Posted by The WORD in other words (2018) by Fr Rudy Horst SVD – Christ the King Seminary, Quezon City
Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary – August 15
When asked to explain the doctrine of the Assumption of Mary, my theology student replied, “Yeah, that’s the teaching whereby the Catholic Church ‘assumes’ that Mary is in heaven.”
There is of course a bit more to the dogma of the Assumption than that. The Church does not just “assume” that any canonized saint is in heaven. Rather, it declares with authority that a holy person is in glory and should therefore be honored in liturgy and imitated in life.
Mary’s body, the shrine and tabernacle of the Son of God, was saved from corruption in a special way. Her humility, obedience to God’s will, sufferings with her Son even until the moment of his cruel death, make us understand God’s granting her with the special grace to be united with her Son in the glory of heaven.
But what has Mary’s Assumption to do with us who live in a very difficult 21st century? Anything that happened to Mary, “mirror of the Church,” concerns the Church of which she was a member. What the Lord did for Mary, he does for the Church, for all of us. Today’s feast tells us that death is not the end; glory is awaiting us. The road Mary traveled is where the Church travels. It is ours too.
The feast of the Assumption, therefore, prompts us to acknowledge the basis for our Christian joyful hope. We are pilgrims on a long journey. Our mother has gone ahead. She tells us that we can make it, despite life’s difficulties. If we are faithful as she was, we will reach home. Her “Easter” foreshadows our future, our resurrection. She tells us that our final home will not be the grave, but heaven.
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