From the Pastor's Desk: August 15, 2021

This Sunday the Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into heaven. On this feast, we praise God who has taken the sinless Virgin Mary, body and soul, into His glory. Although this event is not described in the biblical tradition, it has nevertheless been a part of the church’s tradition since the early centuries. It emerged out of reflection among the faithful on the profound role Mary had in the salvation of all humanity, especially in her openness and faithfulness to God. 

The Assumption is the oldest feast day of Our Lady, but we don't know how it first came to be celebrated. After over 200 years of Christian persecution, in the year 336, the Holy Sepulcher was built and other sacred sites began to be restored and memories of the life of Our Lord began to be celebrated by the people of Jerusalem. One of the memories about His mother centered around the "Tomb of Mary," close to Mount Zion, where the early Christian community had lived. On the hill itself was the "Place of Dormition," the spot of Mary's "falling asleep," where she had died. The "Tomb of Mary" was where she was buried. At this time, the "Memory of Mary" was being celebrated. Later it was to become our feast of the Assumption, since there was more to the feast than her dying. It also proclaimed that she had been taken up, body and soul, into heaven. At the Council of Chalcedon in 451, when bishops from throughout the Mediterranean world gathered in Constantinople, Emperor Marcian asked the Patriarch of Jerusalem to bring the relics of Mary to Constantinople to be enshrined in the capitol. The patriarch explained to the emperor that there were no relics of Mary in Jerusalem- that "Mary had died in the presence of the apostles; but her tomb, when opened later… was found empty and so the apostles concluded that the body was taken up into heaven."

That belief was ancient, dating back to the apostles themselves. What was clear from the beginning was that there were no relics of Mary to be venerated, and that an empty tomb stood on the edge of Jerusalem near the site of her death. That location also soon became a place of pilgrimage. (Today, the Benedictine Abbey of the Dormition of Mary stands on the spot.)

 Inside the Benedictine Abbey of the  Dormition of Mary, Jerusalem.

In 1950, in the Apostolic Constitution Munificentissimus Deus, Pope Pius XII proclaimed the Assumption of Mary a dogma of the Catholic Church in these words: "The Immaculate Mother of God, the ever-virgin, The Assumption completes God's work in her since it was not fitting that the flesh that had given life to God himself should ever undergo corruption. The Assumption is God's crowning of His work as Mary ends her earthly life and enters eternity. The feast turns our eyes in that direction, where we will follow when our earthly life is over.”

The feast days of the Church are not just the commemoration of historical events; they do not look only to the past. They look to the present and to the future and give us an insight into our own relationship with God. The Assumption looks to eternity and gives us hope that we, too, will follow Our Lady when our life is ended. Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heaven. With that, an ancient belief became Catholic doctrine and the Assumption was declared a truth revealed by God. (Catholicculture.org)

Let us be imitators of Mary, Mother of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and do something beautiful for God with our lives, “Don’t come to prayer looking for extraordinary experiences. Come to visit your great friend Jesus, always present and waiting for you in the tabernacle. This is the friendship that strengthens us to fulfill our day-to-day ordinary duties with extraordinary love and devotion.” (St Mother Teresa)

Have a blessed week!  

With prayers,
Fr. Andy