Our Lady’s Assumption and Hope

Every August 15 we celebrate the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary body and soul into heaven.  Often people, even believers, do not know what to make of the Assumption. They may think of it only in terms of a person being transferred from one place to another.  It is so much more than that.  While, truly, it does proclaim the Virgin Mother of God left this world to enter heaven at the end of her earthly journey, it proposes a mystery that is real – a mystery that touches each one of our lives and enkindles hope in our hearts.
           
To understand this mystery of the Assumption, we must start years before in the life of Our Lady and at the very beginning of the life of Jesus.  We see the scene of the Blessed Mother and St. Joseph bringing the Infant Christ into the temple to be presented according to the Law of Moses.  The aged Simeon takes the Child into his arms and calls Him “a light for the Gentloes, and for the glory of your People Israel”. (Lk 2:32)  Then Simeon blesses Mary and Joseph and addresses the Mother, “Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising of many in Israel, that for a sign that is spoken against, and a sword will pierce through your own soul also that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed” (Lk 2:34-35)
           
The narrative of the Presentation tells us that the redemptive work of Jesus in the world will be opposed. The forces of darkness can never tolerate the light for all nations.  The powers of manipulation and control, of dismissal and destruction, can never stand the presence of the one who is truth and love.
           
His Mother’s heart will be pierced by a sword as Simeon contends. Why? Precisely because she will be united with Him in His salvific Passion and Death.  She who carried Him into His Father’s house in Jerusalem is destined to walk with him throughout His earthly life of proclaiming the Kingdom and to enter intimately into the mystery of His redeeming love.
           
Some 33 years later, this Mother fulfills this mission of union with her Son by standing at the foot of His cross.  He has come to the climax of his mission on earth offering Himself as the perfect oblation to his Father for the salvation of all humanity.  In these hours of unbridled love and mercy Our Lord forges a bond of maternal and filial love between us (and all mankind) as He pronounces who we are as members of His Body.  “Woman, behold your son – Behold your Mother” (Jn 19:26-27).  We belong to her precisely because we belong to Him.  Just as she cared for His body throughout His life, so she cares for His Body  the Church and all of us as members of that Body.
           
The Virgin Mother’s role in God’s plan of salvation is one in which her Immaculate Heart is pierced by the sword of her suffering united with her Son’s Passion and Death just as His Heart is pieced by the centurion’s lance as He hung upon the cross.  This union of love overflows into our lives and unites us with the Son through the Mother.  We are called to enter into this mystery of sacrificial death and resurrection.  It tells us to whom we belong and where are bound to go.  At the center of this mystery of identity and destination stands the Woman, His Mother and ours. 
           
We see that the Blessed Mother’s Assumption body and soul into heaven is the logical way for her to go who followed her Son through His suffering and sacrifice, to wait beside the tomb and then to rejoice at His resurrection from the death.  When He ascended into heaven to sit at the right hand of his Father, how could not have wanted His Mother to be with Him?  It was her destiny.  She would leave this valley of tears to enter into her Son’s glory. Throughout her journey of faith she is united with her Son and, therefore, also with us.  We come to understand her way of faith shows us what our way of faith should look like.
           
Her Assumption is a tremendous sign of hope for us.  In the Preface of the Mass for the Solemnity of the Assumption the Church prays, “For today the Virgin Mother of God was assumed into heaven as the beginning and image of your Church’s coming to perfection and as a sign of sure hope and comfort for your pilgrim people…Because she bore Him into the world and was so united to Him in His Passion and Death, she enjoys in a singular way in His Resurrection and Ascension  into heaven.”  She is a sign and guide for us to follow her into the heavenly Kingdom.  The corruption of the tomb could not touch her who was conceived without sin.  She reminds us that we, too, are destined to share in the resurrected life of her Son. This gives us unshakable hope.  The trials and sorrows of this world hold no claim on us if we, under her protection and following her lead, live the life of grace that He won for us.  We are bound for heaven!  Her destiny to be with God in heaven is also ours!
           
Pope St. John Paul II in the Angelus address of August 21, 1983 reaffirmed what Our Lady’s Assumption teaches us, “In the salvific plan of God,(the Assumption) which is some respects is unique, has the finality of sign for the whole people of God; a sign of hope for the complete attainment of the Kingdom of God.”

Most Reverend William J. Waltersheid
Auxiliary Bishop of Pittsburgh