Email Guidelines Dara's Homilies Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary (Sunday 15th Aug 2010)
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Revelation 11:19,12:1-6 ,10; Psalm 44 ;
1 Cor 15:20-27 ; Luke 1:39-56
We celebrate the fact that Mary got assumed up to heaven, because it's a sign that all of us mortals can make it... if only we would avoid sins! We thank Christ for transforming the bad news of our physical death into the Good News of Eternal Life, but an inherent part of that gift is Mary. Christ ascended, whereas Mary got assumed. In other words, we're not claiming that our human nature can make it's own way to Eternal Life (ascending), but rather that God, in his mercy, goes to the trouble of drawing us up. Christ came down to earth (became incarnate), like a mother bends down to pick up her child. Christ became one of us through Mary 2000 years ago, but one of the clear truths of our faith is that if He's going to be present to you and I now, then Mary must have a fundamental part in that. Of course, God is both male and female… God is Love!
She’ a sign of how simplicity on the outside may have a tremendous effect inside, and how from which a marvel comes. Also, she didn't ascend, but was assumed.
Mary gave birth in spite of being a virgin (and it wasn't some kind of 'parthenogenesis' like in bees!), and that makes me think today of the fact that we can all make our way to heaven in spite of our sins. Evil may seem to be an inherent part of our human nature, but Mary was conceived without 'original sin', and she is as human as all of us. In other words, she's a sign that the entrance into heaven is on offer to us all. As we celebrate her assumption, we're actually celebrating the fact that we can all get 'assumed' to Life with God. That'll be after we die physically, but it begins during our lives on earth. It can also be impeded by our sins on earth. Christ is pleading with us to die right now to sin. This Sunday inspires me to thank God for bonding our humanity with his divinity, and the clear sign of that bond, is the assumption of Mary. It can be broken by our own sinning, but we begin mass asking for forgiveness. If we do so with a genuine humility in our hearts, then guess what... He forgives us! Our souls proclaim his greatness, because He has looked on his servants in their lowliness!
Our churches have fine tabernacles in which the host is kept. They represent the real presence of God in his church. However the most amazing 'tabernacle' which bore the presence of God, is Mary. She isn't just an example testimony that's part of the history of the Gospel, but she's a living mother ascended to heaven with Christ. She's watching and waiting for us all now! I like the way Rembrandt painted 'The return of the prodigal son'. He paints the father welcoming the son home but the hands that embrace him are actually painted as feminine! Since the Eucharist is the body and blood of Jesus and Mary was a virgin, it's actually in human genetic terms also the body and blood of Mary! She's not, in herself, a profuse preacher of 'the Word of God' yet the Word came to us through her and is given it's perfect human wrapping by her single perfect phrase: "Let it be done in me according to your Word". The Word has come to us today also. Let's follow her prologue and give the Good News its next page: "Let it be done in me according to your word"!
The Church describes Christ as 'The Sun which rises from on high', so I like to describe Mary as 'the mystery of the moon'! There's a time when we can't see the sun directly, but we see its light shining in the moon. The following is a little confusing because our faith tells us that Mary didn't have labour pains in Bethlehem, but she went through other problems, and of course, she keeps going through them as mother of the Church. The book of Revelation has this: 'A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was with child and wailed aloud in pain as she labored to give birth...' (Rev 12:1-2 ). But once the child is born - the joy beats even the ideal mundane 'honey-moons'!
Mary is 'mediatrix' of our arrival in heaven. Prayer with Mary isn't a question of 'reciting things' - it's a question of contact with our mother who inspires a lot in us. The wedding at Cana is interesting. A wedding really speaks of love. The lack of wine represents for me the lack of joy in the world that longs for love. Jesus is there along with Mary. That symbolises her role in our lives as we try to organise our few years on earth. When she tells Jesus of the 'lack of wine' he asks her "What can we do, you and I?". Note that he asks 'We'. Mary puts it clearly to the organisers: "Do whatever He says". She gets us to open up to God's Word. The solution then appears! Mary keeps us informed as she did Jesus: "They're lacking wine"... in other words they're lacking what would make life in the world the joy it should be.
Pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death' isn't just a reference to our physical 'departure' from the world, but to our daily 'dying' to selfishness and sin. Therein lies our authentic departure on the road to Life, Love and happiness.
Imagine talking with the mother of someone who's mistakingly up for condemnation by a law-court and it turns out that you're the lawyer who can convince the judge that the problem can be solved without condemnation and you yourself can volunteer to bring the youth back to a good life. How would you talk with the mother? I think that's how we should pray with Mary.
After the crucifixion (Jn 19:26 ), Jesus saw his mother standing at the foot of the cross near his disciple John and he said "Mother, here is your son - son, here is your mother". John represents each of us and note that they then went home together. Mary accompanies us all - if only we realised it!
A good mother encourages her children to take big steps. When a man needed a difficult heart operation in Mallorca once, a surgeon with the expertese to do it, was the man's brother. The norm in the surgical profession is to avoid having a surgeon doing any risky operation on a family member. So a trip to Valencia was proposed. But the mother was asked what she would like and she answered immediately: "Let my son operate on his brother!". She trusted that her son would make the huge effort that was needed. That's Mary's call to us Christians. We all have many brothers and sisters with hearts that need to know about the Life and Love of God, and Mary encourages us to take steps there! I can't give a lot physically now but Mary inspires me with her life: Whatever little you can give, give it all! You never know what fruit it may yield. Look at the fruit of Mary's 'giving'!
Mary said the 'yes' which opened up the incarnation of Christ for us all, but Jesus says that we can follow her 'yes': 'While he was speaking, a woman from the crowd called out and said to him, "Blessed is the womb that carried you and the breasts at which you nursed." 28 He replied, "Rather, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it."' (Lk 11:27-28). Do we do that?
Mary recognises who deserves thanks: 'The almighty has done marvellous things for me, his lowly servant'. That humility is a beutifull merit! If only we would be humble like our mother, then we may end up being assumed after her! She's assumed to Heaven, but she never leaves us. She journeys with us. There are 200 km between Nazareth and Bethlehem, so that was no easy journey on a donkey! With my MS, sometimes it's hard to be confined to a wheelchair but I'm well accompanied!
Dara
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