Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary

Lectionary Readings:

• Revelation 11:19; 12:1-6, 10. A woman, clothed with the sun, gives birth to the Messiah who was snatched up to God, lest the demon devoured the child. She herself fled into the desert, to a special place prepared for her by God.
• 1 Corinthians 15: 20-26. As in Adam, all died, so in Christ, all are raised to new life. These belong to him and become the kingdom handed over by Christ to the Father.
• Luke 1:39-56. Mary’s “magnificat” praises God for exalting the lowly. Mary herself is acclaimed by Elizabeth as “blessed among women” for trusting in the Lord’s words to her.

Thoughts for your own consideration: By John Gonzalez

This week we celebrate a dogmatic article of Catholic faith, the assumption of Mary into heaven. The Catholic and Orthodox Churches have celebrated Mary’s preeminent status within the Christian family since the Council of Ephesus in 431 defined her status as the Mother of God. In 1950 Pope Pius XII made the infallible dogmatic declaration regarding the Assumption of Mary. For the Catholic Church dogmatic statements can only be about spiritual matters of revealed faith. Social teachings and moral positions cannot exist as dogmatic articles, they exist as undefined doctrines. However it is understood that moral teachings and social positions flow from our understanding of revealed Christian mysteries.

The Assumption, like the Resurrection, reveals to us the Divine origin and approval of the sacred ministries of Jesus and Mary. If it was not for the Resurrection then the social vision that Jesus publicly offers through his teaching and healing ministries would have been made invalid by the social powers of his day which sentenced him to death. Scripture attest to the fear that the disciples had when Jesus was arrested. The courage that they found came from their experience of the risen Christ. An experience which convinced them that social injustice can never defeat the Divine vision for a community based on the love of God and neighbor. In the second reading that we have for this week St. Paul treats the Resurrection as the birth of a new era with an invitation towards new life. The culture of death will be systematically brought down starting with the defeat of the social powers and sovereignties that are responsible for enforcing the values and culture of death until finally death itself is defeated.

But the Assumption reminds us of Mary’s role and ultimate vindication in bringing about this new era. Of course her most famous action is recounted in the first reading. Having said yes to God and acquiescing to giving birth to the Messiah. Her role and responsibility does not end there however. Mary’s yes to God takes her through a journey that she shares with the anointed one of God. She along with Joseph is responsible for the welfare, education and values that they teach Jesus as he “advanced in wisdom and age and favor before God and man.” [Luke 2:52] Mary could have taught Jesus to be good and responsible citizen, respecting the rules and social values of the Roman and Temple authority. But instead she forms him in the higher values that flow from his own special nature. These values are centered in the radical love that God wants to share with all of creation. Values that are holistically good but which will ultimately challenge society and cause great pain and suffering to both Jesus and Mary. Mary proclaims these values in the Gospel reading for this week in one of the finest prayers we have, the “magnificat.” It is a prayer of faith that describes this divine vision of justice which Mary now becomes a part of.

He has shown the strength with his arm, dispersed the arrogant of mind and heart. He has thrown down the rulers from their thrones but lifted up the lowly. The hungry he has filled with good things; the rich he has sent away empty. [Luke 1: 51-53]        

Mary’s role is by no means passive as we have generally understood it to be. She is very much involved with the formation and development of Jesus. She is an instrument of grace, justice and compassion to a world that is mired in violence and death. Not only in giving birth to the savior, but also in being a model of faithful discipleship both to the early Christian community and to us two thousand years later.

The Passionist Retreat House in Sierra Madre California is dedicated to the mysteries of the sorrowful Mother. At the Retreat Center there is an amazing garden dedicated to the seven sorrows of Mary. At its center is a powerful statue depicting the meeting of Mary and Jesus along the way of the cross. Here one can feel how the suffering and deep compassion that exist within this historical moment transcends time and space to become a symbol of divine empathy for all suffering. Since the cross itself is a social suffering that is imposed on Jesus by an unjust social order then one can find divine empathy and compassion in all the unjust social sufferings that we face within our own historical moment. We can identify with the Holy Lamb of God as well as with the sorrowful Mother who deeply believed that God the Father would bring meaning and joy to the struggle and suffering of the moment. That is why so many cultures have such a deep commitment to the sorrowful Mother. When no one else is there, she is, giving us the strength of her faith to help us make sense of a desperate moment.    

Jesus publically proclaimed the Kingdom of God as a new social contract where all humanity and creation experience the liberation of our own self interest in order to share in the cosmological vision of love and service to God and others. This week we celebrate the second most prominent citizen of that Kingdom. With a steady faith in the plan that God has for all humanity Mary was assumed into this Kingdom. We ask her to strengthen our own faith in the values and plan that God calls us to achieve as we continue her struggle in bringing forth the good news of the Gospel message to a world that continues to suffer today.

4 Responses to “Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary”

1. donna falsey says:

   August 10, 2010 at 5:43 pm

   mary is everything to me, for througth mary we will met christ, as our father tells us. through our mothers love we will meet our father in heaven.
2. johngonzalez says:

   August 10, 2010 at 5:48 pm

   Thank you Donna, I could not imagine addressing social injustice without Mary’s divine intercession. Here is great quote from Pope John Paul II in his encyclical “Sollicitudo Rei Socialis” on this topic.

   “In keeping with Christian piety through the ages, we present to the Blessed Virgin difficult individual situations, so that she may place them before her Son, asking that he alleviate and change them. But we also present to her social situations and the international crisis itself, in their worrying aspects of poverty, unemployment, shortage of food, the arms race, contempt for human rights, and situations or dangers of conflict, partial or total. In a filial spirit we wish to place all this before her “eyes of mercy,” repeating once more with faith and hope the ancient antiphon: “Holy Mother of God, despise not our petitions in our necessities, but deliver us always from all dangers, O glorious and blessed Virgin.”

   Mary most holy, our Mother and Queen, is the one who turns to her Son and says: “They have no more wine” (Jn 2:3). She is also the one who praises God the Father, because “he has put down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of low degree; he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent empty away” (Lk 1:52-53). Her maternal concern extends to the personal and social aspects of people’s life on earth.”
3. hp mini 210 review says:

   August 27, 2011 at 10:40 pm

   Exposure to sunlight, fatally for sociable workings of time, may [i]order prilosec online from dreampharmaceuticals[/i] whooping sunburn; qualifications on the skin; propagation rash, redness, itching, or discoloration; or laboratoy changes.
4. Sydney Chilton says:

   January 28, 2012 at 10:21 am

   Very good article post.Really looking forward to read more. Cool.