The Queen: Editorial: Preach the Assumption
Fr. J. Patrick Gaffney, SMM
PREACH THE ASSUMPTION
The great summer festival of Mary, her glorious Assumption into Heaven, embodies some of the most needed lessons for our times.
More than ever before, it must be celebrated with evangelical boldness for it is the cure for many of the more serious ills of our age. His Holiness, Pope Pius XII, when declaring the dogma of the Assumption, spoke of the important lessons to be derived from this ancient Marian dogma.
They are even more important in this highly secularized final decade of the century. To name but a few:
1. HOPE . . .
An uneasiness, if not fear has clutched many individuals and communities. The financial, political, environmental disorders – which intensify the stratification of society into the starving and the opulent – make many wonder about our future as a “living” planet. Anxiety is felt strongly within the Church, at times without any specific object, at other times centered on feminism, the magisterium, ethics, the inroads of fundamentalist cults, religious and theological education. Religious communities of men and women shake their heads in disbelief as they read the prognostications concerning religious life. Dioceses panic that the number of priest less parishes will soon rise dramatically, to a point that the Eucharist can no longer be practically called central in the life of many Catholics.
These are realities and it would be naïve – not to say dangerous – to ignore them. But nothing can be gained from fear. Discouragement, hopelessness, assure defeat. We must raise our eyes to the glory of the first disciple, Mary! She is the “sign of sure hope” that the victory of the Risen Lord is the destiny of the universe and its inhabitants. True, the “how,” and “when” of the victory are unknown. However, the Assumption teaches us that Christians are to live and work out of a conviction of joyful, ultimate victory.
. . . IN THE ULTIMATE VICTORY
The challenge of Nietzsche to the Christians of his day rings as true as ever; “If you are a redeemed people, how come you don’t act like it“? Hope is the hallmark of anyone who believes in the dogma of the Assumption. That certain victorious future – personified in Mary – is the backdrop, the horizon, of all we plan, say, do. With joyful, active, responsible surrender to God’s mysterious Providence, we march as the pilgrim people towards the victory of the Risen Lord. Imagine what the change of attitude from over-anxiety to joyful hope can produce!
Editorial
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Mary’s Assumption teaches us that the body itself – the entire human person – is destined to share in the glory of the Risen Lord.
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2. COMMUNITY
Fragmentation is a characteristic of our times. Anathemas are still being hurled between liberals and conservatives, whatever those labels may mean! Again, this malaise is evident not only among countries, ethnic groups, etc., but also within the Church itself“. A house divided against itself “cannot stand”. It is an evangelical thundercloud which hangs over so many parishes, dioceses, religious orders, church institutions.
Yet the Assumption stresses that we are all one people redeemed by the victorious Death – Resurrection of Our Lord. One people sharing the one divine life which will flower in the one beatific destiny of the children of God. Community can only exist where there is a sense of family, a practical recognition that – even in our most serious differences – we are truly brothers and sisters baptized in Jesus Christ and destined to share as one people in the victory of the Risen Christ. This is the lesson of the Assumption of our sister, Mary, who spiritually is the Mother of us all.
3. RESPECT FOR THE BODY
A horrendous disrespect for the body, for sex, together with a pagan glorification of “the body beautiful” distinguishes our times. The extent of the wreckage of the human race through illicit drugs cannot even be gauged. “Sex as toy” has degraded humanity especially with its concomitant destruction of unborn human life. On the other hand, the modern deification of the body as if it were the ultimate source of happiness has turned it into nothing short of an idol expensively worshipped and adored. At the same time, the environment – God’s reflection – is often uselessly exploited for selfish motives. Mary’s Assumption teaches us that the body itself – the entire human person – is destined to share in the glory of the Risen Lord.
Creation itself yearns to reach its goal of glory, signaled by the Assumption of Mary, body and soul. A respect for the human body, and for our extended body, the universe, is demanded by the truth of Mary’s Assumption. Our entire person – body and soul – is called into the glory of the Lord. To abuse or deify the body is to ignore the reality of the Assumption.
The Assumption needs to be proclaimed today! Like every aspect of Mariology, this festival of Mary reaches beyond Our Lady; and clarifies our authentic roles as redeemed children of God. The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary is truly a fundamental answer to the problems of our age.
The Queen:
Vol. xxx Month 2023
