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"Mary has chosen the best part, and it will not be taken away from her." St. Luke, 10:42.
Not long before the first Assumption day two tiny cherubs were looking out from a window of paradise. Heaven was lovely, they admitted, but they wanted a mother. Christ had told them to be patient - when His own Mother came, she would be their Mother too.
Came the day when our Blessed Mother was taken up into heaven. Our two little angels were among the first to greet her. They gasped with admiration at her breath-taking beauty and her sweet, motherly smile. They knelt with the angelic choirs as Jesus crowned her Queen of heaven and earth. In the midst of the rejoicing one of the cherubs whispered to the other: "She was really worth waiting for. Isn't she lovely?"
On August 15 we celebrate that great event. Today we remember in song and ceremony the glorious taking up into heaven, body and soul, of the Mother of God. Today we rejoice with those two little angels of our story and all the other angels, and all the faithful on earth, as the Mother of Christ is carried triumphantly to her heavenly home.
Tradition tells us that all the Apostles were carried bodily to Jerusalem as the death of our Blessed Mother approached. There they saw the angels and heard them sing, as the Mother of their Lord passed away. They placed her body in a coffin and buried it in Gethsemane. Three days later St. Thomas arrived eager to see her who had been Mother to them all. They opened the grave to discover that the body was gone. They caught the odor of fresh and fragrant flowers. Jesus, they knew, had taken His Mother, body and soul, to heaven. He would not permit her virginal flesh to decay. As He had kept her from the corruption of sin, so He now keeps her from the corruption of the grave. Mary did not rise, we must remember, through her own power, as Jesus did. She was taken up, assumed, into heaven. That is why we call this the feast of the Assumption.
Although the bodily Assumption of Mary is not a dogma of faith, that is, although the Church has not declared officially that she was assumed borlily into heaven, nevertheless, that is the universal belief of the Catholic Church. At present there is a movement in the fold to declare this a dogma, a truth of faith. The reasons for this belief are strong:
1. It is impossible to imagine that our Lord would permit the body of His Mother to decay and rot in the grave.
2. Waiting for the final resurrection of all bodies at the end of the world is a punishment for original sin. Mary was kept from original sin. Therefore, she should be kept from the punishment.
3. Sacred Scripture had foretold that Mary would conquer sin. The very first book of the Bible speaks of this: "I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel" (Genesis, 3:15). By her Immaculate Conception Mary won a victory over sin. By her Virgin-Motherhood she won a victory over sinful desire. By her glorious Assumption she won a victory over death and decay.
4. The Ark of the Covenant which contained the tables of the law was made of wood that did not decay. The Psalmist and St. John speak of this Ark as existing still in the temple of heaven. Mary is the true Ark, for she contained not only the law, but the Lawgiver Himself. Most fittingly should she be made of flesh that did not decay. Most fittingly should she be carried bodily to the heavenly temple.
5. The present day belief of the Catholic Church has always been the belief of the Church. Both the Latins and Greeks, east and west, have kept this tradition in both teaching and practice.
Mary was not only taken up into heaven, she was also crowned Queen of heaven and earth. She was crowned Queen of the angels and saints, Queen of the kingdoms of the earth. She was crowned your Queen and my Queen.
In our series on the sacraments we are considering the forgiveness of sin. Why not ask this sinless one, as she is rewarded on the feast of her Assumption into heaven, to give you an understanding of the ugliness of sin, and the goodness of God in forgiving it?
Yes, the very best part, the highest position next to Christ, was hers on earth, and is hers in heaven. It will not be taken away from her.
You and I and the entire Christian world can look today to a throne on high and find a Mother who is also a Queen. May all of us this Assumption day look up and see and love this Queen Mother of us all. May we all ask her for the joy some day to be with her in the eternal glory of the presence of God. Amen.
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Adapted from Talks on the Sacraments
by Fr. Arthur Tonne,OFM (© 1947)
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