Assumption 2025 Year C

It sounds cliché or vacuous even to state that we live in the greatest era of human history. After all, is not every present moment or each “now” or “latest” supposedly the best that time has to offer? Maybe ours is the “greatest” age because we are poised to take off with artificial intelligence, that is, if we have not already reached that point of singularity. Much like when Google arrived at the scene, we have since adapted or inserted ourselves into ChatGPT or the likes without second thoughts and without resistance. In fact, like Pandora’s Box, the Genie is out of the bottle and there may not be any turning back.

The journey towards this singularity where machines can determine the future of the human race, did not start with the internet. In fact, humanity began this journey when alchemy became chemistry, magic gave way to science and mystery yielded its secrets to technology. The process of demystification corresponded to the distancing of God. Or more accurately, we moved away from God because for man to be big or for him to be great, God must be small.

Freed from the shackles of magic and mystery, man can now determine his own destiny and chart his own future. In order for that to happen, there is a need to cut God down to size. But the Assumption reveals to us what it means that our prominence and God’s eminence are not mutually exclusive, that one does not have to come diminishment of the other.

The Assumption shows how great Mary is only because she acknowledges God’s greatness. In the Gospel, Mary sings the Magnificat not just to glorify God but to illustrate that a confession and recognition of God’s glory does not come at the expense of man but instead God’s grandeur guarantees man’s dignity.

According to Pope Benedict, Original Sin came about because Adam and Eve felt that God’s presence is an intrusion into their lives that would take away their agency or restrict their freedom. But the Parable of the Prodigal Son may provide a solution to clear our misguided notion. Both brothers were not aware of the freedom they aboriginally possessed precisely because they were with their father. The older son felt unappreciated because the father welcomed and celebrated the useless younger brother’s return. In response to his resentment, the father replied, “All I have is yours”. The older brother did not recognise his exalted place as a son of a loving father. Instead he perceived himself only an obedient slave rather than a beloved son. The younger brother who believed his freedom could be expanded when he left the father, only found himself enslaved and his humanity reduced to the dignity or status of pigs.

Thus our freedom is rooted in the Father. The notion that freedom is independence from God is misguided. Today we celebrate the Assumption simply because Mary trusted in God fully. She never had to exercise her freedom away from God. Instead, in God she found the greatest expression of humanity’s desire to be free.

Human freedom expands when we remain in close proximity to God. John Paul II, who titled his first encyclical, Redemptor hominis, stated that Jesus Christ shows us what it truly means to be human by revealing man to himself and as a man, He brings to light man’s true vocation which is to be with God. The emphasis on Jesus’ humanity should be mirrored in Mary’s own humanity. Why? Through her total obedience and her sheer embrace of God’s will, her humanity was magnified rather than diminished.

In this sense, Mary is true man because she embodies the fullness of what it means to be a human person. Her fullness of grace was not of her own. Rather, her title as Mother of God embodies and models what it is to live fully and to act in a human manner as intended by God for us all. To err is human, we hear this repeated a lot but to be human is actually to be like Christ, that is, if we follow the inspiration of John Paul II. Christ reveals who we are supposed to be to ourselves. Hence, the Assumption is a confirmation that the highest degree of human freedom is reachable and achievable only when we give ourselves entirely to God.

I love the quote by William Wordsworth, the English poet whose remark points to Mary as our tainted nature’s solitary boast. It feels like we are saying to God, “Hey God, we have someone which can face you unashamed”. We can hide behind her and she is our pride. But actually, she is loved by the saints not because she is our boast. Rather, she is honoured because she is God’s greatest gift to us. No wonder Satan is fearful of her.

This Assumption, apart from celebrating Mary’s triumph, we should actively pray and petition the Lord that we may regain our true freedom which is to be found when we embrace God’s will. Freedom is not merely possessing the ability to choose as if both good and evil were equal in their substance and consequence. Instead, freedom is the ability to always choose the beauty of goodness and to always reject the glamour of evil. Mary’s ability to choose Godwas the expression of her true humanity. We who have been damaged by sin can also choose like Mary did. But for that, we need to pray not to be put to the test. And through the powerful intercession of the Mother of God and the man Jesus, we ask her to pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.

