protoevangelium which gave us a glimmer of hope after the Fall of Man (Gen. 3:15-16). The prophecy is that a virgin will give birth without having a relationship with a man, and the Child will crush the head of the invisible enemy, namely Satan. In the Old Testament the Ρatriarch Jacob sees in his dream a heavenly ladder which connected Heaven and Earth, with the angels of God ascending and descending this ladder. The Fathers of the Church see this ladder as a prophecy of the Virgin Mary which, through her, connects man to God (Gen. 28:l2). When Moses finds himself in front of the flaming bush which was not consumed by the fire on Mount Sinai, the fact that the Blessed Virgin Mary was to receive in her womb the Divine Logos, and that she was to remain a Virgin, are prophesied.

If Mary’s mission began before she was formed in her mother’s womb, we can only assume that it would have a far grander ending than in a tomb. It is only right that the mother’s life which was so intimately intertwined with her divine Son’s life should also share His eternal destiny at the end of her earthly life. If her Son’s empty tomb was the first sign and proof of His resurrection, her empty tomb would also be the first sign of her bodily Assumption to heaven.

Early Christian writings tell us that St John the Apostle took Mary with him to Ephesus, as he had been instructed by the Lord on the cross. There is some dispute about where the Blessed Virgin ended her life, perhaps there in Ephesus, perhaps back at Jerusalem on Mount Zion. Neither of these cities nor any other claimed her remains, although there are claims about possessing her (temporary) tomb. Why did no city claim the bones of Mary? Apparently because there were no bones to claim, and people knew it. Remember that in the early Christian centuries, relics of saints were jealously guarded and highly prized. Yet here was Mary, certainly the most privileged of all the saints but we have no record of her bodily remains being venerated anywhere. The Orthodox Shrine at the foot of the Mount of Olives, which Orthodox Christians claim was her final resting place, is empty, as empty as the Holy Sepulcher, the traditional site of the tomb of Jesus. There are no relics to venerate because Mary was assumed into heaven both body and soul leaving no remains behind.

Mary’s privileged beginning and ending is rooted in what makes her blessed, or in some translations “happy”. In today’s gospel we see how Mary is praised by an anonymous woman in the crowd because her womb bore the Lord and her breasts suckled Him. This is the first beatitude assigned to a specific human person, and Mary has the sole privilege of being the bearer of this blessing. But the Lord was quick to point out that Mary is more blessed because of her disciple’s heart: “Still happier those who hear the word of God and keep it!” Pope Benedict affirmed this truth: “Mary lived on the Word of God, she was imbued with the Word of God. And the fact that she was immersed in the Word of God and was totally familiar with the Word also endowed her later with the inner enlightenment of wisdom.”

Most of the peoples of the ancient world, if they believed in life after death at all, believed merely in the immortality of the human soul: as if the ultimate human destiny was for us all merely to end up like Casper the friendly Ghost! Not much "good news" in that! But the Gospel message is not only that Jesus Himself rose again in a glorified body and soul, but that also, if our hearts live in union with His, we, too, shall rise to a glorified life, body and soul, just like His own. This is precisely what the Assumption of Mary proclaims: "Christ is Risen - and is now bringing all faithful hearts with Him to glory!" The Assumption of Mary is a loud and triumphant proclamation of the full truth of Easter. Her assumption—which flows from her unique participation in Christ’s victory—anticipates to some degree our own share in the fullness of that victory if we persevere as followers of Christ. The good news that the Apostles proclaimed to the world was not only that Christ is Risen, but that, precisely because He is Risen, He is bringing His whole mystical Body on earth to join Him one day in heavenly glory.

Yes, today is a day the Church rejoices, not only because the Blessed Virgin Mary has been freed from the prison of the grave and assumed into heaven both body and soul, but because of what her assumption means for the whole Church. From Mary’s pure womb, the kingdom of God was opened for us. And her ascent into the Heavens now also announces that the gates of heaven are also opened to us. Pope Emeritus Benedict sums it up in his homily for this feast: “The Feast of the Assumption is a day of joy. God has won. Love has won. It has won life. Love has shown that it is stronger than death, that God possesses the true strength and that his strength is goodness and love. Mary was taken up body and soul into Heaven: there is even room in God for the body. Heaven is no longer a very remote sphere unknown to us.”

