Homily for Friday, 15 August 2014‒ Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Mass during the Day

Readings of the day: Revelation 11:19a, 12:1-6a, 10ab; Psalm 45:10, 11, 12, 16; 1 Corinthians 15:20-27; Luke 1:39-56

“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my Savior for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant…” Priests, women and men in religious orders, and many laypeople pray Mary’s beautiful song we hear from the Gospel of Luke every day at Evening Prayer. How are we invited to make Mary’s prayer our own prayer of praise to God?

The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, our mother and the Mother of God, body and soul into heaven, which we celebrate today, is not primarily about Mary. The Assumption, first and foremost, points us to truths about who God is and who we are.

God has given us his only Son, Jesus Christ, who has redeemed us from sin and death by his death and resurrection. Indeed, Mary was chosen by God to be the perfect means of bringing the Son of God into the world as a human being. Mary did not remain without sin from Conception to Assumption into heaven under her own strength. No, God made this possible for her. God “looked with favor” on Mary, who responded with her “yes” to God’s plan of salvation for us to make it all possible.

We might ask then: How can we echo Mary’s “yes” to God that brought our Savior into the world? Some ways in which we echo Mary’s “yes” are significant. We echoed Mary’s “yes” when we were baptized and confirmed: Yes, I place Jesus Christ at the center of my life. Yes, Jesus takes first place, before material possessions; our careers; our leisure time, as good as these can be.

Placing Jesus first in our lives leads us (and has led us already) to echo Mary’s “yes” to God in many smaller ways: Yes to service toward others; yes to helping those in need in our communities and in our parish community; yes to holding my tongue and resisting temptation to gossip; yes to repentance; to turning to God and to one another for forgiveness when we fail; when we sin. God will pardon us when we need it. God will make our hearts once again as immaculate as the heart of Mary, and our prayer will be that of Mary: “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my Savior…”

The promise that God shows through Mary’s Assumption into heaven is not just a promise to Mary; it is a promise to us; to “all generations… to Abraham and his children forever.” We, too, are promised heaven, not just our souls, but body and soul. The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary is the foretaste of what will be for all of us.

Mary’s Assumption, body and soul, into heaven is about God looking “with favor” on all who are faithful to God, beginning with Mary, our model of faithfulness; model of the Church. God makes the Assumption possible, not only for Mary, but for each and every one of us. And so, by word and the active witness of our faith; our “yeses” to God big and small, we can give thanks to God in the words of our mother Mary; Our Lady of the Assumption: “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my Savior for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant… he has remembered his promise of mercy; the promise he made to our fathers, to Abraham and his children forever.”