Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary
Previous Years:
2017 (Vigil)
2017 (Day)
2018
2019
2020
2021
Preached at the Church of the Assumption in Bellingham, WA
Recording
https://moorejesus.podbean.com/e/solemnity-of-the-assumption-of-mary/
Transcription
Thanks to an Assumption parishioner for editing this transcription.
First, I want to start by thanking all of you for being here. We find it hard enough in today’s society to convince Catholics to come to Mass on Sunday, and there is a commandment of God about that one. So, to convince Catholics to come to Mass when the commandment comes only from the Church is even harder. But you are the ones who are taking the Church seriously, and I thank you for it.
The word Church is ecclesia in Greek, which etymologically means those who are called out. So, the Church is those who are called out of the world for holiness. The community of Israel in the Old Testament is called an ecclesia because they were called out by God. You have been called out by God to be a holy people, and a Holy Day of Obligation is one of those days where the Church calls her people together to worship together. That coming together for worship is very important. Many days we can just pray alone in our homes or with our families. But certain days are so important that we have to be called together to worship as a community. Why? Why is this day so important for us to do that? There are only, if I remember correctly, six Holy Days of Obligation in the United States—and some of them are things like Christmas, where everybody’s like, well, of course, that’s a Holy Day of Obligation. So why today of all days? Why is this one of the six? Why is this so important for us?
It is because these major feast days of Mary reflect to us, in a different and vitally important way, the truth of our salvation. We have, for example, the holy days of Christmas and Easter—the day of the incarnation and the day of the resurrection. But then we also have the holy days of the Immaculate Conception, the day on which Mary was conceived without original sin, and the Assumption in which Mary was raised into heaven and at the same time glorified. She is reflecting in a different way the great mysteries of our salvation that we celebrate in Christ. You can tell this is true because this Church has three images of the Assumption (which personally I think is overkill despite our name). We have the main painting in the back. That’s what we all look at most of the time. It’s wonderful. And then they said, well, painting is not good enough; we also need a window. So, we have the main window that you see when you walk into the Church. You didn’t used to see it when you walked into the Church because you couldn’t see it from back there—but today you see it when you walk into the Church. And then we have a third window, which is right there next to the window of the Ascension. I don’t know why they did it. I mean, we have a third window to Saint John the Evangelist in the back because some guy named John paid for it. So, I don’t know if the donor just wanted another Assumption, but that one does serve a catechetical purpose because it is next to the Ascension. Jesus ascended into heaven. That is an active verb. He did it of His own power. And this is what we see in Jesus—because He is God and man, He does the things that He does of his own power. He is God doing these things in and through His humanity of His own power. But next to Him always is Mary. Mary isn’t God; she is only human. And so, the way in which she reflects the mysteries of our salvation is always in a more passive way, because it is God who is doing it in her. She is not doing it herself. So, with the Ascension, we have the Assumption—a passive verb. She is being assumed into heaven by God. She, in her humanity, is receiving what God did first in His humanity and divinity united in His Ascension.
You’ll also see right next to that we have a Sacred Heart window and what should be an Immaculate Heart window. The label from 1920 says the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Sacred Heart of Mary. That is very weird, but we’ll ask them in heaven why they made that decision. But again, everything that we know about Jesus is reflected passively in Mary. She receives from God the victory that He already wins in His Son. So, when He is incarnate, He begins a new creation. He inaugurates what should have been true with Adam and Eve. He is brought into this world sinless. Mary lives out the same reality in her Immaculate Conception. She also is brought into this world sinless, not by any choice of her—as it was the choice of the Logos, the second person of the Trinity to become incarnate—but simply receiving the grace of God. She has the Annunciation; she receives the message of God and takes upon herself the mission of God. Whereas her Son, He actively pursues that mission. He goes out into the desert, He fights the devil, and then He goes and preaches the Gospel loudly. Mary receives the Seven Sorrows; she knew that she was going to be given the sorrow, yet she said yes. But Jesus lived out the passion, actively choosing it. And then, of course, Jesus rises from the dead and ascends into heaven—both of those are reflected in Mary’s Assumption.
There is a debate about the Assumption. We know that Mary was assumed body and soul into heaven, but we don’t know whether she died beforehand. Some people say she died; some people say she just fell asleep. Falling asleep is called the Dormition of Mary. I’m kind of in the Dormition camp. Mary came into this world without sin. The Bible makes a strong connection between sin and death. And so, if Mary was born without sin and lived without sin, then I don’t think she would have had to die. Jesus died because He took upon himself our sins. But Mary didn’t take upon herself anybody’s sins. So, I’m more of the camp she fell asleep and then she was assumed.
But if that is all she did, if that’s all the Assumption was—Mary living out the logical conclusion of a life without sin—then she would have only received the grace available to Adam and Eve, which was eternal life. However, at the Assumption, Mary isn’t just taken up body and soul into heaven, she is also given the glory that comes from Jesus’s resurrection. He takes upon himself a new plane of human existence, something that we don’t get to experience in ourselves. He is fully healed, except for the wounds which He chose to keep as a sign of His passion. He can walk through walls. He can show up in random places. He can bi-locate. He can probably try triple locate. He is glorified. Well, Mary, as she is assumed into heaven, is also glorified, given the glory of her Son, but again in a receptive way, in a passive way.
This is why the Church is calling us together. The Church wants us to see and to celebrate what is going to be offered to us in our humanity. A lot of times Jesus feels so far apart because He is both God and man, and we can’t understand what it is like to have those two natures. But Mary, she is just human. She was given incredible graces—she was allowed to mimic her Son in every aspect of her life in a passive, receptive way. This is what we will all do as well. The graces offered to Mary, that we have seen in her life, are offered to all of us as well, and the Church wants us to confront that. The Church wants us to celebrate that. The Church wants us to say, okay, this is my destiny as well. What we have seen in the Mother of God, what she has received first among human beings, we will receive after her. This is very much what Saint Paul says in our second reading: Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For just as in Adam, all die, so too in Christ shall all be brought to life. But each one in proper order: Christ the firstfruits, which means Jesus comes first. But each one in proper order. After Christ, those who belong to Christ. then comes the end. Mary belongs to Christ in the perfect way. She lived a perfect human life, so she receives those graces first. But we see in her what we have been offered as well: the grace of a life without sin through baptism; the glory of eternal life, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ; and that perfect union with Christ, that perfect unity of hearts that we receive through the Eucharist. By coming together and celebrating this incredible mystery of Mary, we are celebrating our own eternal destiny. We are thanking God for what He did in His mother, and in so doing, we are thanking Him for what He will do in us. Jesus is the first fruits. Mary is the one who gives us the perfect example of what Christ will offer us—and we pray and beg the Lord that we can follow in her place.
Fr. Moore 
1 Comment