The Feast of the Assumption of Mary

We shall all be caught up! 

I once heard a lecture by a Protestant scriptural scholar who spoke about the Book of Revelation. He admitted, when he came to the twelfth chapter, that he spoke to the Catholic assembly of priests and sisters with some trepidation. He suggested that this passage is not really about the Blessed Virgin Mary. No one batted an eye and his presentation passed without untoward incident.

But I asked a question, “If this passage is not about Mary, can’t we also suppose that the first chapters of Saint Luke and Saint Matthew – with their angelic apparitions, dreams, mysteriously pregnant women, excited shepherds, visiting magi, and the massacre of babies -- are apocalyptic?”

He admitted he had never looked at these passages that way. “I like the way you think.” he said. That was my one great moment in the history of scripture interpretation.

Today’s Feast of the Assumption has its own apocalyptic dimensions. We Catholics cannot claim the assumption of Mary as a historical fact revealed in the Bible; but the apocalyptic dimensions of the four gospels, the epistles, Acts of the Apostles, and Revelation lead us to ponder her apotheosis -- and our own.

In today’s gospel she appears to Elizabeth much as she appeared to Bernadette Soubirous, the children of Fatima, and Saint Juan Diego. And the old woman’s amazement is appropriate to an apocalyptic apparition:

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.

This was Mary’s first “appearance.” Since then her mission to the world has not changed – she brings her son. This is the vocation and privilege of every Christian.

Like Mary’s, our sharing the gospel always has an apocalyptic dimension. Our news is critical; it is insistent and demanding. “You must hear this! You must believe this!” We may not patrol the streets with sandwich boards announcing, “The End is Near” but that is our message.

God’s judgment is now. I knew a Catholic fellow some years ago who said to me whenever we happened to meet in that small town hospital, “I’m going to come visit with you soon and get straight with the Lord.” I knew he was dying, sustained from one month to the next by blood transfusions. He was gaming God’s judgment as he gamed his health. He hoped to find me during that narrow window of opportunity between his last transfusion and death.

Unfortunately the window was about twenty minutes long and it passed all too quickly. I cannot speak for God or His decision on the man’s fate; but I have my own opinion of his foolishness.

The Assumption of Mary reminds us of the wonderful destiny God has planned for every faithful Christian. We shall be caught up to the sky to reign with God in the glory of heaven for all eternity. It is better not to play games with such a wonderful promise.