The Feast of the Assumption

The feast of Mary’s Assumption declares that she has come to share fully in the risen life of her Son. There is nothing incomplete about her glorious life. Even though the Assumption of Mary into heaven was only proclaimed as a solemn teaching of the church in 1950 by Pope Pius XII, the tradition of Mary’s Assumption into heaven had been part of the church’s living faith from the earliest centuries. It had always been the conviction of believers that because Mary belonged to Jesus in a special way, she now shares in his risen life in a special way. In the gospel reading, Elizabeth greets Mary as ‘the mother of my Lord’. Everything we say about Mary depends on her being the mother of the Lord. Like us all, the Lord had only one mother, and because Mary is the Lord’s mother, it is believed that she shares in the Lord’s glory in a way that is unique to humans. Yet, this feast does not celebrate a privilege of Mary alone, because where Mary now is, God wants all of us to be. We are all destined to share fully in the Lord’s risen and glorious life. In the words of Saint Paul in today’s second reading, ‘all will be brought to life in Christ’. In the words of the Preface for today’s Mass, Mary is a ‘sign of hope and comfort for your people on their pilgrim way’.

There is no mention of Mary’s assumption into heaven in the gospels. Yet, there is a line in the gospel reading for her feast that could be understood as alluding to it. In her prayer she declares, ‘the Almighty has done great things for me’. In the context of Luke’s gospel, the ‘great things’ refers to God’s choice of her to become the mother of God’s Son. On this feast, we can include her Assumption into heaven at the end of her life as among the ‘great things’ God has done for her. Yet, the focus of Mary’s prayer is not on herself. It is rather on God and what God has done, not just for herself, but for all who turn to God in their need.

In her prayer, she speaks of God who exalts the lowly, whoever they are. Mary herself was among the lowly of the time, a young woman, perhaps in her late teens, from a somewhat obscure village in Galilee. She also speaks of God in her prayer as one who fills the hungry with good things, who wants to satisfy people’s basic hunger for food and their deeper hungers for love, forgiveness, acceptance, mercy and a life that endures. She speaks of a merciful God, whose mercy reaches from age to age. The God Mary portrays in her prayer is the God that her son Jesus would reveal by his life, death and resurrection. Jesus made present God’s merciful love for sinners, God’s compassion for the lowly, the broken, the vulnerable, the hungry. Mary in her prayer also speaks of God as one who ‘routed the proud of heart’ and who ‘has pulled down princes from their thrones’. Again, the God whom Jesus revealed challenged the proud of heart to become like little children if they wanted to enter the kingdom of God, and called on the princes of this world, the wealthy and powerful, to use their resources to support the poor, the sick and the vulnerable.

Her prayer shows her to be a radical woman who hungers for a new justice on earth, where princes are pulled down and the lowly lifted up. As her son would do by his words and deeds, Mary in her prayer voices a radical protest against the way things presently are, what we all can so easily take for granted. Her prayer in the first chapter of Luke’s gospel prepares the reader of the gospel for the announcement that her adult son would make in his home town of Nazareth, where he declared that he had come ‘to bring good news to the poor… to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free’. In her prayer, Mary shows herself to have the values that her son will proclaim and live by

Mary’s prayer suggests that she had imbibed the mind-set of her son, that she had, what Saint Paul calls, ‘the mind of Christ’. As well as being the mother of the Lord, she was the Lord’s first and greatest disciple. Just as her son would entrust himself fully to God’s purpose for his life and to all God wanted to do through him, Mary entrusted herself to God’s purpose for her life and to whatever God wanted to do through her. As she said to the angel Gabriel, ‘Here I am, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word’. Just as Jesus’ faithfulness to God’s purpose, God’s call, found expression in a life of loving service of others, so, according to our gospel reading, Mary’s faithful response to God through the angel Gabriel immediately found expression in a journey of loving service to Elizabeth. Mary not only reveals to us our own ultimate destiny beyond this earthly life, she also reveals to us the path we are called to take in the here and now.