August 15 - Feast of the Assumption

On this feast of the Assumption, I am troubled by a young woman named Jessica. Jessica is 23 yrs old. She told me, “I haven’t been to church in ten years.; nothing I heard in church had anything to do with my life.” Jessica lives in New Jersey; she’s never been to Fairport or Rochester but there are lots of Jessicas everywhere who THINK church is irrelevant. And that troubles me. Jessica poses a challenge to us to demonstrate our devotion to Mary and Jesus by removing obstacles to faith so that Jessica and people like her see Jesus as healer, lover, brother, savior, teacher, leader, preacher every day. We know our faith in Jesus and our intimate relationship with Jesus and his mother enhances the quality of our lives. Jesus is with us, guiding and inspiring us. Could it be that Jessica misses that reality because all she heard were religious words without understanding their meaning?  

Take today for instance. Her father told me, “I told her to go to church for the Assumption. She looked at me like I was crazy.” Think about it. We assume people know what we know. Her mom tried by saying, “Mary was assumed into heaven; that’s the Assumption.” Well Jessica said, “That is weird; what does that mean?” Please believe me, Jessica was not being snarky. She was honestly communicating her lack of knowledge and her frustration with not knowing. She knew too little to understand that Jesus loves her and that years ago, people shared their faith in the Blessed Mother with such sincerity that Pope Pius XII in 1950 affirmed the feast of the Assumption of Mary.  

For years ordinary people prayed with words from today’s Gospel and their hearts were opened; their lives were given purpose; their devotion deepened and they sensed Mary’s blessedness was so extraordinary that she was assumed into heaven. I’ve been to the Holy Land and prayed at sites the faithful have made holy. Among them are where Mary gave birth and where she is thought to have died an unusual death, such that it is called “the Dormition of Mary,” the sleep of Mary. Centuries of faithful people praying the Hail Mary and the Magnificat from today’s gospel applied scripture to life as part of the sensus fidei, the sense of the faithful. And the hierarchy responded by granting a feast day affirming the people’s faith in the fifth century honoring our Blessed Mother as Theotokos or God-bearer. In the twentieth century, the hierarchy responded to the devotion of the sensus fidelium memorializing our Blessed Mother gently resting into her eternal sleep. 

Some years ago, St Mary’s Church in downtown Rochester had an advertising wiz on their adult faith enrichment team who publicized their aMsses for today’s feast in City Newspaper with a headline, “FIRST WOMAN IN SPACE!”  I don’t need catchy gimmicks, but maybe the Jessicas of this world do. We heard of visions of Mary in today’s first reading from Revelations. The reading from Revelations says that in the sky was a woman wailing as she gave birth. Another sign appeared in the sky - a dragon - symbol of evil. And Revelations says the child is rescued from evil. I am not one to look for visions in the sky as described in the Book of Revelations; I look for signs of God bringing to birth great good in this world through ordinary people like you and me. I look for signs of God rescuing people from evil through ordinary people. 

To their neighbors, Our Blessed Mother, Mary and her older relative, Elizabeth seemed ordinary until they paid attention to God’s messengers and Mary became pregnant with Jesus and Elizabeth became pregnant with Jesus’ cousin, John the Baptist. Extraordinary men born of blessed women who raised them to listen to God. Pregnant herself, the aged Elizabeth provides a refuge for her very young relative, Mary who is also pregnant. Legend says Mary went to Elizabeth to help her. Mary went not only to help Elizabeth but also to get away from those who’d stone her to death for being pregnant before marriage. Today’s gospel says that Mary only stayed with Elizabeth for three months. She left before Jesus’ cousin, John the Baptist, was born. New parents need help during the birth and the week after. Mary left Elizabeth just when Elizabeth needed the most help. So she did not go to Elizabeth only to help her. Both Elizabeth and Mary are terrific models for us to say “yes” to God in seemingly impossible situations.  

Today’s Gospel gives us the beginning of one of our favorite prayers - the Hail Mary. Also in today’s Gospel reading, the whole Church prays Mary’s prayer, the Magnificat - “Mary’s Canticle.”  Mary borrowed this great prayer from the Hebrew scriptures’ Book of Samuel where it is Hannah’s prayer. Mary knew her Hebrew scriptures even though, back then, girls and women were not allowed to study scripture. Mary broke religious laws that made no sense to her just as her son later did. You know Mary was only 13 to 15 years old when she said, “yes” to God; she was willing to be a scandal to bring us Jesus. The Gospel of Luke says she was “deeply troubled.” Picture her listening to the angel tell her she will be the mother of God. How deeply troubling that must have been! Picture her about nine months after she said yes to God’s messenger, the angel Gabriel. She and Joseph are looking for an inn in Bethlehem. Imagine her terror at hearing King Herod ordered all male babies under two years old to be killed in order to eradicate his competition. Later picture Mary’s face as relatives shout at her that her son is crazy. Look at her face as her neighbors try to throw her son off a cliff. Agonize with her as her son is condemned as a common criminal, as thorns crown his head, as whips lash his back, as nails pound his hands. This is Christian realism. Here is Mary, a flesh and blood mother who saw her Son on the cross murmur the most radical “yes” in recorded history.  

Mary lived as the ideal Christian disciple, the mother not only of Jesus but of you and me. She holds Jesus in her arms as a beautiful baby AND AS A LIFELESS MAN. She holds him out for you and me. She offers us all the hope and love there is for us to share with those who have none. She and he are both hurting & risen. Our task is to fall in love again with Mary and her son, taste their suffering & love as they love. 

Then the Jessicas of this world will find Mary and Jesus very relevant because they see more people live Mary’s prayer. Mary’s Prayer/Canticle/Magnificat in today’s Gospel calls us to witness to our faith in Jesus and in his mother as we allow it to transform us, “God has confused the proud in their inmost thoughts.” Our culture praises the proud and lavishes money and attention on greed, power and lust. Mary’s prayer changes our focus. Mary’s prayer converts us, morally. In order to help the Jessicas of this world see the relevance of Mary we look to Mary in today’s Gospel and see our life in its light. Listen to Mary say, “God has deposed the mighty from their thrones and raised the lowly to high places.” When we pray the Magnificat, we pray with Mary as together we dismantle unworthy prestige and status. Mary prayed, “The hungry God has given every good thing while the rich God has sent empty away.” Those who live Mary’s prayer give to those who have too little and work to change structures that make the rich richer and the poor poorer. As Jessica sees people living Mary’s prayer she may connect with our Blessed Mother and her Son. She may find their love among the sensus fidei, the faithful.   

By Dr. Deni Mack, Pastoral Associate Emerita