The unique role Mary played and continues to play in the salvation of the world
Reflections on the readings for the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (August 15, 2021): REV 11:19;12:1-6;10; PS 45:10,11,12,14; 1 COR 15:20-27; LK 1:39-56
MISSIO offers “Preaching Mission,” as a homily help, providing connections to mission from the readings of Sundays, Feast Days and Holy Days.
Jesus is the Anointed one, the King of the Universe, and our Redeemer. He has given His own mother to us for our own.
“We pronounce, declare and define it to be a divinely revealed dogma that the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul to heavenly glory.” With these words, Pope Pius XII stated that the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary is now a dogma of our Catholic faith. Although the pronouncement came in 1950, this belief had been held by many faithful Christians since at least the 6th Century. With this beautiful gift, Almighty God recognized the unique role Mary played and continues to play in the salvation of the world. She who never bore a trace of sin on her soul was called to her heavenly home without the natural physical corruption that the rest of us experience.
And, beyond this unique blessing for Mary, we can all better appreciate what eternity holds in store for us. We, too, meant for everlasting glory in the presence of God – Father Son, and Holy Spirit. And, like Mary, our whole being, body and soul, will live in a union with the Blessed Trinity that we can now imagine in only a dim way. In the first reading for today, we hear from St. John’s Book of Revelation. “A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.… She gave birth to a son, a male child destined to rule all the nations.… Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: ‘Now have salvation and power come, and the Kingdom of our God and the authority of His Anointed One.’” (Revelation 12:1, 5, 10). Jesus is the Anointed one, the King of the Universe, and our Redeemer. He has given His own mother to us for our own. And, in also making her queen of heaven and earth, He gives us a wondrous intercessor in our times of trouble and trial. Let us thank God for making Mary part of our lives every day.
