A Woman Clothed with the Sun!

The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Rev. 11:19a; 12:1-6a, 10ab
1 Cor. 15: 20-27
Ps. 45: 10, 11, 12, 16 (10bc)
Luke 1: 39-56

The first reading today, from the Book of Revelation, gives us a beautiful and dramatic image of the Mother of God as "a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was with child..." (12:1-2)

In reading this passage in a literal sense, we know that both mother and child were saved from the dragon that sought to destroy them. The babe, "caught up to God and his throne" (12:5), is the resurrected Christ. His mother is the woman we celebrate today through the feast of her Assumption into Heaven.

Mary, the young girl who said "Yes" to God; who carried in her heart all the things that happened to her Son as He was growing up; who watched her Son suffer horribly and die like a criminal on the cross; whose own heart was pierced with sorrow... lived on til the end of her life in the company of John and the other apostles. These men, and the women who were part of the beginnings of Christianity, surely recognized and revered the holiness and blessedness of this woman.

And how did God reward her for her life of obedience to His Will? Surely, that the corruption of the grave would not touch one who was conceived without sin as she was.

The Church has had a tradition of reverence for the Virgin Mary for most of two millenia. During this time, the Church's understanding of just who Mary was continued to grow. Finally in 1950, Pope Pius XII formally declared Mary's Assumption into Heaven an infallible doctrine of the Church.

What does Mary's Assumption mean for us today? It gives us hope that her Assumption can be our assumption too. That the glory of her heavenly reward can be ours also.

The many recorded appearances of the Virgin Mary to ordinary people over the centuries all point us to the message she wants us to hear. That message is for us to change our lives, to live in hope, and to become one community.