Homily for the Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary

Homily for the Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary

In Mary’s great song praise which we hear in the Gospel today, she prophesies that all generations will call her blessed. We fulfil that prophecy every time we repeat Elizabeth’s words, in the Hail Mary prayer, that Mary is the most blessed of all women. When we celebrate great feasts like this one today, we praise God for his beautiful work of art, the woman Mary.

Any honour given to Mary is in fact praise and worship of God. If we were admiring the beauty of a painting in an art gallery, speaking about the merits of the composition, brush strokes and colours, and perhaps unknown to us, the actual artist was right there behind us, listening to us talking about the painting, in reality the artist would be the one who is being praised, rather than the painting itself. Mary is God’s work of art. St Maximillian Kolbe, the martyr of Auschwitz, said that we should never be concerned about loving Mary too much, because no one can ever love her more than her Son, Jesus.

There is a general principle in Catholic theology that what we believe about Mary is based on what we believe about Christ, and what the Church teaches about Mary illumines in turn the Church’s faith in Christ. In the case of the Assumption of Mary, this principle about Mary extends to our faith in Jesus’ saving work in us, who are the Body of Christ. We are all destined to share in what Mary has already experienced; that is, bodily resurrection. We recall her bodily resurrection today in the Feast of the Assumption.

The celebration of the Assumption is ancient in the Church, going back to the early centuries, and it is held by all the original churches, including the different Orthodox Churches and the Catholic Church. The Assumption of Mary is known in the lived experience, prayer and teaching of Christians, which the Church calls Sacred Tradition.

Even though the Assumption of Mary is not directly recorded in Scripture, it is in perfect harmony with Scripture. In the first reading today from the book of Revelation, we heard about the heavenly woman who is clothed with the sun, with the moon beneath her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head.

The reading starts with the announcement that “God’s temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant could be seen in the temple.” But then, without missing a beat, the author goes on to describe a “woman clothed with the sun” in the very place where we were expecting a description of the ark itself. The woman is the new ark of the covenant. Remember that the ark of the covenant in the Old Testament, which was made at God’s command after the escape from Egypt was understood to contain the very presence of God with his people.

Now, the twelve stars that the woman wears as a crown are for the Twelve Tribes of Israel, so she is the Queen of Israel, royal mother of the House of David. In ancient Israel, it was not the wife of the king who reigned as queen, but the king’s mother. However, not only is she the Queen of Israel, but she is Queen of the universe because the sun and the moon and the stars serve as her clothing and adornment.

This woman is Mary, the Mother of the Church, the new Israel. Her son is Jesus, whose entire life is briefly summarised, beginning with his Birth and ending with his Ascension into heaven. The vision in this reading presents Mary as a new Eve, overcoming the serpent who deceived the first Eve. The heavenly glory of the woman in this reading can be seen as a picture of the glory into which Mary was assumed at the end of her life.

In the second reading from the first letter of St Paul to the Corinthians, we see the clear conviction of the early Church that Jesus was raised from the dead, and that through his victory over death we will share in his bodily resurrection. When Jesus comes again all of us will share in the resurrection of the dead. The reading says that Christ was the first to rise from the dead, and after him, will come those who belong to him. Is it not right that after Jesus, the first should be his mother, who participated so closely in his work of saving us, and who consecrated herself so perfectly to God?

Hope is so important to who we are as human beings. It is a driving force within each of us; it keeps us going and looking forward. Our hope speaks of our ultimate purpose and destiny. Our hope sums up who we are and who we will be. The hope that we cling to as Christians is summed up in the Resurrection of Jesus and the promise our own resurrection. The recurring chorus of hope within us is that death is not our destiny. We are invited to participate in the resurrection of Jesus for eternal life.

Today’s celebration of the Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary speaks to that hope within us. The Assumption of Mary is that at the end of her life, she was taken up into heaven, body and soul, to be the first of all Christians to experience the resurrection of the dead, which is made possible because of the Resurrection of Jesus.

One of the great reminders of this celebration each year is that our bodies are significant and important. How often don’t we fall into trap of thinking only of the soul after death? We talk about the souls of our loved ones being with God, and it is true. But that is not the final story. There is more to come. Jesus’s tomb was empty. Mary was taken up body and soul into heaven. In the end there will be a resurrection of our bodies.

The human person is a unity of soul and body. We believe in the resurrection of the body; indeed we profess this belief every time we say the Creed. Mary is the one follower of Jesus to share in his resurrection before the second coming. So, today’s feast is also a celebration of our own destiny as human beings. Mary is a sign of our hope to be raised from the dead. Mary has gone before us; where she has gone we hope to follow.

The Gospel reading shows the connection between the ark of the covenant of the Old Testament and Mary, the new ark of the covenant that hear about in the first reading from Revelation. When Luke speaks of Mary going up “to the hill country ... of Judah” and of John the Baptist leaping in Elizabeth’s womb, he is using language and images from the famous account of David’s bringing the ark up into Jerusalem, recounted in the Second Book of Samuel and the First Book of Chronicles. David brings the ark up into the hill country of Judah, to Jerusalem, and he leaps and dances before the ark wearing a linen ephod, a priestly garment. John the Baptist, the son of Zechariah, the priest, leaps or dances in Elizabeth’s womb in the presence of the pregnant Mary.

Then Elizabeth, although much older and of a higher social caste in Judean society, shows deference to her younger, poorer cousin: “how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” Elizabeth treats Mary like a Queen, and uses a term for the Queen Mother: “mother of my Lord.” Again, Luke is using the language of Second Samuel, where David exclaims, “How is it that the ark of the Lord comes to me?”

The Assumption of Mary shows us our final Christian hope: the resurrection and glorification of our bodies for eternal life. Mary, the new ark of the covenant, the heavenly woman, is given to us as a sign and hope of resurrection. Let us imitate Mary as our model of Christian discipleship, on our journey to this hope, and ask her, as our mother, for her intercession.