Sunday Reflection with Fr Terry Tastard - 14 August 2011

Assumption of Our Lady - Reubens

When we consider the Assumption of Mary, it is important that we go beyond a surface understanding. For example, the heaven into which Jesus ascended, and into which Mary was assumed, is not a region in the skies, but a new level of existence. It is no less than the fulfillment of our human nature.

Today the solemnity of the Assumption of Mary invites us to consider the ultimate goal, heaven itself. In our opening prayer today we asked this of God:

May we see heaven as our final goal, and come to share her glory.

What does a goal do for you?

It lifts you out of the rut. Life consumes us. We get tired, irritable and downhearted. We are tempted to despair. Our mental horizons shrink, meaning that we can think no further than the next hurdle or the present problem. What are we to do?

A goal gives us something to strive for. If we have a goal then we know that we cannot remain where we are, because to do so would be to stagnate. We are to remember eternity. This is our goal. In this world, all things are passing, even the difficulties and tensions which at times seem to hem us in. Only God is for ever, which means that only love is for ever. Our goal is the love that lasts for ever, and the freedom that only love can bring. The Assumption of Mary tells us that God has lifted up human nature already, to show us that where she has gone, we too can hope to follow. Indeed, sometimes we call Mary the Mother of the Church, because through her came Christ and through Christ came the Church. So the Assumption tells us that she makes possible a great company of people who can through the Church, which is to say, the life of Christ, follow her into eternity. That is why we begin with that rather strange reading from the book of Revelation, or the Apocalypse. For us the woman represents Mary, and the dangers that she has to endure are very real. But the reading ends with a shout of triumph: God has overcome the efforts to frustrate and trap his people, and Christ will now lead and shepherd the People of God into eternity. As Mary sings in her song: God's mercy reaches from age to age.

God calls us to eternal life, but he does so by giving us the tools that we need for our journey through this life. We are given the sacraments: the Mass, confession, anointing of the sick, confirmation, matrimony. We are given ways to pray. We have the inspiration and intercession of the lives of the saints. We have the mysteries of the life, death and resurrection of Christ to meditate on and to guide us. We have the fellowship of others around us through our membership of the Church. God gives us a goal, he tells us that he will meet us there and that he will be with us on the way. But the goal lies ahead of us, we have to journey towards it, we have to give it our best effort, so that in our striving, we may with the help of God's grace, rise upwards. As we hear Jesus say in the gospel according to John, 'Where I am, there you shall be also' (John 14.3).

Mary is there with him, as a sign and promise that we will be there too, in the mercy of God.

It was the grace of God preserving Mary from sin which made the Assumption possible. You see, because there was no sin in Mary, there was nothing to detain her here or in purgatory. Moreover, because of her closeness to Christ, they were not to be separated.

As Pope Piius XII wrote in his declaration of the dogma of the Assumption: 'It seems impossible that she who conceived Christ, bore him, fed him with her milk, held him in her arms and pressed him to her bosom, should after this earthly life be separated from him in either body or soul.' It is a wonderful reminder of the humanity of Mary. To her was entrusted the Saviour of the world. In her womb, humanity meets divinity. For ever after, therefore, ordinary human life becomes a path to meet God. In our homes. In our families. In our looking after one another. In our daily toil where each day we take up our tasks afresh. Mary had to do many of these things. Yes, to her was entrusted the Christ, but her caring, her giving, her loving, were made known in meeting the demands of each new day. The Assumption tells us that God does not despise the ordinary things of life but uses them to draw us to himself. Mary had a song on her lips when she went to meet Elizabeth. The grace of God puts a song in our hearts also.

Fr Terry is Parish Priest at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Brook Green, west London. His latest book: Ronald Knox and English Catholicism is published by Gracewing at £12.99 and is available on Amazon, on ICN's front page. To read Sr Gemma Simmonds' review on ICN see: www.indcatholicnews.com/news.php?viewStory=16114