Assumption Year B 2024

This just occurred to me rather late in life. Recently we celebrated a feast of the human body and that was the Transfiguration. If we were to count from 6th August, this would render the Assumption as a kind of novena, that is, 9 days after the Transfiguration. But there is more to it being a novena than meets the eye.

It would have made more sense for the Assumption to follow the Ascension. In Mandarin the same word is used to describe the both the events. They are recounted as Jesus and Mary rising up to heaven. In English, the word Ascension projects a portrait of Christ Himself possessing the power of going up whereas the Assumption suggests that Mary needed assistance as she was brought up to heaven. This subtle linguistic difference provides a better link between the Transfiguration and the Assumption because Christ’s emanation of dazzlingly white glory is the roadmap for the Assumption.

The Transfiguration celebrates both God and man. Firstly, on Mount Tabor, both Moses and Elijah appeared and spoke to Jesus. According to Benedict XVI, God had revealed Himself to both these illustrious prophets. Moses wanted to see God face to face but only managed to catch a glimpse of God’s back. Elijah could only feel God’s presence in the gentle breeze caressing his face. The full glory of God until now was beyond humanity’s grasp. It was kept hidden and Man could only spy God’s fleeting shadow until now. On Mount Tabor, God reveals Himself fully through the transfigured face and body of Jesus. As the fullness of the Father’s revelation it makes sense that the Voice thundered from the cloud to listen to Him.

Secondly, the razzmatazz surrounding Christ’s Transfiguration, apart from revealing His divinity, is also a celebration of human possibility. The detailed depiction of Christ’s bodily change highlights the prospect that each man, woman and child has in the same transformative journey. Now a novena away we have proof. Mary’s exalted position comes from being the perfect disciple of her Son, as described succinctly in the Vigil’s Gospel—still happier those who hear the word of God and keep it. As the disciple par excellence, she should be the first to experience the divinisation of the human body.

Assumed body and soul into heaven after her earthly life, Mary symbolises hope in the Resurrection and serves as a reminder of the promise of eternal life. If the Transfiguration is the celebration of God and Man, where Christ’s divinity was put on full display and then the Assumption is the evidence of Man’s destiny. It affirms what we can become because of our faith in Christ’s Resurrection.

We all attend Masses regularly and occasionally a funeral Mass. I wonder if this embolism, that is, the inserted anaphora [prayer] in Eucharistic Prayer III has ever struck you. Listen to it the next time you attend a funeral.

Grant that he (she) who was united with your Son in a death like His, may also be one with Him in His Resurrection, when from the earth He will raise up in the flesh those who have died, and transform our lowly body after the pattern of his own glorious body.

This anaphora is a description of the Transfiguration and also a blueprint for our future.

The fact is we all want a forever future. Maybe we should care less of longevity because the result may not be what we desire—the future is where our senses begin to dull as we sense our reaction time slowing down. For example, when we trip, if we were agile, we can quickly recover but when our senses are dulled, you can literally watch yourself fall and are helpless to respond. We will turn the corner of the future with brittle bones. Out of focus eyesight blurs all faces and features. Lotions and potions may just smooth out the wrinkles but can do nothing to reverse this ageing decline.

The answer to living forever is not solving the problem of death meaning that it is not found in delaying death. The future lies in a transformation of our earthly body. We may have focused too much on living forever not realising that “forever” is only possible when our bodies are transfigured and transcended to a higher destiny. As the Preface for this solemnity says, Mary’s Assumption into heaven is the beginning and the image of the Church’s coming to perfection. She is the sign of sure hope and comfort for pilgrims especially for those who desire to live forever. In this desire for eternity, let us turned to Mary and ask for her patronage because she represents the future where our humble body can also share Christ’s glory of Transfiguration.

