Assumption of The Blessed Virgin Mary

Jan 28 2025

All Is Not Lost

Summer in the northern hemisphere feels like a funny time of year to think about the dying. The created world overflows with vigor. Tomatoes are ripe. Corn is in full ear. Yet here in vibrant mid August, the Church asks us to ponder Mary’s assumption, to probe and ponder the end of earthly life.

I remember one August when my son first saw a dead snake on a dirt road. It was lying still. It didn’t move. His four-year-old eyes brimmed with tears as he asked, “Is it gone? Is it lost?”

We wonder, too. What happens after death? Will we be gone? Will we be lost?

What happened to Mary? Did she die and her resurrected body was taken into heaven, like the Son of God? Was she swept into a chariot without dying, like Elijah? Theologians don’t agree about what her “assumption” looked like. Yet the Theotokos didn’t become a floating spirit, just as Jesus’ resurrected body didn’t become a ghost. The woman created as Mary of Nazareth, body and soul, was taken into heaven. She is not lost. She is alive.

The Good News of this feast is that those who die are not lost. What makes you, you; what makes me, me—that will not fade away. Matter matters. Though we don’t know how it works, we will have the same completion that the Virgin Mary has: we, body and soul, will not be lost.

Our grand finale is to be with God. You and I will stand before the power of the Most High and be overshadowed with glory. Together with the angels and the saints, we will overflow with intoxicating happiness within the tenderness of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is our confidence: ultimately, we will be home. We will not be lost. We will be found.

Consider/Discuss

Everlasting life—is this just a nice idea? Is heaven just a delusion for simple and backward people? Some would distrust anything that cannot be detected by our five senses. Many, even other Christians, scoff at today’s feast. Heaven is real; we believe that and yet we do not believe. What difference would it make to our lives if we regain a robust sense of a blessed eternity? It is beyond our imagining that all of the universe, all matter, will one day be drawn into God. St. Paul says that all creation groans while awaiting the final deliverance from death. The feast of the Assumption gives us a foretaste of that redemption. What does it mean for your human dignity and mine, that all created matter will one day be drawn to God?

Living and Praying with the Word

God of the Universe, you give us tastes of heaven on earth. Yet we have no idea of the abundance that you have in store for us. Your face shines upon us even now. One day your light will radiate upon us in everlasting brilliance. On this August day, plant deep within us an enthusiastic vision of the immensity and promise of your glory. Holy One Most High, let your exhilaration radiate from within us so strongly that we cannot hold it in. Mary, Mother of God, pray for us on this day, your day.

Jan 28 2025

Scripture Study for

John’s vision of the woman and the dragon begins a section of Revelation that focuses on the power of evil—Satan—to oppose both God and God’s people. Although the power is formidable and truly destructive, in the end it does not prevail. The woman adorned with the stars, sun, and moon (see Genesis 37:9–10) represents Israel, who gives birth to the Messiah. Satan, of course, wishes to prevent this, but God rescues the child and also the “mother,” God’s people, who are also threatened by evil. The passage immediately after the reading (12:7–9) recounts the battle in heaven between Satan and Michael, which ends with Satan being thrown down to earth. Our reading resumes with a hymn of praise for God’s victory over Satan.

Paul has been responding to the claims of some that there is no resurrection, to which he answers that if there is no resurrection, then Christ was not raised from the dead and—if this is the case— then we have no hope (15:12–19). But Christ has been raised, and now Paul explains the implications. Christ has been victorious not only over his own personal death but over death absolutely. Just as our human existence and experience of death is corporate (“in Adam”), so also will be our experience of life “in Christ.” Those who “belong to Christ” will be the next to be raised, and then finally all will be raised when Christ comes into his kingdom.

Luke’s account of the Visitation features what might be termed two prophetic oracles, in the sense that both Elizabeth and Mary praise God and announce what God is doing. Elizabeth’s greeting to Mary focuses on Mary as “blessed” both because she is the “mother of my Lord” and also because she has believed what God has spoken. Mary begins by “proclaiming the greatness of the Lord” for the blessing God has given her, but immediately turns to the larger redemptive work of God, which is the reason for Mary’s blessedness. This redemptive work involves overturning the power of the proud, the rich, and the mighty in favor of the weak and lowly. All of this is done because God remains faithful to ancient promises.

Jan 12 2025

God to the Rescue!

I had a dream on the feast of the Assumption many years ago. It was one of those dark and scary dreams in which I was running through the streets of a town, dodging evil creatures and malevolent attackers. Suddenly I found myself in an abandoned lot. No trees. No buildings to hide me. No, no, no! I was totally exposed.

