REFLECTION FOR THE ASSUMPTION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY, Week beginning 14TH AUGUST 2022
This Sunday, August 14th, we are celebrating the great solemn feast of the Assumption into Heaven of the Blessed Virgin Mary. For us, it is brought forward a day from its traditional date of August 15th. For a full understanding of the Assumption, we must refer back straightaway to the Immaculate Conception. Our Blessed Lady was singularly chosen by God to be the Mother of His Only Begotten Son, who would take human flesh as the world’s Saviour and Redeemer. She was conceived Immaculate in the womb of Anne, her mother. So, as the Immaculata, she was totally free from the mark of Original Sin, passed down from Adam and Eve.
(The ‘Divine Praises’ at Benediction give the consecutive lines:
‘Blessed be her Immaculate Conception’
‘Blessed be her Glorious Assumption’).
She remained sinless through her entire life. This reality was again a unique and singular gift from God. Accordingly, a physical death was scarcely necessary for her. Instead, her Risen and Ascended Son Jesus took her up to Heaven, body and soul, from a human sleep. Then He could gaze upon her as the highest honour of the human race – fully human like Himself and similarly sinless. Mary is known as the New Eve. Her obedience made up for the disobedience of Eve. Jesus is known as the New Adam (= the New Man). His obedience always to God the Father’s Will made up for the disobedience of Adam. Jesus had to die for our salvation and redemption. Through His total commitment to God’s Will in this respect, He won for His Mother the singular grace, from His Father, of not having to pass through the gates of death. She was assumed into Heaven, body and soul intact. This wondrous event is marked in the Holy Land at the site of the Dormition Abbey.
Good Shepherd Catholic Church 