Solemnity Of The Assumption Of Our Lady

Mass Celebrated By Archbishop Denis Hart
at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, Melbourne,
on Sunday, 15th August, 2004, at 11.00am

Introduction

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Today is very much a feast of focus. God raised the sinless Virgin Mary, the Mother of his Son, body and soul to the glory of heaven and we are challenged to see heaven as our final goal.

Mary is the Mother of the Lord, the Mother of the Church, taken to be with him in glory.

As we call to mind our sins, let us ask Mary that she will pray constantly for us as we seek to live always with heaven, its love and its truth as our watchword.

Homily

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

As a small boy I remember Pope Pius XII on 1st November, 1950, in the Apostolic Constitution, ‘Munificentisimus Deus’, saying these words. “The Immaculate Mother of God, the ever-Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory.”

I remember that an Australian Cardinal, Norman Gilroy, from Sydney would have been there. I remember seeing photos of the Proclamation in Saint Peter’s. And yet it must be remembered that the Pope’s defining the dogma is a final chapter of a centuries long tradition of belief in this mystery. Indeed, the dogma says, “With the authority of Christ and his Church that the Assumption of Mary into heaven is an established fact to be held by all the faithful as defined and revealed by God.”

If you look at the Readings of the Mass today you can see quite clearly that Christ is God, who brings us the victory and who has associated Mary with that victory by preserving her free from sin from the first moment of her conception (the Immaculate Conception) and in this total purity giving birth to the Saviour. Certainly, the words, ‘Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you’, show us that this fullness of grace is only completed by her assumption into heaven.

Indeed, there is a contrast between Eve in the Old Testament, who was not the helpmate in God’s plan, and Mary in the New Testament as the new Eve who co-operated with Christ, not only in his birth, but in the significant events of his life; the presentation at Cana, the Crucifixion, Ascension and in the beginnings of the Church. More truly than Eve ever would have been she became at Nazareth, at Bethlehem, at Calvary, in an even fuller sense, the Mother of all of the members of his Church, the Mystical Body.

The Church gradually came to see that Mary’s share in Christ’s victory over sin was her preservation in a state free from all sin. Church teaching underlines that Mary is the Mother of God in Jesus Christ, the spouse of the Holy Spirit, because it is by the Spirit’s power that Christ was conceived, and is the perfect daughter of the Father, related to the Trinity in the Father’s design to save humankind.

I remember the great joy which accompanied the definition of the Assumption and which encourages us as we celebrate this great feast.

From Mary and how she lived we learn that we in the world are not pawns of random acts. We share in God’s wise and wonderful plan of salvation.

What is significant in our response is the way in which Mary agreed in faith to become involved in God’s plan and yet her destiny was shaped by her child. For example, the journey to Bethlehem, the birth in poverty, Simeon’s prediction, and the loss of Jesus on the cross. Through it all, for Mary, her life, service, joys, sorrows, were dictated by the word of God who had become flesh in her and what Mary did not understand she pondered and prayed. She was able to entrust to God her misgivings and insecurities as to her future and that of her family.

Mary, our Mother, teaches us that in our uncertainty and sufferings we too can live under God. A similar surrender is in fact the cost of discipleship. Like Jesus who forgave those who put him to death, Mary had a similar attitude; loved the disciples, took her place with them. Above all Mary’s great motherly care for us, which continues to the present, is that blessedness lies in hearing God’s word and keeping it.

Mary is mother to Jesus, mother of his own, mother to us all. Assumed by God into heaven she is one of those we look forward to meeting when, through death, God calls us home. Mary is our mother to whom we can turn in prayer, from whom we can learn to be patient and love and entrust ourselves to God’s will. Mary is the first among the redeemed and she can show us how to live as images of the risen life, as she shines in eternity.

+ Denis J. Hart,
Archbishop of Melbourne.