A Blessed Life

Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

It will be no surprise that those for whom the bible is paramount, for whom nothing can be said without clear biblical justification, the doctrine of the Assumption is not something they are easy with. We use the gospel reading on the Visitation, because there is nothing in the gospels that describes the Assumption in the way that the Visitation is described. Elsewhere, Psalm 132, where the Blessed Virgin is interpreted as the “Ark of God” that is taken into heaven, is cited. Along with similar interpretations of Genesis 3:15, 1 Corinthians 15:54, and Revelation 12:1-2, this hardly amounts to an explicit expression of the dogma of the Assumption; on their own, they are not a ringing endorsement. So, why is this gospel passage selected for today? How do we draw a trajectory from the Visitation to that of the Assumption?

In today’s account of the Visitation of our Lady to her cousin St Elizabeth, we see the exploding synergy which takes place during the meeting of these two women and the unborn children within their wombs. St Luke was determined to let us know that Mary “went as quickly as she could”, spurred on by a double motivation; to share the joy of Elizabeth’s good fortune in having conceived a son when well beyond the age of childbearing, and secondly, to share her own heavenly secret that she was to be the mother of the Messiah.

But apart from the excitement, the energy and the joy displayed by the various characters in today’s gospel including the unborn St John the Baptist, in the womb of St Elizabeth who leapt for joy as he heard Mary’s greeting, we see a remarkable theme being weaved through the entire narrative from beginning to end - it is the blessed life. Mary is living the blessed life.

In today's gospel, we have a description of the blessed life of the Virgin Mary. St Elizabeth honours her with this praise that she is the “most blessed” among all women; that the child within her womb is “blessed,” and Mary breaks into song acknowledging this blessedness: “all generations will call me blessed.” She acknowledges the source of that blessedness - it is God, “holy is His name.”

As some people are fond of saying that they are “living the dream,” which is to say that they have achieved their lives’ goals and their ideals and dreams have become reality, Mary is living the blessed life, not some unfulfilled dream in the future but a present reality.

What does it mean to live a blessed life? The simplest answer is that, it means to live in God’s presence. This is captured so beautifully in the first paragraph of the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

“God, infinitely perfect and blessed in himself, in a plan of sheer goodness freely created man to make him share in his own blessed life. For this reason, at every time and in every place, God draws close to man. He calls man to seek him, to know Him, to love Him with all His strength. He calls together all men, scattered and divided by sin, into the unity of his family, the Church. To accomplish this, when the fullness of time had come, God sent His Son as Redeemer and Saviour. In his Son and through Him, He invites men to become, in the Holy Spirit, His adopted children and thus heirs of His blessed life.”

This is why we call the Saints blessed, because they are heirs of God’s blessed life - having reached Heaven, they stand in God’s presence enjoying beatific vision—seeing God face to face. The Blessed Virgin Mary, though counted among the company of Saints, is uniquely privileged. She did not need to wait for death, as in the case of the other Saints, to experience this grace-filled moment of sanctification. Our Church holds this belief, based on scripture and tradition, that she was preserved from original sin from the moment of conception in her mother St Anne’s womb, and she alone among all mortals, was free from personal sin throughout her entire life.

The Blessed Virgin Mary shows us the manner in which we can live the blessed life in the here and now. By her dedication to God, she was open to doing His will. She opened her heart so that the Holy Spirit was able to dwell in her and the Word of God, the second person of the Most Holy Trinity, could take flesh in her womb. Mary wasn’t just some incidental insignificant supporting character in the story of salvation, nor a mere hollow receptacle of the Divine Being. It is from her flesh that God took on human flesh to become man. God became man through her and not in spite of her. God now shares in our humanity because of her.