Have you ever had a nightmare like that? Or lived through a horror like that? Today’s reading from Revelation starts with a similar terror. A woman wails aloud. A serpent stands ready to devour her child about to be born, a horrifying reptile whose tail can sweep away the stars!

Yet the child is caught up to God. The woman is secured in the radiance of the desert. She and her baby are safe. As we celebrate the Assumption, we read this account because of its parallels. We believe that at the moment of death, however it happened, Mary was not devoured by death, but caught up to God.

Is death like that distress? Is it followed by an abiding sense of tranquility? We do not know. We may think that we grasp God, but in reality, no. The Redeemer is here for us. The Lord is our Rescuer, the one who snatches us from terror and brings us to peace.

In my dream, as I stood so frightened in that open field, peaceable people encircled me, powerful people who loved me and were pleased with me. The horror could not come near. I was safe. I was secure. Brightness surrounded me. Now when I think of Mary and the communion of saints, I swell with courage. I feel that I have been surrounded by them.

No matter what, we are safe. We dwell secure. All will be well.

Consider/Discuss

When you were younger, was there a place where you dwelt secure or a person with whom you were thoroughly “at home”? Where do you find safety now?
What is it like to feel alone and in terror? How is that different from being surrounded by love? Think of times when the Lord has been your Rescuer.

Living and Praying with the Word

Holy Spirit, you are the divine tie who binds us with those who are in heaven. Illumine our hearts to see that we are not alone, that those who have gone before us are cheering us onward toward peace and everlasting life. Be with us in moments of earthly terror and fear. Rather than seeing things from our earthly perspective, grant us knowledge to see things from a heavenly viewpoint, that ultimately, when this is over, all will be well. Snatch us up, carry us away to you!

Jan 12 2025

Scripture Study for

After the seventh trumpet has blown, signaling God’s triumph over diabolic powers, the temple opens and the ark of the covenant is revealed. This scene of divine victory immediately shifts to an image of Israel giving birth to the Messiah. The child is saved from Satan, the huge red dragon attempting to destroy him. One sees here a reference to the attempt of the powers of hell to destroy Jesus through his death on the cross, only to be foiled when he is raised from the dead and ascends to heaven. The woman, who now represents the persecuted church, is protected by God just as Israel was protected in the wilderness after the Exodus.

Some Christians in Corinth apparently denied the resurrection of the dead, to which Paul responded that if there is no resurrection, then obviously Christ was not raised from the dead, making their faith in him pointless. They are still in their sins, have no hope beyond this life, and those who have already “fallen asleep in Christ have perished.” But Christ was raised from the dead, and his resurrection was not just for him but for all who have received life in and through him. At his second coming, those who are “in Christ” will be resurrected, too. Christ alone will be sovereign, the only authority, and all powers will be subject to him, including and especially the power of death.

Mary expresses prophetically in her Magnificat the meaning of the coming of the Messiah. True to character, God has shown mercy not just to her, but to all who have remained faithful and waited in hope for the longed-for salvation, making good on the ancient promises. The fulfillment of God’s promise of salvation, however, will not be good news for everyone. Those who do not fear God, the proud and the rich, those who are satisfied with a world just the way it is, in which some have and others do not—for these, the coming of the Messiah will be a time of judgment on them and on their way of life.

Jan 06 2025

Mary, Mother of Hope

The feast of the Assumption offers hope. What has been done for Mary will be done for us. Our God, the Creator of all that is, has intended from the beginning that creation would share in the fullness of light and life. God’s purpose is to bring all creation into the life of the Trinity.

Today’s readings are rich in images of being lifted up. In Revelation, we find the image of the child being caught up to God and God’s throne, safe from the threat of the dragon intent on devouring the child. Paul writes to the Corinthians that just as Christ has been raised up, the first fruits, the beginning of the harvest, so too in him all shall be restored to life. And the Gospel gives us Mary’s great prayer, her only extended speech in scripture, when she sings her song of praise to God: “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord . . . (who) has lifted up the lowly.”

The Assumption of Mary also lifts us up in hope. What has been done for her will be done for all of us who have been redeemed by Christ, if we commit ourselves to dying and rising with him. She is the mother of and model for all disciples. Her words at the Annunciation, “Be it done to me according to your word,” began a life of surrender to God’s will. This yielding led to her being taken into the presence of God, where she prays for us in union with her Son.

Consider/Discuss

Can you see in this feast a promise of hope for all who are faithful to the Lord?
Can you see a challenge to surrender to God, who will lift you into the fullness of life?

Responding to the Word

Mary, help us to find Christ, knowing that when we “do whatever he tells you” (John 2:5), we follow your example of surrendering our will to the Father. Give us the hope that springs from a trusting faith in the Father and shows itself in love for one another.