My Dear People of God,
It is a great pleasure to join with you this morning to celebrate
the solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. My
coming here as you know is to check on you my neigbours. We have
to keep up with our good relationship as neigbours even though I am
the one coming often to visit and celebrate with you.
Today, the Universal Church will celebrate the Solemnity of the
Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into heaven. Although this
dogma or teaching of the Church on the Blessed Virgin Mary was
only proclaimed in 1950 by Pope Pius XII in the Basilica of St. Paul’s
outside the walls in Rome, it was widely believed by the earliest
Christians from the moment of her conception that her fate was not
going to be the same like the fate of every human person due to the
singular privileged that she received from God and her cooperation
with the grace of God in order for the work of our salvation to be
accomplished in the person of Christ. Why dogma out only in 1950.
Does it mean people did not believe in this before?
The teaching of the Church on this Solemnity is brought out in
the Catechism of the Church (966) quoting Lumen Gentium (59),
which mentions that “Finally the immaculate Virgin, preserved
free from all stain of original sin, when the course of her earthly
life was finished, was taken up body and soul into heavenly
glory, and exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things, so that
she might be the more fully conformed to her Son, the Lord of
lords and conqueror of sin and death”. The Assumption of the
Blessed Virgin Mary is a singular participation in her Son’s
Resurrection and an anticipation of the resurrection of other
Christians. Unlike the ascension of our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ, who went up to heaven since he was God, the Blessed Virgin
Mary was taken up to heaven. The Assumption was the work of the
Trinity since Mary had no power herself to go up to heaven. She was
taken up to heaven by God body and soul.
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When the Church teaches that she was taken up to heaven
body and soul at the end of her earthly life, what does the Church
mean? In death, the separation of the soul from the body, the human
body decays and the soul goes to meet God, while awaiting its
reunion with its glorified body (ccc 997). This was not the case with
the Blessed Virgin Mary. There was no separation of her soul and
body and her body did not decay. On the contrary, at the end of her
earthly life, just like Christ was raised with his own body without
decay (ccc 645), and he promised to change our lowly bodies to be
like his glorious body, into a spiritual body (ccc 999), that was the
case with the Blessed Virgin Mary. She did not go up to heaven with
her human body as she moved here on earth but her human body
was immediately transformed into a spiritual body and that explains
why the Church teaches that at the end of her earthly life, she was
taken body and soul into heaven and crowned Queen of heaven.
If God gave Mary this Singular privilege not to allow her body to
experience decay like every other body that dies and suffer decay
and waits for reunion at the end of time when their spiritual body will
be reunited with their souls, it was because of the yes she gave to
God and cooperated with the will of God to become the Mother of
God. If she did this, it was no doubt because of the strong faith that
she had in God. She willingly accepted to be the first tabernacle to
carry the savior of the world in her womb and she did everything
possible not to betray the trust that God has put on her person. She
carried out this work in a spirit of humility knowing that her vocation
and call to be the mother of God was not because of her merit but
because of God’s gratuitous love for her. Above all, she was not only
preserve from the stain of original sin (ccc 491) but she did not
commit any personal sin (493). This is the reason why at the end of
her earthly life, she was taken body and soul to heaven. Our prayer is
that where Mary is, one day we too should be there with her. This will
imply that we accept the will of God in our lives, that we remain
strong in our faith, that we serve the Lord with a spirit of humility and
love and that we avoid sin.
“Yes, from this day forward all generations will call me blessed”.
These words from the magnificat shows that since God was the one
who honored the Blessed Virgin Mary first by making her to be the
Mother of God and after her earthly life took her body and soul to
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heaven, we are challenged to give her honor following the example
that God has given us. The Church rightly honors the Blessed Virgin
with special devotion. This devotion given to Mary is different from the
adoration which is given to the Incarnate Word and equally to the
Father and the Holy Spirit (ccc 971). We are honoring Mary and
never worshipping her. She is the Mother of God and not God. “Yes,
from this day forward all generations will call me blessed for the
almighty has done great things for me. Holy is his name”. Mary’s
greatness comes from the great things that God has done for her. Let
us ask her to intercede on our behalf too so that we may be true
servants of God, ready at all times to serve him through our brothers
and sisters and in whatever mission that the Church has given us to
carry out.
Some people say this is not found in the Bible. Must every thing
be found in the bible? Was the Bible written because of Mary of
Christ? The bible itself does not contain all what Jesus said and did.
There is no verse in the scriptures that says that whatever is not
found in the bible is not true. Three sources of knowledge for the
Church, Sacred Tradition, Sacred Scriptures and the Magisterium.
One of the roles played by the Blessed Virgin Mary is her
intercessory role brought out in the account of the wedding at cana in
Galilee John 2:1-12. According to the teachings of the Church in
Lumen Gentium 67, the Church strongly urges Theologians and
preachers of the word of God to be careful and refrain as much as
possible from all false exaggerations and from too summary an
attitude in considering the special dignity and role of the Blessed
Virgin Mary.
†Michael Miabesue BIBI