The Blessed Virgin Mary is without a doubt the epitome of the blessed life to which the Assumption is an appropriate end, and perhaps the only logical conclusion. It makes sense, that she should be assumed into heaven, as a representative of humanity. Our Lady was born without sin, and was perfect in virtue. It is only proper then, that at the end of her earthly life, that she should be raised to heaven, to share in her Son's victory: an assumption that is on offer to the entire human race. Our Lord Jesus Christ tells us that He has gone to prepare a place for us. Surely, it is right to believe that the Blessed Virgin already enjoys a privilege spot in that place.

We too are invited to have a share in this blessed life, for God has promised that He will “exalt the lowly.” If we imitate our Blessed Mother in her humility, we will also share in the privilege accorded to her in glory. As our Lord welcomed His own mother into His eternal presence, He too beckons us, waving us over, inviting us to take our place at the table of the heavenly banquet which He has prepared for us, and where our Lady sits on His right as she whispers this piece of maternal advice into our ears: “do what ever He tells you to do,” and continues to intercede for us that “we may merit to be exalted by (Christ) on high.”

The Corona of Hope

Solemnity of the Assumption

I can safely say that there are very few persons alive today who would not have heard of the corona virus. The name is derived from the Latin word “corona” which means a “crown” or a “wreath” (which the Greek kings wore as crowns). Apart from being an apt description of the shape of the virus, the virus should actually be “crowned” as king of all viruses since it has brought down this pandemic upon an entire world, halted global thriving economies, shut down borders, locked-down social-economic life, closed schools, universities, and places of worship. It does seem that nothing can stand in its way and the destruction it has wreaked in its passage can only be described as apocalyptic.

As the world waits for a cure or vaccine, Christians need not have to place their hope exclusively on a shaky medical solution. We already have a firm and certain foundation for hoping. It is to be found in the sign which is given to us in the first reading taken from the Book of the Apocalypse and fulfilled in the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Here we see a different “corona”, one which emboldens rather than frightens, one which inspires rather than infects. The sign depicted in Chapter 12 of the Book of Apocalypse is that of a “woman adorned with the sun, standing on the moon, and with the twelve stars on her head for a crown.” Yes, this woman is wearing a “corona”, a crown. If it takes one “corona” to wreak havoc and terror on the world, it takes another corona-wearing woman to give us hope by announcing the victory of light over darkness, life over death.

If the Wuhan coronavirus and other virulent diseases remind us of our human fragility and mortality, the woman “adorned with sun … and with the twelve stars on her head for a crown” gives us reason to hope against all odds. This is what the author of the book of Apocalypse wishes us to see. It is a vision of a confrontation between two unequal sparring parties. In one corner, we have the woman – a symbol of powerlessness and weakness. Her vulnerable position is compounded by the fact that she is in labour. On the other side, we have the picture of the fearsome dragon towering over the woman. It appears that nothing can withstand the power of the dragon. But just when the reader expects the woman to end up as a happy meal for the dragon, God intervenes and the final outcome changes. God saves the woman and allows her to bring a child into this world, and it turns out that this child will be the real ruler of the universe and not the dragon. At the moment when all appeared to be lost, at the moment of certain defeat, God ensures victory for those who are weak and afflicted.

Who is this woman? She represents not just one figure but four:  Israel, the Church, Eve, and Mary.

She is Israel because she is associated with the sun, the moon, and the twelve stars. These symbols are drawn from Genesis 37:9–11, in which the patriarch Joseph has a dream of the sun and moon (symbolising his father and mother) and stars (representing his brothers), which bow down to him. Taken together, the sun, moon, and twelve stars symbolise the people of Israel.

The woman is also the Church, the new Israel, because, as 12:17 tells us, “the rest of her offspring”, us Christians, are those who bear witness to Jesus.

But the woman also represents Eve, because she is part of the three-way conflict involving her offspring and the Dragon (now a fully grown serpent) mentioned in Genesis 3:15. But this conflict is merely a sign which prefigures the conflict between Mary, Satan, and Jesus.

Finally, we see why this reading is always chosen as the first reading for this Solemnity. The woman is Mary because she is the mother of Jesus, the child who will rule the nations with a rod of iron (19:11–16). Like Mary, she is pictured as being in heaven and she flies (mirroring Mary’s Assumption).

