Here is my homily for the Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary. God bless all!
Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
August 15, 2019
Rev 11:19a; 12:1-6a, 10ab; 1Cor 15:20-27; Lk 1: 39-56
Today is a day of great hope for all of us. Yes, hope of future glory. Today is a day that demonstrates for us the road on which we too will walk one day in the future, when, like Jesus who first walked it, and our Blessed Mother who followed him, we will go.
We celebrate Mary being assumed body and soul into heaven where she now shares in God’s glory.
Indeed, where Mary has gone, we will follow, for where Mary has gone, her son Jesus went before her, and she beckons us to follow her son into his glory.
Mary went body and soul into heaven at the end of her life here on earth. This is what the Assumption means and this was the belief of all Christians from the earliest times, and taught by the Church definitively in more recent centuries. Because of her intimate bond with her son, her fidelity to the Word of God spoken to her at the Annunciation (which we heard proclaimed today in the Gospel) a Word she nurtured with a perfect faith throughout her life, and she never abandoned, a Word that became flesh in her womb, because of her faith and maternal bond with her son, she was assumed into heaven at the end of her earthly life.
This a great hope for all of us! Where Jesus went, Jesus summoned his mother to come after him, and Jesus will summon us also someday, body and soul, into his glory. We will be reunited with him on the last day when Jesus comes again in glory and raises our mortal bodies, reuniting them with our souls for all eternity.
Where Jesus has gone, and Mary has followed, we too will go, but we remain faithful to Him. Mary will show us the way, if we ask her to help us with her prayers.
This is our hope, a hope realized already in Mary’s Assumption. A hope that will be realized in us if we remain faithful as Mary was faithful; if we say “Yes!” as Mary said “Yes” to the Word the archangel Gabriel that day brought to her. Just as Mary was one with her son, so too we will become one with Jesus some day if we accept God’s Word and stay close to him always.
Mary had such great faith in the Word, such great love for the Word made flesh, her Son Jesus Christ, and such great hope that she was, one might say, perfectly united to him in his death, resurrection, and ascension. In other words, she never left her son; she never abandoned him; she stayed with him through it all. She followed him on the road to Golgotha the day he died, stood by him as he hung upon the Cross, embraced him when he died and was placed in her arms, she laid him in the tomb, shared the joy of his resurrection, and followed him into heaven by her own Assumption. Mary accompanied Jesus all the way into eternity. What she has done, where she has gone, we must follow, for it is the way of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, our Lord and Savior.
Today is a day of great hope for all of us; hope of future glory. A day that shows us the road on which we must walk; the reunion we will experience, a reunion of our bodies and souls someday, and our reunion with God the Father at the end of time.
Do you love Jesus enough to go where he has gone? Mary followed him with all her heart.
Do you love Jesus enough to believe in him? Mary believed in the Word spoken to her.
Do you see in Mary’s Assumption a reflection of God’s love for you and his desire that you become whole, body and soul, and perfectly united to him for all eternity?
Ultimately, it is all about following the Lord, sharing in his life, believing in him, and seeing in Mary a model for us to imitate, and an intercessor for us before God’s throne.
