Bible Study #7
The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
August 15, 2010
Gospel: Luke 1:39-56
Mary set out
and traveled to the hill country in haste
to a town of Judah,
where she entered the house of Zechariah
and greeted Elizabeth.
When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting,
the infant leaped in her womb,
and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit,
cried out in a loud voice and said,
“Blessed are you among women,
and blessed is the fruit of your womb.
And how does this happen to me,
that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears,
the infant in my womb leaped for joy.
Blessed are you who believed
that what was spoken to you by the Lord
would be fulfilled.”
And Mary said:
“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord;
my spirit rejoices in God my Savior
for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant.
From this day all generations will call me blessed:
the Almighty has done great things for me
and holy is his Name.
He has mercy on those who fear him
in every generation.
He has shown the strength of his arm,
and has scattered the proud in their conceit.
He has cast down the mighty from their thrones,
and has lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.
He has come to the help of his servant Israel
for he has remembered his promise of mercy,
the promise he made to our fathers,
to Abraham and his children forever.”
Mary remained with her about three months
and then returned to her home.
The Gospel of the Lord.
Reflection
Today is the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which supercedes the Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, which would normally be on this date. This only happens a few times during the year, which shows the importance of this celebration. These solemnities celebrate an important event in the saving mission of Jesus or celebrate someone who was key in unfolding these events. I think both are true in this case.
This feast dates back to the 5th Century, where the Christians of the East were celebrating a feast called the “Memorial of Mary.” This feast day was taken from the martyrs anniversaries, or birthdays into heaven. It eventually became known is the ‘koimesis in Greek, and the ‘dormitio’ in Latin, henceforth the ‘Dormition of Mary’, or the falling asleep of Mary, which represented the deep faith of early Christians in the resurrection of the body after it falls asleep in death.
The emperor Mauricius Flavius (582-602) decreed that the feast of the Dormition of Mary was to be celebrated on August 15th. Pope St. Adrian I (772-795) adopted this feast for the west and the word ‘Assumption’ replaced ‘Dormition’.
The feast faded in importance for a few centuries but made a revival due to the continuing liturgical celebrations of this feast, and because of the writings of some of the great saints in the church, including Saints Albert the Great, Bonaventure and Thomas Aquinas, and has been a popular feast since that time.
Beginning in 1846, many petitions were sent to Rome by many members and groups of the Church asking for the declaration of the dogma of the Assumption of Mary. This is a wonderful example of the ‘sensus fidelium’, or the sense of the faithful. In 1946, Pope Pius XII issued an encyclical Deiparae Virginis, asking the bishops whether they thought this doctrine should be defined and whether the clergy and laity desired its’ definition. The answer was an overwhelming yes. The Pope saw this as proof that this doctrine is divinely revealed. You see, God does speak to the people, from the bottom up, as it were, and not only from the top down.
On November 11, 1950, Pope Pius XII issued the apostolic constitution Munificentissimus Deus (M.D.) defining Mary’s bodily Assumption into heaven to be a dogma of faith: “We pronounce, declare, and define it to be a divinely revealed dogma: that the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory.”
Notice that Pope Pius XII left open the question of whether Mary actually died and was assumed into heaven, or whether she was assumed into heaven without dying. Also notice the word assumed: she did not rise to heaven by her own power, but by the power of God, as opposed to Jesus, who ascended into heaven by his own power. The Pope has also included the Immaculate Conception, the Motherhood of Mary, and Mary’s perpetual virginity as part of the dogma of the Assumption.
There are two sets of readings for this solemnity: readings for the Vigil Mass, and readings for the Mass during the day. The Gospel I am writing about is the Gospel for the Mass during the Day.
There is nothing in Scripture concerning Mary’s Assumption, so the Church selected the Gospel of the Visitation and the Magnificat for this liturgy. This prayer is so important that is recited every day in evening prayer of the Liturgy of the Hours.
Mary leaves Galilee to go to Judah to visit her kinswoman Elizabeth who is in the 6th month of her pregnancy. Elizabeth had been barren for many years, which would have been quite an embarrassment at that time. A woman was supposed to bear children and take care of the home. Not having children would have been considered being punished by God. Now both women are pregnant, and they are both to have a role in salvation history.
