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Browsing Father Michael Deering's Sunday Homilies

The Assumption!

The Assumption!
Homily originally preached
August 15, 2021

 

You may know that at a Funeral Mass, it’s common to talk about the goodness of the deceased person. But this is always done while talking about the goodness of

God!

 

Every gift, every talent and every ability that any person has in this life, comes from

       Almighty God … and so it’s only proper that we always and everywhere

give thanks and praise to Him for the good works that He did through that person.

 

Today we gather, not for a Funeral Mass, but for a Memorial Mass where we commemorate the unique privilege that Our Blessed Mother Mary received ...

 in being assumed body and soul into Heaven.

 

We honor her for this, we venerate her for this, we applaud her for this ...

while simultaneously giving full praise and worship to Almighty God ...

who made it possible for Mary to experience so great a gift.

 

Mary is wonderful.   Why?   Because God made her that way!

 

Mary is the only human being ever to be assumed body and soul into Heaven!

 

She is singularly blessed as she acknowledged in our Gospel passage today.

 

Arriving to care for her cousin Elizabeth, 6 months pregnant w/ John the Baptist,

St Luke records Elizabeth as first saying:

Blessed are you among women”    and then saying

Blessed are you who believed”

 

In all of time, only one woman was the mother of Jesus, the Son of God.

This makes Mary very blessed indeed!

 

Mary recognizes this and declares it to be so in her beautiful response we call the Magnificat. She proclaims, From this day all generations will call me blessed.”

 

And then in her humility, Mary immediately gives God credit for everything as she exclaims, “The Almighty has done great things for me and holy is His name.”

 

Have subsequent generations continued to call Mary blessed?

 

They certainly have ... with countless numbers of people ...

      praying countless Hail Mary prayers every day ...

declaring Elizabeth’s greeting over and over again :  

Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb.”

 

Almighty God did many great things for Mary.

He allowed her to be the Spouse of the Holy Spirit.

He allowed her to be the Mother of His Only Beloved Son, Jesus.

 

And prior to both of those privileges,

He created her free from the stain of Original Sin.

 

We hold this truth as Dogma, a foundational doctrine of the Catholic Church.

 

And it makes every bit of sense.

For how else would it be possible for Mary to come in contact with the Holy Trinity

... as Mary did in being Spouse and Mother without her being totally holy herself.

 

Yes, Mary was preserved from the stain of Original Sin from the first moment of her conception in her Mother’s womb. We call this the Immaculate Conception.

 

And if Mary was created free from Original Sin,

it follows that she would not have to undergo

the bad consequences of Original Sin, which included decay of her mortal body. 

 

St. Paul refers to this consequence in our Second Reading from 1st Corinthians ...

stating, “For just as in Adam all dielinking the corruption of the body

in the grave to the inherited consequence of Adam’s sin.

 

But since Mary was preserved from Adam’s Sin, it follows that Mary would never experience corruption ... which is the foundation of our belief that when Mary died, she escaped corruption & decay and was assumed body and soul into Heaven,.

 

Do you know what the Ark of the Covenant was in the Old Testament?

Just think back to the Indiana Jones movie, “Raiders of the Lost Ark” ...

where many were looking for that very special vessel that held ...

the word of God written on stone tablets, the Ten Commandments.

 

Well, just as the original Ark of the Covenant that held the written word of God

was kept safe in the inner sanctuary of the Temple in Jerusalem.

 

So now Mary, the Ark of the New Covenant that held the Living Word of God

is kept safe in the inner sanctuary of the Heavenly Jerusalem.

 

St. John affirms this in our First Reading from the Book of Revelation as he describes his vision into Heaven writing, “God’s temple in heaven was opened ...

    and the ark of his covenant could be seen in the temple.”

 

And how did John describe the Ark that he saw?

 

Was it the Golden Ark of old that housed the 10 commandments?

 

No! John says the Ark, “appeared (as) a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and on her head a crown of twelve stars.”

 

Mary is the Ark, the Ark of the New Covenant because she carried inside herself:

not the Holy Commandments of God ...

but Jesus, the Holy Son of God!

 

Where is Mary?    She’s in Heaven ... body and soul.

 

And the special privilege that God afforded to her is meant to encourage all of us on the journey through life to aspire to one day receiving the blessing of

also being present body and soul in Heaven at the end of time.

 

Being so close to the Trinity, Mary is our greatest Advocate to accomplishing this.

 

Yes, Mary is the daughter of the Father.

        she is the Mother of the Son

and she is the Spouse of the Holy Spirit!

 

We can do no better than to seek her powerful intercession

in gaining the graces we need to find our way home to Heaven.

 

So, call upon her regularly and often ... for her special help and protection ...

so that you too arrive in the Kingdom of Heaven ...

and can join her there ...

in worshipping God

the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.   

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