Cycle B - Year I:  

15 August 2021: Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary 

(Liturgical Color: White)

Readings:

First Reading:        Revelation 11:19--12:1-6

Second Reading:   1 Corinthians 15:20-27

Gospel:  Please Read  Luke 1:39-56

"My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord!

We interrupt our observance of Ordinary Time in our liturgical calendar to celebrate an important feast this Sunday: the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  The Church celebrates this Marian feast on 15 August and this year it falls on a Sunday.

What do we understand about the assumption of Mary into heaven?

Our Holy Mother Church teaches that when Mary died, her body was not subjected to the usual process of physical decay but was "assumed" into heaven and reunited with her soul.

The assumption of the Blessed Mother Mary is one of the four Marian dogmas. The other three are her "Divine Motherhood", "Perpetual Virginity", and "Immaculate Conception."

Now, first let us understand dogmas: a dogma is defined as "a truth revealed by God which the Magisterium of the Catholic Church declared as binding "for all the faithful to believe and accept."  A dogma may also be solemnly promulgated by the College of Bishops along with the Pope at an ecumenical council, or by the Pope alone when speaking in a statement "ex cathedra" (meaning, "from the chair" of Peter).  Because it is infallibly defined, it calls for the definitive assent of the faithful.

In the Apostolic Constitution, Munificentissimus Deus, Pope Pius XII proclaimed on November 1, 1950 the Assumption of Mary as dogma of the Catholic Church in these words: "We pronounce, declare and define it to be a divinely revealed dogma that the Immaculate Motherhood of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul to heavenly glory."

Ascension of Jesus vs. Mary's Assumption:

We may ask, "What is the difference between our Lord's Ascension and Mary's Assumption into heaven.?

The answer is that our Lord Jesus Christ by His own power ascended into heaven. But Mary was assumed or taken up into heaven by God.  She did not do it under her own power because she has none.

Gospel Reflection:

The Gospel is by St. Luke who narrates about the visit of Mary to her cousin Elizabeth, and ends with Mary's Magnificat or Song of Praise.  Let us meditate of this scene in the second Joyful Mystery of the Holy Rosary.

When Elizabeth greeted Mary and recognized the Messiah in Mary's womb, they were filled with the Holy Spirit and with a joyful anticipation of the fulfillment of God's promise to give humanity a Savior.  The elderly Elizabeth, also herself with child, reports that her child leaps with joy in her womb as the two cousins met.  That means to say, the unborn child John the Baptist is the very first to witness the divinity of the unborn Child Jesus, in the temple of Mary's womb.

The Assumption completes God's work in Mary since it was not fitting that the flesh that had given life to God Himself should ever undergo bodily corruption in death.  Mary's Assumption is God's crowning of His work as Mary ends her earthly life and enters eternity.  The feast turns our eyes in that direction, where we will follow when our earthly life is over.

Today, on the Solemnity of Mary's Assumption into heaven, we join the Mary as she thanks God for the many great and wonderful things He has done to her, as a humble servant of the Lord.

So in prayer we can pray our own Magnificat, thanking God for all blessings received, for good times, and even for bad times through which God protected us.  The faithfulness promised to God's people is also promised to each of us in our generation.

Let us pray:  Almighty and ever-living God, who assumed the Immaculate Virgin Mary, the Mother of Your Son, body and soul into heavenly glory, grant we pray, that, always attentive to the things that are above, we may merit to be sharers of her glory.  Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy  Spirit, one God for ever and ever. Amen.

A blessed Solemnity of the Assumption to all of us. And thank you for a moment with God.

Ad Jesum per Mariam!