Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/081512-mass-during-the-day.cfm

Then the dragon stood before the woman about to give birth, to devour her child when she gave birth. She gave birth to a son, a male child, destined to rule all the nations with an iron rod. Her child was caught up to God and his throne. The woman herself fled into the desert where she had a place prepared by God.

This passage from the Book of Revelation describes the violence which confronted the Church as it spread rapidly throughout the Roman world, and God’s promise of protection. The early persecutions of the Church were apparently unprincipled, unsystematic and unpredictable. Just as gunmen kill defenseless bystanders for no apparent reason today, so did ancient Jews and gentiles attack Christians. They may not have known why they were torturing and killing people but they were sure they had to do it. Unlike Good, Evil doesn’t have to explain itself. Christians had no particular reason for persecuting Jews throughout the Middle Ages until the present day; nor do Muslims need a reason to torment Christians in their countries. It's what we human beings do when the Spirit of God is taken from us. 

This is a passage typical of Christian apocalyptic like those in the Gospel of Matthew and some of Saint Paul's letters; it is meant to comfort and reassure. The unnamed woman representing the New Jerusalem or the New Israel, whom Catholics identify as Mary the Mother of Jesus, is swept into the sanctuary of heaven, where she had a place prepared by God. Though all hell seems to be breaking loose around us here on earth, God has prepared a place for us in eternity. As Jesus said during his Farewell Address:

Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be. Where [I] am going you know the way.

Christians can live serenely in this world because we our home in heaven. We should always have one foot solidly planted in this world, because this is where the Lord has sent us; and the other foot as well set in heaven, our destination. With both feet rooted in both places we know where we stand, who we represent and who we are. 


The Assumption of Mary stands as another assurance of God's promise. We fondly remember her brief appearance in this world as the only person who understood Jesus' mission. It was she who set him into action with her simple prayer, "They have no wine." If she does not appear in the Gospel of John during his preaching ministry, she remained with him. That becomes obvious as she stands with him on Calvary. She the first and best of all Christians, receives the blood, water and spirit that Jesus lavishes upon her. 


Her Assumption into heaven may not have been as dramatic as our western artists like to portray it, with grieving apostles, weeping disciples, angels all aflutter and clouds of glory thundering about her. As a citizen of earth and heaven perhaps she moved freely between the two throughout the years after Jesus' Resurrection until she was finally called to take her gracious throne in heaven. But she still makes appearances in our world when the occasion calls for it. 


Mary is always, first and foremost, a disciple of Jesus. She is one of us. If she has been assumed into heaven then we know we must follow in our time. Jesus has broken down all kinds of barriers: those between gentiles and Jews, slave and free, women and men, African, Asian, European, American (South and North), Aboriginal and Micronesian. There are no divisions in Jesus, nor is there a great boundary between heaven and earth. 


During our liturgies we can almost hear the choirs of saints and angels singing God's praises on the other side of the curtain.