The Assumption of Mary Year B 2021

Before her death, St Therese de Lisieux made this promise, “I will spend my heaven doing good on earth”. This commitment expands the horizon of what it means that we belong to the Lord and we participate in His saving mission. In his letter to the Colossians, St Paul mentioned that “in my own body to do what I can to make up all that has still to be undergone by Christ for the sake of His Body, the Church”. (Col. 1:14).

In other words, belonging to the Lord, we are to be like Him crucified to the world so that it can be saved. If to follow Christ is to walk the Way of the Cross, then the person who does it most perfectly is none other than Mary, His mother. She is the woman for whom her service to her God did not end at Golgotha or even at her earthly demise. It continues today. Therefore, if the “Little Flower” promised to spend her heaven doing good on earth, one can imagine how much more present on earth has Our Lady been in the mission of Son’s mercy.

As such, the Assumption is more than a celebration of our solitary boast. It is more of an expression of our gratitude to God for the presence of Mary. If life is a pilgrimage, then, this Marian solemnity is truly a pitstop in the odyssey through this Valley of Tears. When times are tough, we need encouragement and our consolation is to contemplate the destiny of Mary.[1] She followed Him closely and as her body was privileged to bear God’s Son, it stands to reason that she did not experience corporeal corruption and thus, united body and soul, she was assumed into heaven.

This pitstop is not as Marian as it is Christ-centred for us to be grateful to the Lord for His graciousness to Mary.[2] When we gaze at her, we can see our destiny in the distant horizon because at the Cross Jesus gave us more than a model and the type for the Church.[3] In Mary, we have hope and a guarantee.

In a particularly life-engaging apparition, slightly more than a 100 years ago, Our Lady stood before three children in Fatima. The timing is significant because she appeared in the midst of the “Spanish Flu” with a world gripped by a global conflict. She came when man needed a helping hand and a realignment of his moral compass. Given that we are stuck in this never-seem-to-end pandemic, we have the same opportunity to turn to Mary, the Mother of Hope.

In terms of hope, we may not realise how desparate we are. Technology has advanced exponentially since the time of the “Spanish Flu”. For example, genome sequencing has played a pivotal role in understanding and helping authorities respond to the pattern of Covid transmission. It is a known fact that genome sequencing for Covid-19 was accomplished in a matter of days whereas the same process for SARS, more than a decade ago, took three months to map. Genomics is central to the effective development of vaccines. Now with the inoculation speeded up, what we witness in the re-opening of countries and economies is a rise in the cases of infection.

Our hubris is technico-mechanical in a sense. Somehow, we have laboured under an assumption (no pun intended) that it is only a matter of time that we turn the corner. All we need is a faster scientific response and technological control. What may not have sunk in for many is how impotent scientific expertise has been. What escapes us is that man can shout all he wants but God’s ways are just not ours. Many of us are no more than a six-degree separation from someone we know who has passed on due to Covid-19. Before we trot out the usual catchphrase that God is capricious, we should perhaps pause.

What we may have failed to grasp is that with this Delta variant, the end may have to be pushed back as many are dying around us. The palpable despair that characterises our reality highlights our failure to appreciate an existential truth. Dependence on God is the intrinsic condition for true human existence. Thus, as rosaries were prayed during the Battle of Lepanto, in our vulnerability, we turn to Mary the hope and help of Christians. Sub Tuum Praesidium. We fly to thee of Virgin of virgins.

As the prevailing mantra continues to shout at us to “Follow the science”, we should instead “read the sign”. Mary is the sign along this Eucharistic detour. While following the science is important, we should also be aware that under the unforgiving glare of this “god of science”, fear can always be dressed up as prudence. This type of precaution should be illuminated by God’s guarantee because under that light, Mary stands signalling us not to be afraid. Our Lady of Hope and the Refuge of Sinners can help us in this difficult time when death envelopes us all.