The event of the Assumption, Mary at the end of her earthly life being assumed into heaven both body and soul, is indeed a proclamation of the good news first proclaimed in Genesis 3:15, that the offspring of the woman will crush the head of the serpent, even though the serpent is allowed the first strike. We see in Mary’s Assumption, the undoing of Eve’s curse, the unravelling of death’s hold on man, and the reopening of Paradise to those barred from entering.  Our Lady’s Assumption is proof that death will not have the last word, evil will not triumph and Christ’s victory over sin and death is certain.

This coronavirus has infected close to 20 million persons worldwide. It is responsible for more than three quarters of a million deaths and the number is still rapidly growing unabated. Economists are already predicting a global economic depression which would result in massive unemployment and social woes. The worst is yet to come. In the face of such a powerful and uncontrollable force, is there any hope that we will get through this alive or even unscathed?

Well, back in the year 1950, when Pope Pius XII defined this dogma, it felt very much the same. The world was in shambles, millions had died in the two great world wars, the survivors could barely scrape a living. Instead of giving in to all the gloom and doom, Pius XII discerned that it was time to hold forth the image of Our Lady’s Assumption as a beacon of hope to a world draped in the darkness of despair. In our Lady’s Assumption, the Church invites us to raise our eyes and through our imagination, try to behold the splendour of this wondrous event of our Blessed Mother being assumed body and soul into heaven into the welcoming arms of the Holy Trinity. In this event, the Church announces the victory of grace over sin, good over evil, life over death. Through Mary’s Assumption we are given a glimpse of our future glory, our final home, the holy beatitude of heaven, where the righteous are freed of every coronavirus or ailment, and are given imperishable crowns (or coronas) of glory.

Love unites with the Beloved

Homily for the Assumption of Our Lady

Recently I had the opportunity and privilege to read the soon to be canonised (fingers crossed and praying hard) Venerable Fulton Sheen’s beautiful book on the Blessed Virgin Mary, The Woman the World Loved. I would strongly recommend that you get your own personal copy as it ought to be an indispensable addition to your Catholic library collection. In fact, for Archbishop Sheen, it is said that this was his favourite book -“he cherished it more than the rest”, as noted in the foreword.

In the chapter which he dedicated to the theme of the Assumption, he postulated that the Church appropriately timed its promulgation of the two modern dogmas of our Lady, the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption, to address two diagonally opposing cultural moods prevalent in those respective eras; the optimism, at the dawn of the modern age in the latter half of the nineteenth century (where man believed that he could accomplish anything and everything), and the subsequent pessimistic mood, that followed the two devastating World Wars.

If he is correct, and I believe he is, then the dogma of the Assumption is the Church’s response and challenge to a world that sees no hope beyond the grave. If this life is all there is to it, it is no wonder that this has fuelled a hedonistic mentality that attempts to satiate every sensual and sexual need and want, whilst we are still alive and kicking. In fact, we see how the sexual revolution which began in the 1960s and 1970s had evolved into a culture obsessed with sexual libertinism, redefinitions of sexual and gender roles, normalisations of sexual encounters between consenting partners, rapid rise in divorces and disintegration of families, multiplication of categories that continue to be added on to the ever lengthening abbreviation LGBTQ and advancements in the pornography driven internet. Even the Church and her hierarchy sworn to celibacy have not been spared by this prurient malaise.

According to Archbishop Sheen, the Church through the dogma of the Assumption, had “to give hope to the creature of despair. Modern despair is the effect of a disappointed hedonism and centres principally on sex and death.” Therefore, the Church meets this two-fold problem head-on, “by lifting humanity from the darkness of sex and death, to the light of Love and Life.”

First, the Assumption addresses the world’s obsession with sex by proposing love as the answer. The sexual revolution’s rallying cry, “make love not war” was a lie. There was no love in the orgiastic no-holds-barred sexualised culture of that era. It was not “love” but selfish self-gratifying “free sex” that was being promoted. On the other hand, “the Assumption affirms not sex but love,” writes Sheen. “Love, like fire, burns upward, since it is basically desire. It seeks to become more and more united with the object that is loved.” Love gravitates to the other whereas lust often gravitates to self.

