Reflections on the Feast of the Assumption - August 15, 2022
Can you imagine what the world was like in 1950? Very few of us were alive then, and even fewer would be old enough to remember. This was five years after the Second World War with its terrible destruction of human life, property and virtue. Millions had died, and many more millions were displaced from their homes, seeking refuge and a new beginning. It was 5 years after the unleashing of not one but two atomic bombs that killed and maimed hundreds of thousands of civilians. In 1950 the malevolent grip of soviet-style communism was tightening over various countries, removing the rights of millions to lead dignified lives. Against this background of violence, oppression and dehumanization, Pope Pius XII, after asking the question of ALL the world’s bishops, infallibly asserted our Christian hope: Mary our Mother is in heaven.
On November 1 of 1950 – the feast of All Saints – he issued his Apostolic Constitution that declared the Assumption of Mary into heaven body and soul to be Catholic dogma and was called Munificentissimus Deus – “Our Most Incredibly Generous God” - and right at the beginning he laid out the underlying reason for the timing of this declaration:
o Now, just like the present age, our pontificate
is weighed down by ever so many cares, anxieties, and troubles, by reason of
very severe calamities that have taken place and by reason of the fact that
many have strayed away from truth and virtue. (2)
Further
on in the document, Pope Pius says this about his own wish for how this
declaration would have an effect on Catholics:
o And so we may hope that those who meditate upon
the glorious example Mary offers us may be more and more convinced of the value
of a human life entirely devoted to carrying out the heavenly Father's will and
to bringing good to others. (42)
“Bringing
good to others”. After all of the destruction, pain, and deprivation of the previous
years, Pope Pius wanted to encourage Catholics – then and now – that because
Mary has been assumed into heaven – not just her soul, but her human body –
because of that, not only do we have hope of the same fate at the end of time,
but that we would see the value of all human life today, in the here and now.
And
isn’t that a message that we so desperately need to hear today?
As if the lasting effects of a worldwide pandemic weren’t bad enough, we’re also experiencing a global increase in racism, nationalism and an almost worldwide sense of selfishness or corruption which so many people hoped would decrease as a result of Covid 19, but appears to have had the opposite effect. Humility and tenderness seem sometimes to be in short supply – wealthier nations were sinfully slow in sharing their vaccine resources with poorer countries, and now the current economic struggles are reinforcing the "me first" and certainly the "America first" attitude.
We know that this suffering is not a new phenomenon. War, violence, famine, and sickness have constantly ravaged the bodies of God’s people. In 1950 these effects were all too present and the memories were raw for so many people. In the declaration of the Assumption, the Church affirmed - then, and now - the importance of not just human souls, but human bodies. Caring for the sick, feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, sheltering the homeless were a big part of life then. These corporal acts of mercy toward the marginalized should distinguish us now as Christian people just as it has in past ages.
How
we regard people on the margins was brought home to me again just this past
Wednesday, on August 10, when we celebrated the feast of St Lawrence – one of the
early deacons of the Church in Rome. During a persecution of Christians, after
Pope Sixtus and the 6 other deacons had been taken away and martyred, the Roman
Prefect insisted that Lawrence bring him the treasures of the Church since
Lawrence was responsible for administering them. Lawrence quickly gave away any
and all of the material wealth of the Church, and then appeared before the
Prefect of Rome together with the diseased and malnourished poor, the orphans,
cripples, and widows, those socially excluded by the powerful hierarchies of
the time– everyone on the fringes of society and declared, “these are the
treasures of the Church”.
This
feast of the Assumption is not just Mary’s story, but it’s our story as well. It’s
a story of hope – based in the hope that we, too, like Mary, will someday - after
our earthly journey - be reunited body and soul. But it is also, as Pope Pius
said, an occasion for us to meditate on the value of human life and seize the
opportunity to bring good to others. Mary had hope in a God that would
"...cast
down the mighty from their thrones,
and lift up the lowly.
Who would fill the hungry with good things,
and send the rich away empty..." (Luke 1:52-53)
The Good News is that as we do the will of our Most Incredibly Generous God, ministering to the least, the last and the lost, we can sing that Magnificat along with Mary, and proclaim the greatness of the Lord.