The Assumption of Our Lady is our guarantee. Yes, we may not be immaculately conceived (even though our present-day presumption is that people are immaculately conceived) but our hope is that when we follow Christ like Mary did, then at the Resurrection, our body reunited with our soul, will enjoy the same glory that Mary has now. In the context of a predicament presented by the pandemic, the dogma of the Assumption is a definite declaration that no scientific response can ever solve the riddle of death. Only faith in the Resurrection can. The Bread of the Resurrection is the Eucharist. Thus, it makes perfect sense that we made this detour. She is our promise of the future and the Eucharist, the “Viaticum”, is the guarantee of our eternal destiny.

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[1] It is remarked that Pius XII in declaring the dogma of the Assumption left open the question of whether Mary died and rose immediately to be assumed into heaven or she went to heaven directly without experiencing death. In the East, the focus was on the Dormition, the Sleeping of Mary, that her departure was more of a sleep than a death. In the West, they sees her death more of a resemblance of Christ rather than of us, sinful men. She died not on account of sin, but she died just as her sinless Son did on the Cross.

[2] He had already graced her at her conception by protecting her from the corruption of Adam’s sin and now at the end of her earthly life, He graced her once again. The Assumption is the Immaculate Conception brought to its logical conclusion.

[3] The text of the Catechism (#966) states that “Finally the Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all stain of original sin, when the course of her earthly life was finished, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, and exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things, so that she might be the more fully conformed to her Son, the Lord of lords and conqueror of sin and death”. This is taken from Vatican II’s Lumen gentium (#59) which echoes Pope Pius XII’s Munificentissimus Deus.

Assumption of Mary 2018

What is so important about the Assumption of Mary? What significance is there to this celebration?

Mary is both our strength and in an ignorant world, she is perceived to be our weakness. Before you conclude that I have committed a grave sin, let me clarify. Firstly, she definitely is our strength because of she is the Mother of God. Secondly, she is perceived to be our weakness because some ignorant Protestants believe that we worship her. The fact that this so-called dogma was proclaimed in 1950 might just lend itself to this perception. One cannot be further from truth when one holds this position.

Catholics hold her to be their strength, as mentioned earlier, not only because she is the Mother of God but because of who we are. Why? In a perfect paradise, in our prelapsarian innocence, humanity would be endowed with the preternatural gifts of integrity meaning that both our body and soul were united. But in our postlapsarian perdition, in our fallen state, there arose the discrepancy which St Paul so aptly described to the Romans, “For I do not do the good that I want to do. But the evil that I hate is what I do”.

This is our present state: We all struggle. But, somehow, in a self-help, positive-thinking, self-made environment, we seemed have banished the word “struggle” from our spiritual vocabulary. After all, like the Bionic Man, we can, if we think positively, help or reinvent ourselves. A line from the Salve Regina draws us back to our mundane morass—ad te suspiramus, gementes et flentes in hac lacrimarum valle—To thee do we send forth our sighs, mourning and weeping in this vale of tears.

Now, the two major Marian celebrations are in a sense holistic or integral in the treatment of the human person. In the Immaculate Conception, the feast touches on the human soul whereas today, the Assumption addresses the body that we have.

There is a war within us, a battle between good and evil which is waged daily in this lacrimarum valle. We like to think of ourselves as disciples but when we speak of discipleship, what is implied is discipline. In order to excel in a specialty or branch of knowledge, discipline is what we most need but it is also the least that we want. Ask any PhD candidate about what it means to write a thesis. Distraction, laziness and procrastination—all these are indications of a lack of discipline. But, it runs on logic that nobody likes “punishment” unless he is a masochist, that is, someone who enjoys punishment. True? And yet, when we want a beautiful body, it takes a lot of discipline and the funny thing is some are willing to pay that price for a perfect body to die in, but to follow the Lord closely it is another ball game altogether.

You see that the aim of the Assumption is not to promote a healthy body per se but to remind us that the body is part and parcel of the work of salvation brought about by Christ. When we die, even though the body may suffer corruption, at the Resurrection, our bodies will be reunited with our soul. Therein, the Catholic prohibition of scattering one’s ashes/“cremains” as if one were a free-spirited soul.

