The Queen: Editorial: Mary’s Assumption
Fr. James McMillan, SMM
Mary’s Assumption
A ugust 15th, the feast of our Blessed Lady’s Assumption into heaven, marks the official ending of the Marian Year proclaimed by Pope John Paul II for 1987-1988.
This official ending does not at all imply that we are to abandon the goal of the Pope; The goal that Pope John Paul had in mind for this Marian Year; a deeper understanding of the mystery of the Blessed Virgin Mary in our redemption; and a renewed commitment to following her example in seeking and accepting the will of God for us and for all humanity.
Certainly, we must commend those who followed the Pope’s wishes. Those who spent the year in reflection and prayer on the role of Our Lady. But we all know that this is the work of a lifetime, not just of one year or so. The mystery of our redemption is far too deep to be grasped in a year’s time.
Deepen Our Awareness of Our Lady
The Pope asked us to consider the Marian Year as a beginning, not an end. He desires us to “deepen our awareness of your (Our Lady ’s) presence in the mystery of Christ and of the Church; as the Council taught us”. The feast of the Assumption is not a cutoff date in our study of the Blessed Mother’s role.
The Marian Year was intended to be one element in the Church’s preparation for the coming third millennium of Christianity. The year 2000 is the beginning of that millennium. The Pope intended Catholics to start their preparation for this celebration by turning to Our Lady; as God Himself did when He announced the coming of Christ, our Redeemer.
“To celebrate the millennium effectively,” the Pope said, “the Church must recall her origin and reflect deeply on her mission”. He went on to add that the present time is “truly the appropriate hour to foster a consciousness of Christian tradition and
culture.”
He proposed the Incarnation as the theme for this period of preparation; a concept that fits in perfectly with the general purpose of the Marian Year. It is to be a time of continued reflection on the union of Christ and Our Lady in the redemption of the world. “By reflecting on the Incarnation,” Pope John Paul said, “the Church of the year 2000 will be able to understand herself ever more fully in her twofold nature, human and divine.”
Editorial
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. . . like our Blessed Lady, we too are destined to share in the glory of Christ’s risen state. As Vatican II explained; “… while in the most Blessed Virgin the Church has already reached that perfection whereby, she exists without spot or wrinkle, the faithful still strive to conquer sin an increase in holiness. And so, they turn their eyes to Mary who shines forth to the whole community of the elect as the model of virtues.”
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The Church is Human and Devine
What Pope John Paul has been stressing in recent years is the Incarnation as a triumph for Christ and the Church. The Church, he points out, is both human and divine. It is human in its frailty, since it is composed of people; the People of God, who are weak and vacillating as a result of original sin. But the Church is also divine, since its Head is Christ. As members of the One Head, we all share in his victory over sin and death.
At present, our sharing is only partial. We are as yet the Pilgrim Church, travelling on through the joys and sorrows of like to our eternal destiny in the glory of heaven. It is only then that the Church will share fully in the triumph of Christ, as does our Blessed Lady at present as a result of her Assumption into heaven.
I t is for this reason that Pope John Paul chose August 15th, the feast of Our Lady’s Assumption, as the culmination of the Marian Year.
Destined to Share . . .
He did this to remind us that, like our Blessed Lady, we too are destined to share in the glory of Christ’s risen state. As Vatican II explained; “… while in the most Blessed Virgin the Church has already reached that perfection whereby, she exists without spot or wrinkle, the faithful still strive to conquer sin an increase in holiness. And so, they turn their eyes to Mary who shines forth to the whole community of the elect as the model of virtues.”
The Assumption was, for Our Lady, her share in the triumph of her divine Son. Like Him, she is in heaven with body and soul in a glorified state, a reward for her generous cooperation with Him in the salvation of the human race.
Like us, she had to undergo the trials and sufferings of this life. She was not affected by the sin of Adam, since she had been conceived immaculately. But like her Son, she knew sorrow and suffering and accepted them willingly as the price of our redemption. She shared fully with Christ in His agony in the garden and in His suffering on the cross. Through that suffering, she entered with Him into the glory of His Resurrection. Her Assumption is God’s stamp of blessing and approval for her role in the Incarnation, the suffering and the death of the Son of God made man.
. . . in the Glory of Christ
It is this theme of the triumph of Christ in His Incarnation that Pope John Paul stresses in his encyclical on the Blessed Virgin Mary. For this is a triumph that He shares with all of us, and in particular with His Blessed Mother. Her triumph is accomplished; ours, with the grace of God, will come in time if we are faithful to the one command, she gave in the Gospel; “Do whatever He tells you.”
“In announcing the year of Mary,” note John Paul in his encyclical, Mother of the Redeemer; “I also indicated that it will end … on the solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin into heaven, in order to emphasize the ‘great sign in heaven’ spoken of by the Apocalypse. In this way we also wish to respond to the exhortation of the Council, which looks to Mary as ‘a sign of sure hope and solace for the pilgrim people of God.’
