Happy Feast Day! Today we celebrate Mary's Assumption, body and soul into heaven. In establishing this feast Pope Pius XII declared: "By the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and by our own authority, 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 into heavenly glory."There are many wonderful representations of this event. It has inspired artists of every age. One of my favorite depictions has the disciples gathered around the tomb of Mary which is filled with flowers. Often their faces show their consternation. Above, Mary is shown being taken up to heaven. I love how it unites the earthly and the heavenly in Mary.
In preparing for my homily I reflected on Deacon Greg Kandra's reprinted homily on The Deacon's Bench. In it he tells of a journal entry by Henri Nouwen in which a priest that he has met describes Mary's meaning for the world, “To look at Mary is to see God’s original plan for humanity.” Both in her life and in her Assumption Mary reveals to us what God desires for us.
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