Two prefaces can be placed side by side. The Assumption and the Ascension. Part of the Assumption’s Preface reads like this:

For today the Virgin Mother of God

was assumed into heaven

as the beginning and image

of your Church’s coming to perfection

and a sign of sure hope and comfort to your pilgrim people.

This imagery draws its inspiration from the Preface of the Ascension which sounds goes like this: 

For the Lord Jesus, the King of glory,

conqueror of sin and death,

ascended to the highest heavens, ...

... he ascended, not to distance himself from our lowly state

but that we, his members, might be confident of following

where he, our Head and Founder, has gone before.

The discipline we endure in this life is in order that we may follow our Head and Founder and Mary being the foremost of Christ’s disciples is assumed into heaven because she alone is the one perfect dedication—body and soul—to her Lord and Saviour. There, she, who is everything like us except by the grace of God preserved from sin, becomes the beacon for those of us who are struggling in this valley of tears, hoping one day to follow. As a fellow pilgrim, this Mother of ours is certainly the most powerful advocate and also the greatest help we can ever have in our journey. As Lumen gentium gently reminds: Mary is now in a position to exercise fully her "motherhood in the order of grace," without interruption until the eternal fulfilment of all the elect (LG 62).

Finally, these days, people have been lamenting about the unusually warm weather that has resulted in many illnesses. If you feel that the heat is intolerable and your sickness uncomfortable, Assumption is truly a great reminder. Why? Hell or eternal damnation is not even an iota close to a trillion times worse. In fact, whatever we suffer now will be infinitely and infernally multiplied in hell. Hence, Assumption serves as a reminder to desire that which is boundlessly pleasing and joyful. Therefore, to Mary who is in heaven, we entrust the care of our souls and ask that despite our weaknesses, she never gives up on succouring us so that one day, bruised or battered, we may knock on heaven’s door and there, our Lord will open it for us and welcome us into the Kingdom which He has won by His life, death and resurrection.

The Assumption Year C

In glossy tourist brochures, Malaysia is pictured as a country that is representative of Asia. You may have come across the tagline and advertisement “Malaysia, truly Asia” emblazoned over double-decker buses in London, for example. One of the distinguishing features of our fabulously Asian country is the mix of peoples. However, I cringe each time we speak of Malaysia in terms of Malays, Chinese and Indians because it is a form of patronising arrogance that can only be explained as a blindness peculiar to Peninsular Malaysia. Malaysia is more than Malays, Chinese and Indians because she is also the true indigenous natives or the Orang Asal of the Peninsula, the Sabahans and the Sarawakians of Borneo Malaysia. In fact, the Sabahans and Sarawakians make the Church in Malaysia a Bumiputera Church simply because they make up the larger proportion of Catholics in Malaysia.

Anyway, it is precisely this narrow blindness that Malaysia is Malays, Chinese and Indians that the Solemnity of the Assumption has something to say to. Why? Despite the picture that is painted for all and sundry that everything is hunky-dory in this Asian melting pot of cultures and peoples, all we need is to scratch the surface and beneath the false façade of racial and religious harmony, we discover a debilitating despair and also a collective denial. There is a disquieting despair because the future for freedom and the health of the financial system (politics and economy) does not seem to inspire confidence. Otherwise how to explain the brain haemorrhage? I wrote this homily at 4:30 in the morning and I wanted to describe this cloud of gloom as a kind of malaise, when I realised that I could be opening myself to trouble because some people may jump to the conclusion that I have spoken badly of the Malays when in fact, the word malaise spelt as “malaise” merely described our depressing condition rather than defined a race. If everything were hunky-dory in what we claim to be a functioning democracy, why do we need draconian laws? [1] The point is, we all know that it does not take much to ignite a situation. In fact, it does not take much to lob a Molotov cocktail or an animal’s head into any religious place of worship. There seems to be no future for some people under the Malaysian sun. Here I want to be clear that I am not interested in making a critique of the political or economic system of the country but I am trying to verbalise the hopeless desperation that many of us feel quietly. Tell me that I am wrong but you know that I am not.

