A Homily for the Solemnity of the Assumption

[In the Diocese of Trenton, our bishop transferred the Solemnity of the Assumption to Sunday, August 16 this year. Even though the Assumption is not a holy day of obligation, our Cathedral is dedicated to the Assumption, so he wanted us to celebrate it on Sunday]
“When the course of her earthly life had ended, she was taken up body and soul into the glory of heaven.” It was with that simple sentence that Pope Pius XII defined the dogma of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into heaven. It is not difficult to understand what this dogma means, but many people do not understand why it was so important for the Pope to define this Dogma concerning our Lady. After all, it is not in the Scriptures; notice that today’s Gospel has to do with Mary visiting her cousin Elizabeth, before she had given birth to Jesus.
The years preceding the definition of the Dogma of the Assumption were filled with a lot of despair. The world had just come out of the Second World War. In less than 30 years the world, largely the “Christian” nations, had experienced two devastating wars. The technological revolution which had promised so much at the beginning of the century still left millions in poverty. A lot of people were asking the question “why?”
It is a question that many people still seem to be asking themselves. We do not need to look hard to find the atrocities that plague the world: terrorism, widespread drug use, high unemployment, abuse of children, women, the elderly, gang violence, even piracy is on the rise. There are hurricanes, mudslides, swine flu, and so many other disasters that add to human suffering. Why? Why all this suffering? It is easy to give into despair.
To counteract just this despair is the reason that the Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Assumption. It is a celebration of hope. It is a sign that God’s promise to draw all things to Himself will be fulfilled, that He truly does love us and wants us to live in communion with Him. Mary is experiencing now, in the completeness of her body and soul, all that God promises everyone who follows Him
What is hope? The Solemnity of the Assumption teaches us that hope is not merely wishful thinking. Rather hope is a certainty; it is a certainty about our future based on the certainty of something here in the present. In other words, there is no separating Faith and Hope. Faith is our relationship with Christ Jesus. By encountering Jesus, we recognize an exceptional Presence in our lives; a Presence that touches the deepest desires of our heart. Faith is not merely an assenting to a set of doctrines. Rather it is all about a living relationship with Jesus. By recognizing the mighty works of Christ Jesus in our lives NOW, we have a certainty about our future. We are certain that when Jesus says that He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, that He really is all those things. By our relationship with Jesus we know that He really is the Resurrection and the Life. Real Faith in Christ Jesus leads to the certainty about the future which is Hope.
The Blessed Mother lived that Faith, and she bore witness to that Hope. Her living relationship with God allowed her soul to proclaim the greatness of the Lord, and for her spirit to rejoice in God her savior. She recognized the might works of God – the mercy He had shown on those who fear Him, the strength of His arm which had scattered the proud in their conceit, and how He had filled the hungry with good things – and this allowed her to have hope in “the promise He made to our father….”
Of course, this living Faith and certain Hope is not just for the Blessed Mother. Today we have three children who will be baptized in just a few minutes. Their parents have brought them to the Church to share with them Faith. Obviously these children do not know a lot about Jesus right now; that will come in time. Their parents bring them for baptism not just to share with them information about Jesus. Rather they come to share with their children their relationship with Jesus. They want for their children the new life that Jesus offers to all of us through baptism. In bringing their children for baptism, these parents are saying that they have recognized the exceptionality of the Presence they have encountered with Jesus, and they want to share that exceptionality with their children. They should know that like in any relationship, baptism is not a one-time event. Rather it is an ongoing experience of companionship. It involves teaching their children about Jesus, bringing them to Mass each week so that they can encounter His Presence anew in the Word of God proclaimed at Mass, in the community of Faithful who by the power of the Holy Spirit form the Mystical Body of Christ in the world, and when they are older and prepared, in the Eucharist, the very Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ. It will be in this living relationship with Jesus that they will give to their children Hope – a certainty about the future that will cast away all doubt and despair.
All of us here are disciples of Christ. As Bishop Smith says in the new Pastoral Plan for the Diocese, “Led by the Spirit,” which we kicking off this weekend, “As disciples of Jesus, we cannot be content to take a passive approach. Discipleship is about mission.” We will be hearing a lot about this new Pastoral Plan for the Diocese over this coming year. It is an invitation to deepen our Faith – our living relationship with Jesus, to witness to our Faith to those who do not yet have that living relationship with Jesus, so that together we will have the certainty of Hope. Then like the Blessed Virgin Mary, our spirits will rejoice in God our savior.






