Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into Heaven

Lectionary 622

When that which is mortal clothes itself with immortality,
then the word that is written shall come about:

Death is swallowed up in victory.
Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?

Christians love to celebrate the victory the Lord has won for us. We remember how Jesus proceeded to Jerusalem despite the warnings of friends and acquaintances. He could see, and knew perfectly well, the hostility which his ministry was generating. 

Human beings usually like the way they think. They don't often want or prefer new information. And they hate challenges to their certainties. Once they have worked out ways to survive on this dynamic, ever-changing planet, amid their unreliable and sometimes treasonous brethren, they're not going to listen to an upstart who says that God will provide for everyone who trusts in Him. 

Even if this prophet is repeating the same assurances they have heard from other prophets for over a thousand years, they will not listen. Even after they have inexplicably survived innumerable plagues, infestations, fires, floods, droughts, and wars -- which survival the prophets insist is due to God's favor and divine providence -- they will not respect the assurances of another prophet. In fact, if he won't quit making his promises and condemning their recalcitrance, they'll kill him. 

Jesus knew that as he approached Jerusalem. He saw it clearly when his disciples clung to their cluelessness. They were so sure his mission could not fail that they denied even his several predictions of the coming disaster. When he was arrested, tried, tortured, and crucified they were utterly confounded. They never saw it coming; even his betrayer had no idea it would come to this. 

Christians celebrate Jesus's courage in the face of death and the victory God gave his faithful servant. We celebrate his glorious resurrection from the dead, and we laugh -- "ha ha hallelujah" -- on Easter Sunday and throughout the year. Every first day of the week is Easter for us as we eat his flesh and drink his blood in memory of him. We laugh and mock the greatest enemy of humankind, 

Death is swallowed up in victory.
Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting? (from the second reading of the vigil Mass.)

But our Catholic faith leads us to even more joy as we remember the Assumption of the Virgin Mary -- body and soul! -- into heaven. Utterly innocent, supernaturally preserved from sin by the prevenient grace of Immaculation, she was worthy to bypass the corruption every human body suffers upon death. Because she was the Mother of God, it was fitting that her sinless body should be assumed directly into heaven upon her passing. 

(In fact, we're not even sure she died; Orthodox Catholics of the eastern rites call this feast her dormition, meaning her sleep.)

With the celebration of that doctrine we have all the more reason to rejoice and be glad. As children of Mary and disciples of Jesus, we are not promised incorruption and an immediate assumption into glory, but we are sure that we shall follow where Jesus and Mary have led. We remain with them, travelling through all the aforementioned "plagues, infestations, fires, floods, droughts, and wars" -- and occasional persecutions -- with the confidence of God himself.