Thus, the temerity of the Catholic Church is relevant to our current despair. The point is how audacious we are to celebrate the Assumption on a Sunday, the dies Domini, the day of the Lord? Who is this Mary that even Christ the Lord makes way for her? Crucially, how can she be relevant to what we are feeling inside but dare not express openly?

Let me start by re-telling a nursery rhyme which many of you are familiar with. There are different ways of reciting this rhyme but here is how I would do it. It is called “For want of a nail” or “For lack of a nail”.

For want of a nail, a shoe was lost. For want of a shoe, a horse was lost. For want of a horse, a general was lost. For want of a general, a battle was lost. For want of a battle, a kingdom was lost. All for want of a tiny insignificant nail. All because a tiny nail went a-missing.

The rhyme illustrates for us that small things can have significant consequences. In the economy or the history of salvation, Mary is that tiny insignificant nail. But, here is the twist. She may be the insignificant nail but the story is not about the nail but rather about how God uses the nail to prevail against evil.

Look at the 1st Reading. On one level, it speaks of the past. It points to the rescue of Israel from the forces of the great Pharaoh and the mighty Egyptian army. The imagery is poignant because here you have the woman given a pair of wings, reminiscent of what God said, “I will give you eagle’s wing”. And where does she flee to? The desert. The desert brings the reader back to the past event of the Exodus. But, on another level, the reader is brought into the present Roman Empire which does not think twice when she snuffs out kingdoms along her conquering march. No one in the known world of the Evangelist could withstand the power of this Empire. The past and the present point to the future. For, history has proven that this tiny little ostracised Jewish sect was to be the downfall of the empire. Christianity was to conquer the Roman Empire—not by force but by conviction.

The Assumption is definitely a reminder that in the schema of God’s plan, there is a future. We call it the Resurrection. Death is not a sign of defeat but rather God, by the death of His Son, has prevailed over darkness. And it all started with a tiny and insignificant nail. The proof is found in the Gospel. There, you find a young woman, in danger of being stoned to death for adultery, audaciously singing the Magnificat extolling the great deeds of the God who saves. The Magnificat is both a promise of the future and a hope for the present. We can only arrive at the future when we live in the present. But, unfortunately, in the current climate of despair, we either fear the future or we live in the past. When we have no faith in the future, it is possible that we are struggling to believe the Resurrection. Many people question what could possibly come out of the present. And the usual response is either we cling to the nostalgic past [like the honk of the “roti- man" (bread-seller), according to a Deejay] or we languish in the pessimistic present.

According to the 2nd Reading, the Assumption points towards the future fulfilment of a pledge and yet it is grounded in the hopeful present that even though the evil and corruption that surround us may seem insurmountable, we are assured that Christ is even more powerful and He has prevailed. Therefore, the Assumption is not irrelevant. Instead it offers us consoling hope in our present pessimism. We may be small nails but Mary shows us that God can make something out of nothing. It just means that we must dare to sing the Magnificat for “He has shown the power of His arm. He has routed the proud of heart. He has pulled down princes from their thrones and exalted” the lowly insignificant nail.

Later, after the Profession of Faith, you will sing the offertory hymn. Listen to the words as they point us out as insignificant nails but really, the hymn is a faint echo of the Magnificat as it extols what God can do even if we are small and insignificant.

FOOTNOTE:
[1] Like a neighbouring country where people are “law-abiding”. The truth is that they are only law abiding in as much as there are fines for every minor infraction of the law. Plato gives a cynical explanation of why people are just, that is, why people keep the law. He says, “Justice is for those who have no courage to be unjust”.

