Cycle A - Year I:  

15 August 2023: Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary 

(Liturgical Color: White)

Readings:

First Reading:        Revelation 11:19--12:1-6, 10

Second Reading:   1 Corinthians 15:20-27

Gospel:  Please Read  Luke 1:39-56 

Mary, most blessed among women!

The Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary is celebrated every 15th of August. This year it falls on a Tuesday.

Today's Feast means 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".

What are "dogmas" in the Catholic teaching?

A dogma is "a truth revealed by God" which the Magisterium of the 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).  Catholics believe that a dogma is infallibly defined and calls for the definitive assent of the faithful.

Mary's Assumption vs. Ascension of Jesus    

How does Mary's Assumption into heaven differ with our Lord's Ascension?

Our Lord Jesus Christ is God Himself and so He ascended into heaven by His own power. In the case of Mary, she did not do it under her own power, because she has none, and so she was assumed or taken up into heaven by God.

Gospel Reflection:       

Today's Gospel narrates the visit of Mary to her cousin Elizabeth and ends up with Mary's Magnificat or Song of Praise. The Visitation is the second joy of the Joyful Mysteries 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. So that 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. In God's plan, it was not fitting that the flesh that had given "life" to God the Son 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. So this Marian Feast also turns our eyes in that direction, where we will follow when our earthly life is over.  Let us join Mary, on the Solemnity of her Assumption, as she thanks God for the many great and wonderful things He has done to her, in her Magnificat, as a humble servant of the Lord.

Good to know: Pope Pius XII, in the Apostolic Constitution Munificentissimus Deus, proclaimed the Assumption of Mary as dogma of the Catholic Church on November 1, 1950 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."    

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, God for ever and ever. Amen.

A blessed Feast of the Assumption of Mary into heaven to all of us. And thank you for a moment with God.

Ad Jesum per Mariam!