Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Mass during the Day

 Lectionary: 622
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.

As you arrived in Carey you might have noticed the signs honoring the home town heroes of 1975 and 2021, when the Blue Devils, the high school football team, won state championships in their division. 

Drive into any small town in the United States and you'll see a sign announcing its local heroes. They might even name the particular athlete who was probably honored with a parade and keys to the city following their victory. If they weren’t athletes they might have won a spelling bee, chess championship, or debating competition. Every town, village and community needs something to brag about, and it’s better if they’re our own children. A hero shows what we can do; they prove  our strength, courage, and spirit to the world. 

And so the Church celebrates Mary the Mother of God. We never forget that God alone gave her the grace and dignity of Immaculate Conception; and then, piling grace upon grace, the Father made her to be the Virgin Mother of Jesus; and finally, she was assumed body and soul into heaven without a sidetrip into Purgatory. The woman was without sin from the day she was conceived, through her birth, life, and death. She belonged heart and soul to God even as she stood at the cross and witnessed her son’s agony and death. She remained faithful; she would not turn away from God, or doubt God’s just and merciful plan for our salvation. 

Perhaps more importantly, we never forget that she proved herself worthy of the extraordinary gifts of Immaculate Conception, Virgin Birth, Assumption into heaven, until she was crowned Queen of heaven and earth. 

Our small town hero, having failed to make the college football team, might disappoint the glories we gave him, and be remembered only for wrestling with four cops in a drunken rage. But the Mother of Jesus was meek and humble of heart; she was always the handmaid of the Lord, and aspired to nothing more. 

By her purity of heart, she is not only worthy to be the Mother of God. By her presence among us she makes us, God's people, worthy to receive this blessing of Jesus. And, at least as wonderful, she makes all humankind – and the Earth –  and the Universe –  worthy of God’s Gift of his Divine Presence. Her womb was  a worthy tabernacle of the Son of God.

As the priest and poet John Donne wrote, 

Ere by the spheres time was created thou

Wast in His mind, who is thy Son, and Brother ;

Whom thou conceivest, conceived ; yea, thou art now

Thy Maker's maker, and thy Father's mother,

Thou hast light in dark, and shutt'st in little room

Immensity, cloister'd in thy dear womb.

We see how worthy she is  especially as she stands by the Cross of Jesus. Like Abraham who offered his son Isaac in sacrifice to God, she gives her only begotten son to the Father. 

Aware of  and grateful for her great sacrifice, we rush to Calvary to be with her when we celebrate this solemn feast day. How can we not be obligated to offer the Sacrifice of the Mass? For it is only by this mysterious and wonderful sacrament that we pay homage to Mary and to the God she worshiped. We offer ourselves in union with her and with her son. We claim her as our mother, and her son as our Lord. 

We must be here. We cannot be anywhere else. As the old man said when his prodigal son came home, We must celebrate. For we were lost and she has found us; we were dead and she has given us what no other woman could, rebirth.