The role of these women are not to be the main characters in a story, but supporting characters, helping to complete the story with their own contributions. Elizabeth is to be the mother of John the Baptist, the one preparing the way, and Mary is the mother of Jesus, the messiah, the savior. The main personages in this story are Jesus and John, not Mary and Elizabeth. If you think about it, this is true in any story of faith. Every one, no matter how important in the scheme of things, is a supporting character, and our story should be pointing to Jesus. Our story is only important as long as it is a part of Jesus story.
Luke is careful to separate Jesus from John. John is the lesser of the two. John ‘leaps for joy’ in his mother’s womb because Mary is pregnant with the messiah, and salvation is at hand. Later on we see that John is only the messenger preparing the way. Jesus is the message. It is Jesus that gives John his prophetic message. John said that he must decrease, and Jesus must increase.
Elizabeth is also filled with joy at this visit, and proclaims Mary to be blessed. We see the new visiting the old, and the old being subservient to the new, signifying the fulfillment of the Old Testament by the New Testament. We believe that Jesus is God’s final and definitive revelation to us concerning faith and salvation.
Mary responds with that beautiful canticle called the “Magnificat.” She begins by acknowledging God’s greatness and her joy in her God. This is a good place to start for all of us, also. Acknowledging God’s greatness means that we place ourselves at God’s beck and call, at God’s mercy. We are saying that God is greater than us, and we acknowledge our dependence on God.
As Christians, we should be joy filled people, like Mary. God’s presence in our lives should give us the joy that comes from hope: knowing that sin and death have been conquered through Jesus’ death and resurrection; knowing that God loves us and wants to be a part of our lives; knowing that following Jesus commands brings out the best in us and makes us his faith filled and joyful disciples; all these hope filled things should give us joy.
There is nothing worse than a crabby Christian. There is nothing worse than a Christian who professes faith in the risen Christ, then is complaining about everything, never seems to be happy, and brings everyone else down. I contend that a crabby Christian is no Christian at all.
Mary also reminds us that God is merciful to every generation, to those who fear him Fear doesn’t mean being afraid, but a sense of awe and reverence for God’s power, acknowledging God’s holiness and all that he has done for us.
The canticle then becomes revolutionary, in the sense that God will eventually over turn world order and put everything in order: the arrogant of mind and heart will be dispersed, rulers will be deposed, the rich are sent away empty; but the lowly are lifted up and the hungry are fed. This is how God fulfills his promise to Abraham (sending a messiah).
Mary had a very special role in the unfolding of salvation history. She gave her ‘yes ‘ to God and agreed to be the mother of Jesus, the Messiah and Savior of the world. She had no idea how that would play out in her life, and she went on faith. God asked her to do this, and she had ultimate faith and trust in God. She knew that God would be with her to guide and direct her in all parts of her life. Her life wasn’t easy, she had her own share of suffering, from going to Bethlehem for the census and giving birth to Jesus in a stable, to the flight into Egypt, to losing Jesus in the Temple, to Joseph’s death at an unknown time, to watching Jesus in his ministry, to seeing him die on the cross and then rise from the dead. As we hear in Acts, Mary was with the early church: “All these devoted themselves with one accord to prayer, together with some women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.” (Acts1: 14). When her life on earth was complete, she was assumed body and soul into heaven, the feast we celebrate today.
It seems to me that Mary didn’t do anything we normally associate with great saints: she didn’t found a religious order or any type of institution, she didn’t write anything, she wasn’t a missionary spreading the gospel, and she wasn’t a great preacher. What did she do? She placed her gifts at God’s feet and he turned them into something miraculous. What a great lesson for all of us! God might have great plans for a few of us, but mostly not. We bring our own gifts and talents and place them at God’s feet and we watch as our gifts (and ourselves) are transformed to play our own role in salvation history. No one knows what that can be; we only see a glimpse of it in hindsight. Mary didn’t see either, but she was still faithful. We, too, need to remain faithful, even if we don’t see, knowing that all is in God’s hands. And if we are, when our earthly pilgrimage is complete, we will hear Jesus tell us, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father, says the Lord, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world (Matt 25:34).”
Fr. Phil
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