Sheen then makes this wonderful and insightful analogy: “If the distant moon moves all the surging tides of earth, then the love of Mary for Jesus and the love of Jesus for Mary should result in such an ecstasy as “to lift her out of this world”. Love in its nature is an ascension in Christ and an assumption in Mary.” Love, therefore, according to Sheen is the secret of the Assumption, for “love craves unity with the Beloved.” And there is no human soul who can claim to love our Lord more than His own mother. And there is no human soul which our Lord loves more than His own mother, the one who perfectly “does the will of the Father.”

Secondly, Sheen proposes that life is the second philosophical pillar on which the Assumption rests. “Life is unitive; death is divisive. Goodness is the food of life, as evil is the food of death.” If original sin separated man from God, “death is the last stroke of that division.” Since death is the division and separation of a soul from its body and springs from sin, it follows then that the only creature who is preserved from Original Sin is immune from that division which sin begets.

But under this second point, Sheen also makes this startling comparison between the Tabernacle and Mary, rightly called the First Tabernacle, because she enclosed in her womb the true Bread from Heaven. Mary is, therefore, assumed body and soul into heaven because she is united in flesh with her son, our Lord, the Living Bread from heaven. “In this doctrine of the Assumption, the Church meets the despair of the world in a second way. She affirms the beauty of life as against death. When wars, sex, and sin multiply the discords of men, and death threatens on every side, the Church bids us lift up our hearts to the life that has the immortality of the Life that nourished it. Feuerbach said that a man is what he eats. He was more right than he knew. Eat the food of earth, and one dies; eat the Eucharist, and one lives eternally. She, who is the mother of the Eucharist, escapes the decomposition of death.”

More than ever, the message conveyed by the dogma of the Assumption of Mary needs to be heard by a world, trapped and enamoured, even obsessed by sex and death. Today, we live in a sexualised world where persons are single-dimensionally defined by their sexual orientation. It is as if nothing else matters in shaping one’s identity. Sex itself has changed from an intensely private – even secretive – aspect of life, to an object of public display and celebration. Driven by consumer demands, sex has also become a commodity – big businesses push it, use it to sell products, knowing that the demand for it is insatiable. Chastity and purity in an intensively sexualised world have become anomalies. Promiscuity, on the other hand, has become the norm. This obsession with sex and sexual rights have led to the separation of the sexual act from procreation, from life itself. The sexual act of reproduction is intended to ensure that life continues. But when sex is taken out of this larger context of life, then it can only lead to death. No wonder, St John Paul II terms contraception and abortion the “culture of death.”

If we are to address the crisis posed by sex and death, then the dogma of the Assumption must be proclaimed once again, reiterating that sex divorced from love can never lead to life. Only self-giving and life-giving love can guarantee life, and not just any life as necessary for survival but eternal life. Only through the self-gift of love can we recover that integral body-soul identity of ours, not just as sexual beings but creatures made in the “image and likeness of God.” Because God created us in His image with a body, we can express and receive love through that body. It gives us the means by which to show our love and by which others receive our love. And because the body and the spirit both go together, God’s plan is for the salvation not just for the soul but also our flesh, through the flesh of the crucified and risen Lord.

The Venerable Fulton Sheen gives us one last parting advice, “The greatest task of the spiritual leaders today is to save mankind from despair, into which sex and fear of death have cast it. The world that used to say, “Why worry about the next world, when we live in this one?” has finally learned the hard way that, by not thinking about the next life, one cannot even enjoy this life. When optimism completely breaks down and becomes pessimism, the Church holds forth the promise of hope. Threatened as we are by war on all sides, with death about to be rained from the sky by Promethean fires, the Church defines a truth that has Life at its centre. Like a kindly mother whose sons are going off to war, (the Church) strokes our heads and says: “You will come back alive, as Mary came back again after walking down the valley of Death.”