The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Year A

It’s a day of obligation and it’s also time to meet people who don’t regularly attend mass. Some Catholics have a narrow understanding of “days of obligation” not realising that every Sunday is also a day of obligation. And, it is often on these “off-Sunday” days of obligation that people come around—like Ascension, today Assumption, All Saints and Christmas. To some people, a larger than usual crowd on these days is a sad commentary of the practice of some Catholics who do not seem to realise the importance of Sunday Mass. But, you know, I think of this phenomenon of a larger crowd on such days of obligation as an expression of “Catholicity” at its best. Why? It is proof that Holy Mother Church is big enough to accommodate the differing degrees of affiliation people have with her. It is like, “Once a Catholic always a Catholic, even if one were a lapsed Catholic”. So in the context of a broader and wider sense of “Catholicity”, I will try to explain (1) why we celebrate the Assumption of Mary and (2) come to appreciate better the meaning of a day of obligation.

Firstly, the official teaching on Mary’s Assumption is very recent. It is as recent as 1950. The Pope declared infallibly that “when the course of her earthly life was finished Mary was taken up, body and soul, into the glory of heaven”. But, the commemoration of the Solemnity itself dates back to the 6th Century. In fact, the Orthodox Churches celebrate it as the Dormition—the Sleeping of Mary. Essentially, Mary, the “Theotokos”, the Bearer of Christ who was conceived without Original Sin would undergo a process of death which would be different from those who have been afflicted by Original Sin. Mary after her earthly life entered heaven without the “pains or struggles” associated with death.

Secondly, the term “body and soul” reminds us of Christ in the Eucharist. When we receive Holy Communion, we do not just receive a “piece of Christ” but the whole of Christ. Mary’s Assumption is therefore a reminder that we are not just some kind of entrapped spirits in bodies. Such a philosophy of “entrapped spirits in bodies” has far-reaching consequences. An example of this would be the disregard of the physical world. When we disregard the physical world, redemption or salvation would no longer be “of” the world [matter] but would rather be an “escape” from the world. Thus, Mary’s Assumption into heaven makes it clear to us that “creation” (meaning the world) is central to the idea of Christ’s redemption or salvation. In fact, St Paul in Romans 8:22, speaks of creation (or world) as groaning as it waits for salvation. It follows that if the world or matter is not something to be forsaken but because it has been “saved” or “redeemed” by Christ, it makes sense that the body is treated with great respect when someone has died. We do come across this fanciful idea that after cremation, the ashes can be scattered in the open. Behind this “scattering” hides this sense of “freedom” from the constraints of the world. Well, redemption does not begin when we leave the body, it begins with the body. In fact, an understanding of creation and redemption which is detached from the concern over the physical world has led to the environmental disasters that we are experiencing now.

Thirdly, teaching on Mary’s Assumption is described as infallible. We hear of “Papal Infallibility” but, how did the Pope arrive at this teaching? He actually contacted bishops throughout the world and also consulted theologians to ask if “the Assumption” was sort of believed in by the local Catholic communities. In short, he checked with the “sensus fidelium”—the sense of the faithful. Sensus fidelium is defined as the sensitivity and capacity of all the faithful to appreciate and discern the practical meaning that revelation and the Christian faith has in contemporary world. Sensus fidelium is possible because through baptism we share in the gifts and guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Fourthly, as you can see, the exercise of Papal Infallibility was not an exercise of arbitrariness. Instead, the Pope after consultation and with good purpose declared this about 5 years after the end of yet another great war. The 50 years preceding 1950 witnessed amongst other things, the genocide of the Armenians, the death of 6 million Jews at the hands of the Nazis and the start of what we know now as the Nuclear Age. In the midst of the desecration of human bodies, the Pope intended the celebration of the Assumption of Mary to make clear the sacredness and the high destiny of every single human person.

Fifthly, we can say that the Assumption is really an “Iconic” celebration because Mary can be called the “representative” of the Church—the icon of who we are. Listen to what the Preface of the Assumption says, “Today the Virgin Mother of God was taken up into heaven to be the beginning and the pattern of the Church in its perfection and a sign of hope and comfort for your people on their pilgrim way”. In fact, the Preface of the Ascension says: Christ, the mediator between God and man, judge of the world and Lord of all, has passed beyond our sight, not to abandon us but to be our hope. Christ is the beginning, the head of the Church; where he has gone, we hope to follow. So, where Christ is, there the Church will be; where Christ is, there Mary will be and where Christ is; there we will be if we follow him. Assumption is a reminder of our heavenly destiny.

