Homily - Solemnity of the Assumption of Our Lady

Readings:

 Rv 11:19a; 12:1-6a, 10ab

Ps. 45:10, 11, 12, 16 

 1 Cor 15:20-27

 Luke 1:39-52

The writings of Benedict XVI have over the past two years influenced me and moved me greatly. In his book “Jesus of Nazareth”, a must read, he had this to say about the saints: “The lives of the saints are the true interpreters of the word of God.” Nobody understands the Word of God better than those holy men and women who reflected deeply on the scriptures and lived out their vocation to do God’s will. Their lives serve as a hermeneutic tool, an interpretive key, to help understand the scriptures and their message.

If this is the case for all the saints how much more it is the case for our Blessed Mother, who by the power of the Holy Spirit conceived the Word of God, Jesus Christ, in her womb. No person on earth has ever been closer to the Word of God. Thus, Mary is quite at home with God’s Word, she lived on God’s Word and with God’s word and was penetrated by God’s word both physically and spiritually. Her whole life revealed the truth about God’s Word, she spoke God’s words, she thought with God’s words, her thoughts were God’s thoughts, her words, God’s words. The Light of Life was kept in her care endowing her with an inner enlightenment of wisdom and this is why her life, resplendent with truth, interprets the Word of God more truly than any other person to live on earth.

In today’s Gospel we hear a beautiful song of Mary, what the Church calls her “Magnificat”. This whole song is a clear expression of how Mary truly pondered the Word of God and it is really a reflection of her spiritual journey with God. By proclaiming the words of this Magnificat Mary wants to invite us into her inner life; to love and know the Word of God that lived inside her, to live with the Word of God that she brought up and to think with the Word of God that she taught. And by the gift of the Church we can do so in so many different ways: by reading sacred Scripture, by praying in front of the Blessed Sacrament, by most especially participating in the liturgy and of course receiving the Eucharist, where the Word of God is made present in the form of bread and wine.

By her life Mary opens the Word of God to our lives and makes it present in our lives. But, what is the interpretation, what is the message she reveals to us with her life?

If we were to examine her whole life, from the nativity, to the visitation, the wedding at Cana, to the foot of the Cross, and try to sum up everything Mary would want to say that message of the scriptures is that “God is to be great in the world and in our lives”.

God is to be great in the world and in our lives.

This message is expressed in the Magnificat when Mary says “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, My soul magnifies his greatness.”

Too often in today’s world are we afraid that God might be a “rival” in our life, that he might encroach on our freedom, our own personal space. And so the thought of modern society echoes and rings:

“God does not give us our freedom, with all his commandments, he restricts the space in our lives. So God has to disappear; we want to be autonomous and independent. Without God we ourselves would be gods and do as we pleased. Then we will be truly free and have the full beauty of life.”

But when God disappears, men and women do not become greater; indeed they lose their divine dignity. In the end, they turn out to be merely products of a blind evolution and, as such, can be used and abused. This is precisely what the experience of recent generations has confirmed for us.

Mary says the opposite of modern society. “God is to be great in our world and in our lives.” Only if God is great is humankind also great. We must not drift away from God but make God present and ensure that he is great in our lives and then all the splendor and divine dignity that He has given to us freely will be ours.

We should make God great both in our public life and private life. This means making room for Him in our everyday lives, dedicating time to God in prayer, giving him time on Sundays and Holy Days. We do not waste our free time if we offer it to God. If God enters into our time, all time becomes greater, roomier, and richer.

The mystery of the Assumption confirms all of this for us. If Mary spent her life doing nothing but making God great in her life, than how fitting it is that she would be raised Body and Soul into the glory of heaven, where as Queen of Heaven and having received the complete fullness of the fruits of salvation, that Christ won on the Cross, she can glorify God.

How great it is to know that we have a Mother in Heaven. By being in heaven she can now be close to us, she knows our hearts, she can hear our prayers, and helps us with her motherly kindness.

Mary made God great in her life by saying “yes” to his will and allowing his Word to penetrate her entire person. The Church provides us with the same pattern when we receive the Eucharist. We say Amen, Yes it is so, and receive the body and blood of the Word of God made flesh into our inner being empowering us to make God great in our lives.