Reflection on Today's Readings and the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saturday, 15th August, 2020
Texts: Rev.11:19a;12:1-6a.10; Ps. 45:10-12.16; 1Cor. 15:29-27; Lk. 1:39-56
The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary was solemnly defined by Pope Pius XII in November 1st, 1950. He says, "Finally Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all stain of original sin, when the course of her life was finished, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, and exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things, so that she might be the more fully conformed to her son, the Lord of lords and conqueror of death" (CCC No: 966).
The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into heaven is a beacon of hope for us, Christians: It gives the assurance that after our lives here on earth we shall be with our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, today's celebration reinforces our Lord's words: "I am going to prepare a place, I shall return to take you to myself, so that you may be with me where I am". In the words of Richard Mcbrien, "The dogma of the Assumption asserts something about human existence in asserting something about Mary: that human existence is bodily existence, and that we are destined for glory not only in the realm of the spiritual but in the realm of the material as well". As we live bodily here and now so also we shall live bodily in heaven. The celebration rekindles in our our hearts the resurrection of the body.
Today's Readings support the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary being a beacon of hope. The first reading shows that the divine task entrusted to Mary did not come easy; she had to confront opposing forces. The reading puts it thus: "She was with child and she cried out in her pangs of birth, in anguish for delivery. .... And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to bear a child, that he might devour her child when she brought it forth". God came to her rescue and saved the child and she fled to safety in the wilderness, where God prepared for her. Where God would have prepared if not heaven? It is the place that her son has gone to prepare for his followers. This gives us hope that after our struggle here, there is a place of rest for us, a place of safety; a place prepared by God himself, where we will be with him for ever.
The second reading reminds us that in Jesus Christ we have the hope of resurrection. It says, "Brethren: Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also in Christ the resurrection of the dead". The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary reinforces this hope; it assures us of our participation in resurrection of our Lord. Jesus once assured us of sharing in the privileges of his mother by doing his Father's will (Matt. 12:50).
The gospel reading reminds us of how blessed we are when we believe the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Elizabeth says, "And blessed is she who believe that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her from the Lord". The Assumption is a glorification of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Assumption is the fulfilment of what St. Paul says, "Those whom God predestined, he called; and those whom he called, he justified; and those he justified, he also glorified" (Rom. 8:30).
Lord our God, help us to appreciate the more the mother of your only begotten Son so that we may continue to enjoy her maternal love and intercession. Amen.
Fr. Andrew Olowomuke
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