In summary, Assumption may be a day of obligation but perhaps we may better understand that “obligation” is really a sad commentary of how poorly we have received and internalised the salvation that Christ won for us. Maybe, as we come to share Mary’s triumphant entry into the glory of Christ, we may begin to re-engage our faith in a way which sees us moving away from “have to” to “want to”, a conversion from obligation to love.

The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Year C

The human person sees in perspective—he needs to see things in perspective in order to make sense of it. For example, looking out into the horizon, we scan a wide panorama of things. What happens is that our faculty of sight needs to lock onto some familiar things so as to give us a measure of what is before us.

The Assumption of Mary is one such measure for the human race. In the immensity, the grandeur and the majesty of who God is, Mary assumed body and soul into heaven becomes such a figure that is familiar to us; a figure that allows us to see how we are to fit into the larger picture. I particularly like very much the quote by a Poet that Mary is our tainted nature’s solitary boast.

She is the foundation for the reasonability of faith. Her fiat, “let it be done according to your word”, represents an utter and unqualified trust in a God who never fails to satisfy our inmost or deepest expectation. God is the only one who can satisfy us completely and as such, He never fails to keep his promise. Unfortunately, many of us believe that our faith will shield us from pains and sufferings. The foundation of our faith is rather contingent and is based upon the principle of reciprocity: “God, we do this and you keep your promise”. The basis of our relationship with God is at the level of “You scratch my back, I scratch your back”. If that were not the case, then, why the many questionings that come after a tragedy? “I have done my part and yet I feel so betrayed by my God”.

For Mary, “Let it be done” does not take away the pains which she has to undergo—an uncertain pregnancy of a woman out of wedlock and its attendant punishment if found out; the indignity of giving birth in a stable; the frightful losing of her only son, not to mention, the son of God, and the anxious searching for him in Jerusalem; the leaving of Jesus from home for an active ministry that saw him with nowhere to lay his head; and the death of Jesus at an age where he was beginning to flourish in his ministry. Her faith, instead of shielding her, propels her into the heart of living. Life is full of vicissitudes and in her own life we know that Mary’s faith brought her into the fullness of life. It is in life that she finds her God. Mary became our pillar of faith not because she was shielded from the bomb blast of belief in God but because she took the risk of standing by and upon the promise of God. People might argue that because she was sinless, immaculately conceived and therefore she could not have felt the toils or the troubles of temptations that we all, “mere mortals” feel. But judging by what she went through, one can surmise that precisely because of the immaculate conception that God our Lord subjected her to the test beyond what many of us can bear. The Immaculate Conception was a gift given to Mary in view of her role as the Mother of the Son of God. The Immaculate Conception was never given so that Mary could be free from the trials that we are subjected to. Thus, rightly she becomes the measure of our vision of heaven.

According to the Preface written for the Solemnity, Mary is taken up to be the beginning and the pattern of the Church in its perfection… As such, the Assumption is like a mirror of Easter Sunday. The empty tomb of Jesus is also the empty tomb of Mary for the Church has never venerated the mortal remains of Mary. Since Mary is closely associated with Jesus, she participates fully in his resurrection. Mary's assumption strengthens our faith just as the transfiguration on the mountain strengthened the faith of the three apostles.

Today we gather in joyous celebration because all Marian doctrine and devotion, properly understood and practised, does not lead believers away from, but rather more deeply into, the mystery of Christ. Therefore, let us look at Mary, our pillar of faith, to ask her to strengthen us in our journey amidst the joys and sorrows of life. What we all undergo will all be transformed by Christ's victory. Mary knows it already, and today she confirms our faith and hope.